You know that moment in every sprint planning session when the team collectively groans at the messy backlog? Somehow, that one bug from three sprints ago is still lurking at the bottom like a forgotten to-do ghost.
Sprint backlog grooming shouldn’t feel like herding cats in a thunderstorm. But when you’re juggling dozens of tasks and trying to keep devs, designers, and stakeholders on the same page, chaos sneaks in fast (despite using the best agile methodologies)!
This is where the use of project management software to automate sprint backlog grooming becomes crucial. In this article, we will look at the best backlog management tools for modern product development teams.
We will also explore how automation helps agile teams maintain healthy sprints, manage their backlogs effectively, and keep sprint goals within reach.
👀Fun Fact: Back in 1993, the first real Scrum team launched at Easel Corporation, and they reached astonishing productivity by using early XP engineering practices alongside Scrum habits.
Summarize this article for me pleaseTop 3 Project Management Software to Automate Sprint Backlog Grooming At a Glance
Here’s a quick comparison of the top project management automation tools for sprint backlog grooming to help you choose the right fit based on a few key features, additional features, pricing, and user ratings.
| Tool | Best for | Key features | Pricing* | Ratings |
| ClickUp | All-in-one agile project management software tool with AI-powered backlog grooming Team size: All sizes, from freelancers and small teams to enterprises | ClickUp Brain for AI-assisted prioritization, ClickUp Automations for sprint templates, AI-powered agents to share daily/weekly reports, ClickUp Custom Status for backlog flow, ClickUp Integrations with GitHub/GitLab/Jira, Backlogs & Sprints Template | Free plan available; Custom pricing available for enterprises | G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews) Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews) |
| Jira | Agile backlog management and sprint tracking Team size: Mid-size to enterprise tech teams | Create and organize user stories, Scrum & Kanban boards, burndown and velocity charts, built-in automation rules, dashboards for resource allocation, integrations with Confluence, GitHub, Slack, and Teams | Free; Starting from $7.53/month per user | G2: 4.3/5 (6,600+ reviews) Capterra: 4.4/5 (15,200+ reviews) |
| Trello | Visual sprint boards and simple backlog grooming Team size: Small to medium teams, freelancers, or non-technical teams | Drag-and-drop Scrum/Kanban boards, labels, and checklists. Butler automation, dashboard & timeline views, Power-Ups for Slack, Google Drive, Jira, story point estimation with Planning Poker | Free; Starting from $5/month per user | G2: 4.4/5 (13,700+ reviews) Capterra: 4.5/5 (23,600+ reviews) |
How we review software at ClickUp
Our editorial team follows a transparent, research-backed, and vendor-neutral process, so you can trust that our recommendations are based on real product value.
Here’s a detailed rundown of how we review software at ClickUp.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Is Sprint Backlog Grooming?
Sprint backlog grooming, sometimes called backlog refinement, is about looking at what is in the product backlog, tidying up what no longer matters, and making sure the most important items are ready for the next sprint.
When grooming is done well, it saves everyone from the stress of facing a messy, never-ending list.
Instead, the team can walk into sprint planning with clarity, knowing which user stories are ready, which ones need more detail, and which can be set aside for later.
Product backlog management tools also give space for new ideas or customer needs to be added at the right time.
📌 Example: Picture a small team of developers preparing for their weekly sprint. Instead of wading through dozens of half-finished ideas, they take an hour to refine their backlog together. By the end, their sprint backlog feels light, clear, and doable, leaving them free to focus on the work they actually enjoy.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhy Automate Sprint Backlog Grooming?
This little insight from a Reddit user sums it up beautifully.
A backlog is always shifting. New ideas show up, bugs demand attention, and priorities change faster than we expect. That constant movement is what makes grooming feel like a never-ending chore.
It is also why a little help from automation can make the whole process lighter and less draining.
