What is Triage / Analysis in agile methodology?
Answer
Overview
Triage in agile methodology is the process of evaluating, prioritizing, and categorizing incoming work items (bugs, tickets, feature requests) to determine their urgency, impact, and order of resolution.
What is Triage?
Borrowed from medical triage (sorting patients by injury severity), software triage answers:
- Is this item valid? (real bug vs expected behavior)
- How urgent is it? (critical vs low priority)
- Who should handle it? (which team/person)
- When should it be fixed? (this sprint vs backlog)
Triage Process in Agile
textNew Ticket/Bug Reported ↓ 1. VALIDATE - Is it reproducible? - Is it a valid bug or expected behavior? - Has it already been reported (duplicate)? ↓ 2. CATEGORIZE - Bug / Feature Request / Tech Debt / Question ↓ 3. PRIORITIZE (Severity + Impact) - P0: Critical (app crash, data loss, security) - P1: High (major feature broken) - P2: Medium (workaround exists) - P3: Low (cosmetic, minor inconvenience) ↓ 4. ASSIGN - Assign to owner/team - Set sprint or backlog ↓ 5. SCHEDULE - Current sprint / next sprint / backlog
Triage Severity Levels
| Level | Severity | Description | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| P0 | Critical | App crash, data loss, security breach | Fix immediately |
| P1 | High | Core feature broken, no workaround | Fix this sprint |
| P2 | Medium | Non-core feature affected, workaround exists | Next sprint |
| P3 | Low | Minor UI issue, cosmetic | Backlog |
Pre-Sprint Analysis / Planning (Analysis Phase)
Before a sprint starts, the team:
textSprint Analysis / Refinement Session: ├── Review all items in the product backlog ├── Estimate effort (story points) ├── Clarify acceptance criteria ├── Break down large stories into tasks ├── Identify dependencies and blockers └── Prioritize with Product Owner for upcoming sprint
Triage Meeting
A regular meeting (often weekly or at sprint start) where the team:
textAttendees: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Tech Lead Duration: 30–60 minutes Agenda: 1. Review new bugs / tickets from last sprint 2. Assign severity and priority 3. Add to appropriate sprint or backlog 4. Close invalid/duplicate tickets 5. Escalate P0 issues immediately
In a Flutter App Context
textCustomer reports: "App crashes when uploading profile picture on iOS 17" Triage: ✅ Valid: Reproducible — confirmed on iOS 17 + iPhone 14 📌 Priority: P1 (core feature — affects all iOS 17 users) 👤 Assigned to: iOS dev team 🗓️ Schedule: Current sprint (hotfix branch)
Summary: Triage in agile is the systematic process of sorting incoming work by urgency and impact. It ensures the team always works on the highest-value, highest-priority items and prevents important issues from getting lost.