Using Smart Merge
User Guide
SaaSMap
Introduction
The Smart Merge feature is designed to help users identify duplicate requirements within a selected set of requirements and streamline the cleanup process. It analyzes the selected requirements, highlights potential duplicates, and generates a report that can be downloaded and used for further review and action.
In addition to providing insights, the feature also allows users to decide which requirements should be merged and which ones should be archived. This gives users greater control over requirement consolidation while helping maintain cleaner, more accurate, and better-organized requirement data.
Purpose
Smart Merge uses AI to identify overlapping or duplicate requirements in the Backlog and suggest potential merges. It helps streamline requirements, reduce redundancy, and improve backlog quality.
Ways to start Smart Merge
Select one to twenty requirements first, then launch Smart Merge.
Open Smart Merge directly from the Backlog toolbar without selecting rows first.
Both options follow the same workflow after launch.
Smart Merge workflow overview
Define scope (Software and Epics)
Select Status filters
Confirm selections
Narrow requirements (if needed)
Run AI analysis
Review merge suggestions
Execute merge or restart
Selecting requirements for Smart Merge
Accessing Smart Merge
From the Backlog toolbar:
Select requirements (optional)
Click Smart Merge
The Smart Merge dialog opens.
Navigate to the ‘Backlog’ feature within the application and click on the ‘Smart Merge’ icon shown below.
The Application Admin and Project Manager roles have access to the Smart Merge feature. Click on the button to bring up the selection screen as below.
Step 1 – Select Software and Epics
When Smart Merge opens, you may see the message: “Please select Software and the Epics.” Each row requires Pillar (Software) and Epics/Modules (Epic).
Select Software first:
Click Select Pillar.
Choose the appropriate pillar.
The Epic field remains disabled until Pillar is selected.
Select Epics:
Click the Epics/Modules field.
Select one or more epics or modules.
Add or remove scope rows:
Click the + icon to add another software/epic combination.
Click the trash icon to remove a scope row.
Typically, the same software only needs to be selected once.
Once all required rows are completed, click Continue.
Step 2 – Select Status filters
You will see the message: “Please select one or more Status values.” Select the requirement statuses you want included in analysis (for example: Draft, Pending Review, or Verified).
After selecting statuses, close the dropdown to confirm selections. The selected statuses are added to the AI conversation context.
Step 3 – Review summary and confirm
The assistant displays a summary containing selected software/epic combinations and selected statuses. This acts as a confirmation checkpoint before analysis begins.
If changes are needed, use Reset or Start Again later in the flow, then rerun the process.
In the screen above, select the Pillar and the Epics followed by the Requirements status. Use this to filter the requirements selection for Smart Merge. Click on the ‘Start Analysis’ button once the details have been finalized. User can choose to reset the inputs values by clicking on the Reset button.
Clicking on the ‘Start Analysis’ button starts identifying the requirements that match the input criteria.
If the matched filtered set is greater than 20 requirements, then user needs to manually select from the filtered list.
Step 4 – Select requirements for analysis (if prompted)
If many requirements match your filters, the system may display “Select Requirements for Analysis” with a counter such as (n/20 selected).
Select the requirements to analyze.
Maximum allowed: 20 requirements.
Click Analyze Selected.
If this screen does not appear, the filtered result set is already within the allowed limit.
Step 5 – Run analysis
Click Start Analysis to send the selected requirements to the AI engine. While analysis is running, the button displays progress.
During analysis you can:
Use Stop Analysis to cancel an active request.
Use Reset to clear the current analysis state and start over.
Reset is disabled while analysis is running or while the requirement selection panel is open.
From the filtered requirements, after the Smart Merge analysis, the application then creates groups of matching requirements. User now needs to review each group as shown below.
Step 6 – Review merge suggestions (additional guidance)
Results are displayed in comparison groups. Each group includes a source requirement ID, suggested target requirement IDs, and match details.
Viewing requirement details:
Hover over underlined IDs to view requirement title, software, and epic/module.
Use the in-card navigation controls to move through suggestion groups.