So, if you’re looking for reasons to automate sprint backlog grooming, look no further:
- Clear away old tasks that no longer matter so the backlog feels easier to manage
- Highlight the user stories and tasks that are most valuable right now
- Save hours of prep time before sprint planning by handling repetitive sorting in the background
- Keep progress transparent so the whole team understands what is happening
- Free up space for people to think, create, and actually enjoy their work
👀 Fun Fact: Google Ventures developed the 5‑day Design Sprint to help teams land on the right solution fast—they move from idea to prototype and user-tested feedback before committing to building. Software development teams at Airbnb, Dropbox, LEGO, the United Nations, and others have utilized it.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat Should You Look for in Project Management Software to Automate Sprint Backlog Grooming?
Don’t look for a long feature list when choosing software for backlog grooming. Your focus should be on finding something that feels natural for your team, helps reduce the everyday stress of backlog work, and gives everyone a clear view of what comes next.
The best tools should make sprint planning feel lighter, not heavier. And here’s how you can identify them:
✅ Keeps backlog items easy to review, refine, and break into smaller user stories so they are ready when the team needs them
✅ Offers customizable boards and workflows that adjust to the way your team actually works
✅ Connects smoothly with communication platforms and development tools so everyone can collaborate without switching back and forth
✅ Shows progress in ways that are easy to understand, from burndown charts to simple reports that keep the whole team aligned
✅ Takes care of repetitive tasks in the background, like backlog updates and sprint reminders, so the team can focus on meaningful work
📮 ClickUp Insight: 88% of people in our survey said they use AI tools for personal tasks daily, and more than half tap into them several times a day. But what happens when that same power comes to work?
With one AI at the center of your project management, knowledge sharing, and collaboration, teams can save over 3 hours a week that would otherwise be lost searching for information—just like 60% of ClickUp users already do.
Summarize this article for me pleaseThe Best Project Management Software to Automate Sprint Backlog Grooming
For those moments when backlog grooming gets overwhelming, here are three tools that quietly take care of the repetitive work.
1. ClickUp (Best for an all-in-one project management platform with AI-powered backlog grooming)
Backlog grooming is one of those tasks that everyone knows is important, but few actually look forward to. ClickUp turns that around by weaving automation and AI into the process.
It is the world’s first Converged AI Workspace, bringing together all work apps, data, and workflows. ClickUp eliminates all forms of Work Sprawl to provide 100% context and a single place for humans and agents to work, together.
So instead of endless sorting and debating, your sprint backlog becomes a living, manageable space with ClickUp. Here’s how:
AI-assisted backlog prioritization with ClickUp Brain and Brain MAX
ClickUp Brain looks at your backlog the way an experienced Scrum Master might: spotting patterns, noticing risks, and nudging the team toward high-value work.
It doesn’t just sort items by deadlines—it considers dependencies, workload, and even the history of similar tasks.
📌 Example: A product manager faces a backlog of 120 user stories, feature requests, and bug reports. Instead of manually moving cards around, they use ClickUp Brain to rank them. The AI highlights that a small bug, if ignored, will block two major user stories in the next sprint. It also suggests delaying a low-priority feature that duplicates existing functionality. What used to take hours of guesswork is now a 10-minute review and confirmation.
Ultimately, ClickUp Brain cuts down that back-and-forth by analyzing similar tasks from past sprints and suggesting reasonable estimates.
💡 Bonus: For users looking to go beyond a Chrome extension, ClickUp Brain MAX is the perfect desktop AI super app.
- Instantly search across ClickUp, your connected apps (Google Drive, Figma, GitHub, etc.), and the web, all in one space. That means when you’re trying to prep your backlog, you can quickly pull up related files, specs, or prior sprint info without switching tabs or digging through folders (remember work sprawl?)
- Use Talk‑to‑Text with Brain MAX to speed up making notes or creating grooming reminders
- Replace dozens of AI tools and leverage premium AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini with a single, contextual, enterprise-ready solution
For example, before a grooming session, you could ask Brain MAX to show you all tasks in the backlog that reference a specific feature requested by customers, find any open bugs related to that feature, or fetch design assets tied to those tasks—so you walk into refinement already armed with context and content.
