When to run it
A backlog of hundreds of tickets labelled “bug” that are older than a quarter, many duplicated or already fixed, with nobody sure which ones still matter.
The bug backlog,finally getting shorter.
Burning down a stale bug backlog
The playbook in one paragraph
Every team has a backlog of real but low-priority bugs that never win a sprint. Ana triages them, reproduces the ones that are still real, fixes them with tests, and closes the rest with evidence.
Works with
- Jira, Linear or GitHub Issues
- Your repositories and CI
- Error tracking such as Sentry, if connected
What Ana needs from you
- Which projects and labels are in scope
- Any components that are off-limits
- How many PRs the team can review per week
How Ana runs it
Step by step.
5 steps from trigger to done - each one visible to your team as it happens.
- 01
Triage the whole backlog
Ana reads every ticket, links duplicates, matches tickets to code paths and recent commits, and marks those that appear already fixed.
- 02
Reproduce before fixing
For tickets that look live, Ana writes a failing test or a reproduction script first. No reproduction, no fix - the ticket gets a note explaining what was tried.
- 03
Fix with a test
Ana writes the fix, keeps the reproduction as a regression test, and runs the full suite in CI.
- 04
Batch to your review capacity
Pull requests are released at the rate your team said it can review, highest-impact first.
- 05
Close the loop in the tracker
Every ticket ends in one of three states - fixed with a PR, closed as duplicate, or closed as not reproducible - each with a comment showing the evidence.
Who approves what
Approval gates
- Merge
- Code owner review
- Closing tickets without a fix
- Ana proposes; the product owner confirms in bulk
What you get
Deliverables
- 01Fix PRs with regression tests
- 02A triaged, de-duplicated backlog
- 03A comment on every ticket explaining its outcome
What usually goes wrong
And how Ana handles it.
Risk
Fixing symptoms, not causes
Ana traces each failure to the code path responsible and explains the root cause in the PR.
Risk
Flooding reviewers
Release is throttled to the review capacity you set.
FAQ
Common questions.
Ana proposes closures with evidence; a person confirms them, usually in one bulk review.
Keep going
Related playbooks.
Software
Upgrading a framework across dozens of services
A major framework or runtime version is going end-of-life and it touches every service. Ana plans the migration, upgrades each service in its own branch, fixes what breaks, and hands your team small, tested pull requests instead of one terrifying diff.
Read the playbook →Software
Extracting a service from a legacy monolith
A module inside the monolith needs to become its own service. Ana documents what the module really does, defines the contract, builds the service behind a strangler route, and proves parity before any traffic moves.
Read the playbook →Security
Turning a pentest report into merged fixes
A penetration test lands as a PDF with dozens of findings. Ana parses it, confirms which findings are reachable in your code and cloud, writes the fixes with regression tests, and hands the auditor evidence for every closure.
Read the playbook →See it in your stack
Run this playbook on your systems.
Thirty minutes, your repositories and cloud, one real instance of this job.