Backlog Health Report
The Backlog Health Report grades a team's open backlog and lists the work items behind each problem, so the team knows what to refine, close or reorder. It is available from the Reports menu on a team's detail page.
The report looks at Requirement-tier work items, such as User Stories and Bugs, that are Proposed or Active, in the order of the team's backlog. Portfolio-tier items such as Epics and Features are not graded, but they appear as the parents of the items that are.
How Checks Are Graded
Every check is graded Healthy, At Risk or Unhealthy, or explains why it could not be:
- Not enough history — the team completed fewer than 10 work items in the history window, too few to measure it against its own past
- Not applicable — no work items fall within the check's scope, such as carry-over for a team that does not run sprints
Checks that flag work items are graded by the percent of the items in scope that were flagged: At Risk at 10% and Unhealthy at 25% by default. Rank inversions are the exception: any inversion is Unhealthy, because the team can fix it by reordering.
Each check's tooltip states the values it was graded with.
Backlog Measures
The cards at the top of the report measure the backlog as a whole.
| Measure | What It Shows | Default Grading |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog | Open work items, split into Proposed and Active, with their total estimate in the team's sizing method | Not graded |
| Runway | Weeks the backlog lasts at the team's throughput over the history window | Unhealthy below 2 weeks; At Risk below 4 or above 26 weeks |
| Net Flow | Work items created for every work item completed in the history window | At Risk above 1.2, Unhealthy above 1.5 |
| WIP Load | Active work items per team member | At Risk above 1.5, Unhealthy above 2 |
A runway that is too long is At Risk because refining work far ahead of when it will be started is likely to be wasted. Runway needs at least 10 completed work items in the history window. Net Flow above 1 means the backlog is growing faster than the team is completing it; work items created and later Removed are not counted, just as removed work does not count as completed, so triaging work away does not look like growth. A team that completed nothing in the window reads Nothing completed, graded Unhealthy if it created any work items and Not applicable if it created none. WIP Load counts every active employee on the team, whatever their role, and is Not applicable for a team with no active members.
Below the cards, a line gives the history window's dates, how many work items were completed and created in it, how many work items the readiness window holds, and the Aging WIP and Oversized limits the team's history produced.
Work Item Checks
| Check | A Work Item Is Flagged When |
|---|---|
| Stale | It has not been modified for 90 days or more |
| Old Proposed | It is Proposed and was created 180 or more days ago |
| Aging WIP | It is Active and has been active longer than the team's 85th percentile cycle time |
| Missing Estimate | It is in the readiness window and has no estimate in the team's sizing method |
| Oversized | It is in the readiness window and is estimated above the 85th percentile of the estimates on work the team completed |
| No Parent | It is in the readiness window and has no parent |
| No Project | It is in the readiness window and is not linked to a project |
| Unassigned Active | It is Active and no one is assigned |
| Carry-over | It is still open in a sprint that has completed |
| Closed Parent | Its parent is Done or Removed |
| Rank Inversion | It is ranked above a work item it depends on, in the same team's backlog |
The readiness window is the top of the backlog: the work items the team is expected to reach in the next 4 weeks at its recent throughput. Without enough history to size it, the window is the top 20 work items.
Estimates are read in the team's sizing method. The report uses the sizing method of the team's current operating model — Story Points, Effort or Size — for open work and completed work alike, and the work item grid's estimate column is headed with it. A work item with no value in that estimate is missing one, even when it has a different estimate; an estimate of 0 counts as an estimate. A team that sizes by count has no estimates, so Missing Estimate and Oversized are not checked for it.
Aging WIP and Oversized compare work against the team's own completed work, so they need at least 10 completed work items in the history window that can be measured: for Aging WIP, completed items with a cycle time (activated before they were done); for Oversized, completed items with an estimate. Aging WIP grades only active work items that have an activation date, and Oversized only the estimated work items in the readiness window. No Project is checked only for teams that link their work to projects.
Stale relies on the date the source system last changed the work item, so any edit counts, not only refinement.
Rank Inversion compares only dependencies within the team's backlog. A dependency on another team's work is not compared by rank; see the team's Dependencies section for those.
Finding The Work Items Behind A Check
The checks table lists each work item check with its grade and result. Select a check that flagged at least one work item to narrow the grid below it to the work items that check flagged; select it again, or close the tag above the grid, to see the whole backlog.
The grid shows every open work item in backlog order with a Flags column listing the checks that flagged it, beside Rank, Key, Title, Type, Status, Status Category, the team's estimate (left out for a team that sizes by count), Assigned To, Parent Key, Parent, Sprint, Project, Created, Last Modified and Activated. It can be filtered, sorted and exported like other grids in Wayd.
Changing The Thresholds
Open Thresholds to change the history window or any threshold, then select Apply. The report is graded again with the new values, and a Custom thresholds tag shows that the report no longer uses the defaults. Reset to defaults removes every change.
Each Unhealthy limit must be at least as strict as its At Risk limit, and Runway At Risk above must be longer than Runway At Risk below; Apply stays disabled until they agree. If a link carries thresholds that cannot be used, the report explains why and offers Reset to defaults.
Thresholds are for exploring scenarios, not a team setting:
- Your changes are kept for you, per team, in your browser
- They are added to the page link, so a link you share shows the recipient the same grades
- Other people viewing the team still see the defaults unless they open your link
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| History | 90 days (14–365) |
| Stale after | 90 days |
| Old proposed after | 180 days |
| Aging WIP beyond | 85th percentile cycle time |
| Oversized above | 85th percentile estimate |
| Readiness window | 4 weeks |
| Readiness window without history | 20 work items |
| At Risk / Unhealthy at | 10% / 25% flagged |
| Runway At Risk / Unhealthy below | 4 / 2 weeks |
| Runway At Risk above | 26 weeks |
| Net Flow At Risk / Unhealthy above | 1.2 / 1.5 |
| WIP Load At Risk / Unhealthy above | 1.5 / 2 per member |
How To Open The Report
- Navigate to the team's detail page
- Open Reports > Backlog Health
- Select a check to see the work items it flagged