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Backlog Grooming

Backlog grooming happens automatically every Wednesday mid-sprint. Scraut reviews the current backlog, prioritises unlabelled issues, checks for scope creep, and posts recommendations to Slack — all without a meeting.

Automatic mid-sprint grooming​

Trigger: Every Wednesday at 9:00 AM (your timezone) — cron: '0 2 * * 3' Workflow: backlog-grooming.yml Manual trigger: Available via GitHub Actions UI

What grooming does​

Grooming workflow fires
  │
  ├─ prioritize_backlog.py
  │     Fetches all open issues NOT labeled in-sprint
  │     For each unlabelled issue:
  │       Calls LLM: "Suggest type (story/bug/task) and priority for this issue"
  │       Applies suggested labels
  │     Posts: "Labelled 5 new issues — see #scraut-bot for details"
  │
  ├─ scope_creep_check.py
  │     Counts in-sprint issues added after sprint planning
  │     If count > threshold: posts alert to SM
  │
  └─ Posts summary to #scraut-bot

Prioritising the backlog​

The Product Owner can also influence grooming by editing:

workspace/sprint/001/grooming/backlog-ideas.md

Template:

# Backlog Ideas
<!-- Append new ideas below. Anyone can add. -->

## 2026-05-28
- Idea: Add CSV export for the analytics dashboard
  → Would help the data team extract reports without hitting the API
  → Priority: medium

## 2026-05-29
- Customer request (Jane at Acme): "Can we bulk-delete old projects?"
  → Mentioned in support ticket ST-445
  → Priority: high

When the grooming workflow runs, it reads this file and uses the ideas as context for issue prioritisation.

Grooming output​

Slack post in #scraut-bot:

🌿 Backlog Grooming — Sprint 01, Week 1

📋 Labelled 5 new issues:
  #44 CSV export for analytics (story, p:medium, sp:5)
  #45 Bulk delete projects (story, p:high, sp:3)
  #46 Fix null pointer in parser (bug, p:high, sp:2)
  #47 Update README (chore, p:low, sp:1)
  #48 Performance spike for dashboard (spike, p:medium, sp:3)

⚠️ Scope creep alert:
  3 issues added to sprint AFTER planning: #43, #44, #46
  Currently at 37 sp — 3 sp over sprint target (34 sp)
  Recommendation: defer #47 (sp:1, low priority) to backlog

💡 Backlog ideas processed: 2 ideas from backlog-ideas.md added as issues.

Scope creep detection​

If issues are added to a sprint after planning (by applying the in-sprint label mid-sprint), Scraut detects this and alerts:

  • Posts warning to #scraut-bot
  • Flags which issues were added post-planning
  • Calculates whether the sprint is over capacity
  • Recommends which issues to defer

Manual grooming session​

You can also trigger grooming manually at any time:

  1. Go to Actions → Scraut — Backlog Grooming
  2. Click Run workflow → Run workflow

Useful before sprint planning to ensure all backlog items are labelled.

Scenario: Customer feedback triggers backlog update​

Characters: Alice (product owner), the grooming bot

Events:

  1. Alice receives customer feedback: "The export button is broken on Firefox"
  2. Alice opens workspace/sprint/001/grooming/backlog-ideas.md and adds: 
    ## 2026-05-28
    - Bug: Export button broken on Firefox (reported by customer John at MegaCorp)
      → Repro: click export on any dashboard on Firefox 124
      → Priority: high (customer-facing bug)
  3. Alice commits and pushes
  4. Wednesday arrives — grooming runs automatically
  5. Scraut creates a new issue: [Bug] Export button broken on Firefox with labels bug, p:high, sp:2
  6. Slack post notifies the team
  7. Bob picks up the issue for next sprint

Time for Alice: 3 minutes to write the backlog idea. The rest is automatic.