Channel the power of AI Agents
You can set up ClickUp AI Agents to keep your backlog clean and sprint-ready. These agents can be customized to watch for specific conditions, perform actions automatically, and surface relevant insights before your team even opens the board.
Example AI Agent setup for sprint backlog grooming:
Agent Name: Sprint grooming prep agent
Trigger: When a task is added to the backlog or hasn’t been updated in 14 days
Actions:
- Analyze the task description for clarity and suggest continous improvements
- Flag incomplete or vague user stories for review
- Auto-assign to Product Owner for triage
- Tag the task with “Needs Grooming” and set a due date before the next planning session
This AI Agent ensures your team always walks into grooming sessions with a pre-filtered, well-organized list of tasks that are ready for discussion.
🎥 Meet your new teammate! Watch the video below to learn how to set up your first AI agent:
Sprint templates with ClickUp Automations
Agile prioritization techniques thrive on rhythm, but setting up sprints manually each time can break that rhythm.
ClickUp Automations streamline sprint backlog grooming by automating repetitive tasks and keeping your backlog organized. Set up triggers like “when a task is added to the backlog” and actions like “assign owner” or “set status to Needs Review” to manage tasks efficiently. This helps prevent stale or unclear items from piling up and reduces manual cleanup.
Here’s what automations can specifically do during sprint backlog grooming:
- Automatically move newly created backlog tasks into the grooming column or list so everything new is visible without manual sorting
- Set default priorities, tags, remaining estimates, or status when tasks enter the backlog so nothing essential gets missed in initial review
- Notify stakeholders or watchers when a backlog task is flagged as “high priority” or hasn’t been updated in a certain time
- Auto‑archive or move stale tasks (e.g., no updates for 30 days) into a “review/clean‑up” list so grooming sessions stay focused on what’s relevant
Custom statuses for backlog items with ClickUp Custom Status
One of the most overlooked parts of backlog grooming is clarity. Backlog items often get stuck in limbo—too detailed to be ignored, but not ready for development. ClickUp Custom Status solves this by letting teams create their own statuses that reflect the true state of work.
📌 Example: A distributed development team builds a status flow that goes like this: “Idea Logged → Needs Triage → Ready for Grooming → Needs Estimation → Ready for Sprint → Blocked.”
During backlog grooming sessions, they use these statuses to guide discussions. Everyone can instantly see which items still need refinement, which ones are sprint-ready, and which are stalled. This prevents grooming meetings from becoming aimless debates and keeps the sprint backlog moving forward.
📚 Bonus: ClickUp Dashboards give you a bird’s‑eye view of backlog health. They show key metrics like how many tasks lack estimates, are unassigned, or have been sitting untouched for too long.
You can bring in widgets like velocity charts, burndown/burnup graphs, and team workload views so you immediately see bottlenecks or capacity issues without digging through lists.
Seamless Integration with GitHub, GitLab, and Jira
Backlog grooming doesn’t happen in isolation. For development teams, code commits, pull requests, and bug reports all affect the backlog.
ClickUp Integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and Jira ensure that updates in those systems are automatically fed into backlog items.
📌 Example: A developer merges a pull request in GitHub linked to a backlog item in ClickUp. As soon as the PR closes, ClickUp Integrations updates the task status to “Done,” adds a note with the commit ID, and notifies QA. This means the QA team doesn’t waste time chasing updates, and product managers always see an up-to-date picture of sprint progress without needing to cross-check tools.
📖 Also Read: Agile Capacity Planning
Support organized flow with ClickUp Templates
ClickUp’s Backlogs and Sprints Template gives scrum teams a clear structure for sprint planning while keeping backlog management simple and consistent.
Here’s what you can get out of agile templates like this one:
- Track and manage sprints with priorities that stay visible and easy to follow
- Maintain a single, cohesive product backlog that flows smoothly into sprint backlogs
- Stay connected with teammates by tracking roadblocks and sharing progress in real time
Finally, the ClickUp Agile Sprint Planning Template comes pre-built with custom views like Sprint Backlog Items and Development Status, giving your team full visibility into sprint progress. This free sprint planning template includes tailored fields such as Development Status, Epics, and Remaining Hours to make your planning seamless.
