Splitting one backlog into multiple backlogs/boards for multiple teams

[Dan Elsworth]

Our single scrum team has become too large and we are splitting into two development teams in the new year.  We want the teams to manage their own backlogs but have visibility of issues from other teams and (if necessary) re-assign issues across teams so that they can be prioritised and taken into sprints.  We have one backlog and I had looked into just creating a second project, but I read on the community that it would be better to:

1. Keep one backlog, but create multiple boards.

2. Have one board for each team.

2. Create custom filters so that each team can filter our organisation-wide backlog into issues assigned to this team.

I've tried a few things to do this but keep getting stuck.  So far I've:

1. Created two boards (one for each team) and two user groups (again, one for each team)

2. Enabled the field 'team' in issue config.

However, in order to populate the team field I need to set up Jira Portfolio and create a portfolio plan.  This seems like a big effort just to be able to create a field that filters for the groups I've already created.

Is there a better way of doing this?

[Scott Gasperin]

We have several teams using one large JIRA project.  Issues are assigned specific components to determine which team they apply to.  Each team's JIRA board is populated by a team specific filter containing the applicable components.  This way, each team has their own discrete board and backlog, yet all issues are ultimately part of one "project" backlog. 

[Kat Warner]

You need some what to identify what team an issue is assigned to. A rough way to do this is to set the board filters along the lines of:

project = devProject and (assignee in (teamAperson1, teamAperson2, teamAperson3, etc) or assignee is EMPTY

project = devProject and (assignee in (teamBperson1, teamBperson2, teamBperson3, etc) or assignee is EMPTY

This is not a robust solution as people could join, leave, or switch teams which requires the filters on both boards to be updated and the teams would have to be disciplined about assigning tickets to themselves (or someone on their team) rather than working on an unassigned issue otherwise there could be duplicated effort.

Hopefully this messy suggestion will help you come up with a better idea of be a starting point for someone else in the community to offer a better idea.