Should Themes/Initiatives be visible in the backlog?

[Naomi Perez]

Hello All,

I've heard that themes/initiatives should not be visible in a backlog. Is this true? Am I supposed to configure a separate workflow for Initiatives/Themes?

For context: I was able to configure Epics/Stories/Task, and I understand that I can assign themes/initiatives to these, but what if I don't want them displayed in (and cluttering) the backlog?

I'm still new to JIRA so I hope these questions make sense!

Thanks for your help!

[Simple Tyler]

Hey Naomi,

Themes will not be visible in the backlog, they currently only exist in the Portfolio space.

Initiatives will show up in your backlog, however you can simply amend you board query to include "and issuetype != Initiative" and they won't clutter your backlog.

If you did want a way to easily see or rank your Initiatives I would suggest creating an Initiative only board.

Hope this helps,

Tyler

[Baheej Al-Khatib]

Hello Tyler,

I am experiencing this problem currently and did as you suggested and it worked well for my board, but it also took my initiatives off of my plan that was associated with the board.

Is there a fix around this? I want to take Initiatives out of Backlog view but keep them on my plan in portfolio,

[John Elder]

Tyler, I found this post from 2018 and Baheej's reply from 2019... and I am having the same issue now in 2021.  I have a Plan whose issue source is a board, and I want the Initiatives to appear in the Plan, but not be present in the Backlog, cluttering up the space where the prioritization occurs.  Is there a workaround of any kind for this?

[Sandesh DSouza]

I still see the issue with no resolution. Any help is appreciated. 

[Sandesh DSouza]

One way to do this is have a Quick filter and use that in the backlog so that you don't see in the backlog but still in the roadmaps

[Stefan Slawidis]

Another way would be two separate filters. One without initiatives for your Board and one with initiatives for your plan.

[Naomi Perez]

This helps a lot! Thank you!