ClickUp best features
- Brainstorm and map out sprint backlog items, dependencies, and workflows visually using ClickUp Whiteboards for clearer grooming sessions
- Organize and prioritize tasks hierarchically with ClickUp MindMaps to break down complex features during grooming
- Monitor estimated and actual time spent on backlog items through ClickUp Time Tracking to improve sprint planning and resource allocation
- Collaborate instantly with your team via ClickUp Chat to discuss, clarify, and update backlog items in real time during grooming
- Schedule and adjust backlog grooming sessions automatically using ClickUp’s AI-powered Calendar to ensure timely reviews and alignment with sprint cycles
- Groom your sprint steps with ClickUp Task Priorities in four priority flags—Urgent, High, Normal, and Low
ClickUp limitations
- A complex feature set may feel overwhelming for small teams just starting out
- Learning curve for setting up advanced automations and integrations
- Some AI features, like Brain MAX are available only on desktop for now
ClickUp pricing
free forever
Best for individual users
Free Free
Key Features:
60MB Storage
Unlimited Tasks
Unlimited Free Plan Members
unlimited
Best for small teams
$7 $10
Everything in Free +
Unlimited Storage
Unlimited Folders and Spaces
Unlimited Integrations
business
Best for mid-sized teams
$12 $19
Everything in Unlimited +
Google SSO
Unlimited Message History
Unlimited Mind Maps
enterprise
Best for many large teams
Get a custom demo and see how ClickUp aligns with your goals.
Everything in Business +
White Labeling
Conditional Logic in Forms
Subtasks in Multiple Lists
* Prices when billed annually
The world's most complete work AI, starting at $9 per month
ClickUp Brain is a no Brainer. One AI to manage your work, at a fraction of the cost.
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews)
What users say about ClickUp
This G2 review noted:
⚙️ Friendly tip: Here’s a sample workflow with Brain MAX for backlog grooming
- Kick off with a prompt: Ask Brain MAX to pull all unrefined or inactive backlog items
- Review insights in one view: Use responses to tag, assign, or reprioritize tasks directly in ClickUp
- Pull supporting content: Ask Brain MAX to fetch linked docs, tickets, or meeting notes for each key item
- Voice note prep: Use Talk-to-Text to leave quick grooming notes or create tasks for clarification follow-ups
📖 Also Read: Free Resource Planning Templates in Excel & ClickUp
2. Jira (Best for agile backlog management and sprint tracking)
Jira helps streamline sprint backlog grooming by offering structured boards where product owners can view, prioritize, and edit backlog items. With features like drag-and-drop prioritization, story point estimation, and custom filters, dev teams can organize tasks by urgency, sprint, or issue type.
Additionally, Jira supports grooming with integrations like Confluence for documentation and Bitbucket for dev context, all visible within a single issue. You can set up custom workflows and use Jira’s automation to flag stale tickets or transition stories based on grooming status.
Engineering managers can also use velocity charts and sprint reports to evaluate whether backlog items are appropriately sized, prioritized, and progressing.
Jira best features
- Create and organize user stories directly in the backlog, linking them to epics and sprint goals
- Use Scrum or Kanban boards to visualize sprint progress and adapt workflows to your team’s style
- Track project health with agile reports, including burndown charts, velocity tracking, and workload views
- Automate repetitive updates with Jira’s built-in automation rules, reducing manual task handling
- Integrate with Confluence, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to connect code, docs, and conversations in one place
- Monitor resource allocation and identify bottlenecks with dashboards that give managers a real-time view of priorities and workload
Jira limitations
- Setup and customization can feel overwhelming for new teams
- Performance slows with very large backlogs or heavily customized projects
- Many advanced features require extra plugins from the Atlassian Marketplace
Jira pricing
- Free
- Standard: $7.53/month per user
- Premium: $13.53/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
Jira ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (6,600+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (15,c200+ reviews)
What users say about Jira
This G2 review featured:
Did you know? Engineers and product managers at ClickUp plan epics in ClickUp to prioritize work, improve visibility, and collaborate on sprints. Here’s how they do it:
- Teams are organized into squads, each having a dedicated Folder.
