Show Done Issues in Backlog (Scrum project)

[Tiago Santos]

Hello guys,

I created a new Scrum project and for some reason the issues in my backlog disappear after their status moves to Done. This is a problem as I mainly use the Backlog view to plan work and assess Work in Progress.

What's stranger to me is that I have another Scrum project which shows these Done issues just fine.

What's the option to allow Done issues to show on Backlog?
Why the different behaviour on 2 different projects?

Thanks in advance!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Your projects are configured differently, and the one that is showing done issues in the backlog is broken.

The whole point of a backlog is for you to see and organise things that need doing.  They are not supposed to show issues that are done.

Your scrum board that is showing done items is misconfigured or you're not really setting things to "done" in it.  The boards have a simple definition of done - the issues selected by the board have a status that would put them in the last column of the board if they were in the current sprint.

[Jeff Abbott]

Some specifics may help. Issue status fall into one of 3 categories "To Do", "In Progress" and "Done". Note that Status values may use the same name, but that is meaningless to Jira and the backlog. 

Issues with a status that is uses the category Done will be filtered out of the backlog. All others will be retained.  Note "All" is defined by the filter associated with the backlog.

Note, that while not typical some teams do keep issues in the backlog after software is done. For example, some teams track issues across additional test sprints. For example, Verification and Validation testing.  In this case, set your category to "In Progress" for these additional workflow status values and only to Done when Validation is complete.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Tiago Santos 

Adding to what the others have said...

A Scrum board Backlog screen has two major sections where it lists issues. There is the section that shows the Active (started) and Planned (not yet started) Sprints and the issues assigned to them. There is another section labeled Backlog that shows all the issues that are not "done" and are not assigned to a Sprint.

Done issues will show in the Backlog screen only when they are assigned to an Active (started) sprint. If the "done" issue is assigned to a Planned Sprint or not assigned to any Sprint (still in the Backlog list) then it will not be shown on the Backlog screen.