What is a prioritized list of tasks, features, and fixes in product development called?

A prioritized list of tasks, features, and fixes in product development is called a backlog. The backlog serves as a comprehensive inventory of work that needs to be completed for a product, encompassing enhancements, bug fixes, and new functionalities. It is a crucial tool in agile and iterative development methodologies, allowing teams to manage and prioritize their workload effectively.

By maintaining a backlog, teams can ensure that the most important and valuable tasks are addressed first, aligning their efforts with the company’s objectives and user needs. It also fosters better communication and planning within development teams, as everyone has visibility into what needs to be done and can focus on delivering incremental value.

In contrast, a task list is typically a simple enumeration of tasks without the prioritization aspect, while a feature summary generally refers to an overview of features but lacks the comprehensive content of a backlog. A development pipeline, on the other hand, relates more specifically to the processes through which development tasks flow, rather than serving as a list of prioritized items. Thus, the backlog stands out as the accurate term for the concept described.