- Each squad Folder contains Lists for backlog items, bugs, and Sprints.
- Epics and user stories exist in the squad’s feature Lists, product roadmap Lists, and Sprint
Lists, thanks to the flexibility of Tasks in multiple Lists
Curious how to run sprints easily for your team? Watch this video to learn more:
3. Trello (Best for visual sprint boards and simple backlog grooming)
There’s something satisfying about seeing work move from “To Do” to “Done.” That little sense of progress keeps teams motivated, and Trello captures that feeling.
With Trello’s visual boards, you can neatly organize backlog items into lists like “To Groom,” “In Review,” or “Ready for Sprint.” Each card becomes a dynamic workspace—add checklists, estimates, attachments, and labels to clarify what’s ready and what needs work.
Trello’s Butler automation takes things further by moving cards, assigning tasks, or tagging items based on preset rules. With Power-Ups like Custom Fields and Card Aging, you can surface missing estimates or spot neglected tasks before they create sprint debt.
Trello best features
- Run Scrum or Kanban boards with drag-and-drop cards to manage sprint backlogs
- Use labels, checklists, and due dates to break down user stories and keep priorities visible
- Automate task handoffs, reminders, and recurring updates with Butler automation
- Track sprint progress with dashboard, timeline, and table views across multiple boards
- Connect Trello with Slack, Google Drive, and Jira through Power-Ups for smoother cross-functional collaboration
- Set story points and priorities with Custom Fields and Planning Poker integrations for backlog refinement
Trello limitations
- Lacks advanced reporting compared to better scrum project management tools
- Complex agile workflows may require multiple Power-Ups, adding setup time
- Not ideal for large enterprise projects with heavy resource management needs
Trello pricing
- Free
- Standard: $5/month per user
- Premium: $10/month per user
- Enterprise: $17.50/month per user
Trello ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (13,700+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (23,600+ reviews)
What users say about Trello
This G2 review highlighted:
📖 Also Read: How to Set an Effective Sprint Schedule
Summarize this article for me pleaseOther Notable Project Management Software Tools
Not every team needs the same level of complexity in their sprint backlog tools, and that’s where options like Zenhub and Azure DevOps come into play.
Zenhub is especially handy if your development work already lives in GitHub. It integrates backlog management and sprint planning directly into your repos, ensuring that your product backlog and sprint backlog always reflect the actual code being shipped.
Backlog grooming becomes less about guesswork and more about tracking progress as it unfolds, thanks to features like burndown charts and real-time updates tied directly to commits.
On the other hand, Azure DevOps caters to teams seeking a comprehensive solution.
Azure DevOps caters to teams seeking a comprehensive solution. With Azure Boards, you can break down user stories into backlog items, map them to features or epics, and manage sprint backlogs across multiple teams.
Its strength lies in scale: Whether you’re a small agile squad or an enterprise handling complex projects, Azure DevOps gives you the ability to connect backlog grooming directly to releases
👀Fun Fact: The term “Scrum” comes from a 1986 Harvard Business Review paper, where authors compared product development to a rugby team moving across the field together—reflecting teamwork, flow, and adaptability.