Status displaying the number of duplicate groups found.
For each group, user can choose at the group level to either Merge or Ignore the duplicates. By default, the flag is set to ‘Ignore’.
If the user chooses to ‘Merge’, then user can either choose the ID to be merged into for each pair of requirements like below or
User can make the decision at the group level regarding the requirement ID to be merged into as below.
The ‘To be merged ID’ is a drop down of requirements in the group and user can choose one of the requirements from the group.
Note that if the Merge/Ignore decision is made at a group level, then user will NOT have an option to make pair level decisions and vice versa.
Use the Download icon or Export all groups to Excel for offline review, audit tracking, or team collaboration
Once a decision has been made for a group, user can click on the ‘Next’ button to navigate to the next group. See below
User can also choose to cancel the Smart Merge analysis and go back to the parent screen or click on the ‘Reset’ button and start all over again at any time.
Draft-only merge rules
Smart Merge execution is only allowed when ALL requirements involved in the merge are in Draft status. This includes the source requirement and all target requirement(s).
Important limitation:
Analysis results may still appear for informational purposes.
If non-draft items are included, merge action controls remain hidden.
You cannot merge Draft and Verified (or other non-Draft) requirements together.
If needed, adjust statuses or filters and rerun analysis.
When the user reaches the last group, there is an option to view the selections made. See screen below.
Clicking on the ‘Show Selections’ button will bring up the Merge/Ignore decisions made for each of the groups. Only the groups which had a Merge option selected will be displayed along with the group number.
At this time user can either decide to go ahead with the Merge as selected in the groups or wish to go back and start again.
Note that once user proceeds with the Merge, the application will initiate the merge process.
Step 7 – Proceed or start over
Use Proceed with Merge to move toward applying supported merges. Use Start Again to perform a fresh Smart Merge session with different scope, statuses, or requirements.
Before executing merges, review all prompts carefully. Smart Merge may archive requirements, update existing records, and consolidate requirement content.
See below details of the application once the Merge process starts by clicking on the ‘Proceed with Merge’ option.
Smart Merge execution dialog
During the execution phase, a separate Smart Merge Execution dialog handles the actual merge operation.
Do not close the dialog during active processing unless instructed by your administrator. Closing early may interrupt the merge operation.
The application works on one group at a time, displays the progress of the merge below and once the merge is successfully completed, updates the details of the ‘New Title’ and the ‘New Description’ of the Merged requirement ID. It also then displays details of requirements that have been set as ‘Archived’.
As the application works through the Merge for a group, the Status changes from Pending to In Progress to Success or Failure.
Details of Error (if any) will be displayed under the “Error’ column.
See below the application status once the process has completed successfully.
User will also see a toast message “Smart merge completed’ on successful completion.
Post Merge, user has an option to download the merge results by clicking on the ‘Download execution results to Excel’ button.
At this point, user can click on the ‘Close’ button and go back to the start of the Smart Merge screen.
As an example if requirement A and B are merged into B, A is archived.
Archived is a Backlog requirement status for items that are no longer active in the workflow but are kept for history and traceability—they are not deleted.
Archived items can be brought back into the flow only via allowed status changes (typically back to Draft or Pending review), and they follow the same transition rules as other statuses on the Backlog.
Best practices
Use Draft status for merge candidates—ensure all intended merge records are in Draft before analysis.
Limit scope when possible; smaller analysis sets typically produce more focused suggestions.
Review suggestions carefully; AI recommendations should always be validated before execution.
Export results for audit tracking using Excel exports to document merge decisions.
Re-run analysis when needed by adjusting scope, statuses, or requirement selection to improve merge quality.
Cancelling Smart Merge
Use the floating X (Cancel) button (before execution) to exit Smart Merge. Closing Smart Merge may result in loss of unsaved session progress and loss of pending merge selections. Use Cancel only when you want to exit without completing the process.
Outcome
After successful execution, duplicate or overlapping requirements are consolidated, backlog quality improves, and requirement management becomes easier and more consistent.