Help prioritizing story backlog

[Gemma4]

Hello everyone, 

Does anyone use Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with user stories? I'm looking for suggestions on how to better prioritize stories to eliminate a large backlog?

thanks in advance for any feedback you have

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @Gemma4 

I am a BPC and work closely with the product owner and scrum master on this. In my experience, I’ve never seen stories having SLAs. To improve the backlog, I suggest having a weekly or at least bi-weekly meeting with the product owner for backlog refinement. Before moving to the next PI planning, review the existing backlog and identify any items that are no longer needed, which can be canceled or merged with other themes or stories. Have an open discussion with the PO, providing facts that these backlog items have been open for a long time and need to be cleared. The more you accumulate, the worse it looks.