📖 Also Read: Trello vs. ClickUp
Summarize this article for me pleaseBenefits of Using Project Management Software for Backlog Grooming Automation
When teams already know the value of sprints, the question becomes less about why and more about how to keep them sustainable. This is where automation proves its worth. It removes the grind of backlog grooming and frees up space for strategy, creativity, and problem-solving.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when considering the benefits of project management software for backlog grooming automation and what you can do with it:
- Automatically flag backlog items that haven’t been updated in over 30 days to prevent stale tasks from cluttering sprint planning
- Use AI-based estimations to suggest story points for new user stories based on similar past tasks
- Auto-assign grooming sessions to product owners and developers based on workload balancing and team availability
- Integrate customer feedback from platforms like Zendesk or Intercom directly into backlog items for context-rich prioritization
- Generate dependency maps between backlog items to identify blockers before sprint planning
- Automatically move items to the grooming queue when they meet criteria like “ready for refinement” or have attached design specs
- Trigger Slack or email notifications when new high-priority bugs are added to the backlog from QA tools like TestRail
- Pull real-time usage analytics from tools like Mixpanel to prioritize backlog items tied to low-engagement features
- Create grooming dashboards that highlight items without clear acceptance criteria or assigned owners for follow-up before the sprint starts
Summarize this article for me pleaseClear the Backlog, ClickUp the Pace
Backlogs will always be part of agile work, but it doesn’t have to feel like a weight that slows the team down. With the right tools, grooming becomes less about wrestling with tasks and more about guiding the team toward clear, meaningful progress.
Among the options out there, ClickUp stands out because it doesn’t just organize your backlog—it actively helps you refine it.
With ClickUp Brain providing smarter prioritization, automations that save time, and integrations that connect the entire workflow, ClickUp feels less like just another tool and more like a teammate that keeps you on track.
If you’re ready to give your backlog the structure it deserves and your team the clarity it needs, sign up for ClickUp for free today.
Summarize this article for me pleaseFAQs
What’s the difference between backlog grooming and sprint planning?
Backlog grooming is an ongoing process where the product owner and team review, prioritize, update, and clarify items in the product backlog. The goal is to ensure the backlog is clean, organized, and ready for upcoming sprints. This includes breaking down large items (epics) into user stories, estimating effort, removing outdated tasks, and refining acceptance criteria.
Sprint planning, on the other hand, happens at the beginning of each sprint. During this meeting, the team selects a set of well-groomed backlog items to work on during the sprint, based on capacity and sprint goals. It’s a commitment session where the team defines what will be delivered and how it will be achieved.
What is the 20/30/50 rule for prioritizing backlog items?
The 20/30/50 rule is a simple way to keep priorities balanced. About 20% of the backlog should be high-value, must-do items; 30% medium-priority work that adds steady progress; and 50% lower-priority or nice-to-have tasks.
The goal of the 20/30/50 rule is to maintain a healthy product backlog that balances innovation, user satisfaction, and technical stability—rather than being dominated by one area (like just bugs or just new features). It’s a guideline, not a strict rule, and should be adjusted based on product maturity, team velocity, and business goals.
Who performs backlog grooming?
Backlog grooming is a team activity. The product owner usually leads, but developers, the QA team, and sometimes even senior stakeholders join in. Everyone brings their perspective, which makes the backlog more accurate and realistic.
What are the three principal activities of product backlog grooming?
The three main activities in product backlog grooming are:
1. Reviewing and prioritizing: Organizing backlog items based on value, urgency, or dependencies to ensure the most important work is addressed first
2. Clarifying requirements: Ensuring each item has clear descriptions, acceptance criteria, and is broken down into manageable tasks if needed
3. Estimating effort: Collaborating with the team to assign story points or estimates, helping plan upcoming sprints more accurately.
How often should backlog grooming be done in agile?
Most teams groom their backlog once every sprint, though some prefer shorter, more frequent sessions. The key is consistency—keeping the backlog updated regularly so it never becomes overwhelming.
Can AI help in backlog prioritization?
Yes, AI can be surprisingly helpful. It can look at past work patterns, dependencies, and even team capacity to suggest which tasks should come first. This doesn’t replace team judgment, but it does take some of the weight off endless prioritization debates.
Does ClickUp integrate with Jira for backlog grooming?
Yes, ClickUp integrates with Jira, allowing teams to link tasks and sync updates between the two platforms. You can import from Jira or use one of our Jira integrations to improve your productivity:
1. Jira Connected Search integration: If you need real-time visibility to search for and preview Jira projects, boards, dashboards, and issues in ClickUp
2. Jira Sync integration: Sync all project and issue updates between ClickUp and Jira, so you don’t have to leave ClickUp to see and manage your work
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
