In an approach for managing data transfer across a bus shared by processors, a request for a first set of data is received from a first processor. A request for a second set of data is received from a second processor. First portions of the first set of data and the second set of data are written to a buffer. Additional portions of each set of data are written to the buffer as portions are received. It is determined that a portion of the first set of data has a higher priority to the bus than a portion of the second set of data based on a priority scheme, wherein the priority scheme is based on return progress of each respective set of data having at least a portion of data in the buffer. The portion of the first set of data is granted access to the bus.