Defect backlog
Also called: bug backlog, backlog hygiene
The defect backlog is the list of known, unresolved defects. Its value depends on whether people trust what is in it.
A defect backlog is useful only while every item in it is believed. Once it fills with duplicates, tickets nobody can reproduce and issues from two redesigns ago, people stop reading it, and the important defects become invisible among the noise.
Keeping it healthy is dull, regular work: sweep by age, close what is no longer real with a comment, merge duplicates, and make sure each remaining item has an owner and a next action.
It pays back quickly. On one long-running programme I took ownership of a stale backlog and closed the old and invalid items, and the defect conversation became roughly 40–50% more efficient, because engineers stopped triaging the same issues again.