Backlog missing issues

Question

Hello! We have an issue where some of our development tickets are not showing in the Backlog. The board's filter query is as follows: project = ORDER BY Rank ASC Columns: As you can see, we have a 144 tickets in either "Idea" or "Analyzed idea" status. But, we only have 82 tickets in our Backlog: If I perform a search with the boards filter (project = ORDER BY Rank ASC), all issues can be found. For some reason those same issues are not visible in the active sprint view. Another thing: There are five different statuses in the "Development done, waiting UAT" column: "Done, waiting for review", "UAT, waiting for approval", "Accepted", "Released" and "Canceled". From those five we have two statuses that actually show in our board: "UAT, waiting for approval" and "Accepted". We would like to have the status "Done, waiting for review" shown in the board as well, but I'm unable to find a way to add it there. Any help is much appreciated! -Aki

Aki Martiskainen · Answer

Thank you for your suggestions.

I searched with the query you provided and Jira found 32 issues. I had to modify the query a little though as we only use issuetype Task, so I used this query:

project =<PROJECT> and status in ("Idea", "Analyzed Idea") and sprint is not empty and (Sprint not in closedSprints() or (Sprint in closedSprints() and (Sprint in futureSprints()) or Sprint in openSprints()))

So 32 Ideas or Analyzed Ideas that do have a sprint value.

As of today we have a 142 issues in total which have a status of "Idea" or "Analyzed Idea".

Also I have just found out that we have 38 issues in total in those statuses that are of issuetype "Epic", "Story" or "Sub-Task". I queried with issuetype not in ("Task"). So this definitely adds another ingredient into the mix as I need to figure out what to do to those issues.

I researched deeper into those odd issues with other than issuetype "Task" and some Sub-Tasks are actually visible on sprints, but others aren't. For example I have two basically identical issues created by the same person on the same day with just minutes in part, and one of them is visible in a sprint board while the other is not..

Regarding the second part. Here is our project workflow:

Aki Martiskainen · Answer

Yes I have noticed and I agree that the grouping is "off" with our project. Anyhow it's mostly working as intended and we can see issues in the status "UAT, waiting for approval" (which is an 'In progress' issue) in our sprint boards regardless of that status being in the 'Completed' column. At the same time the other 'In progress' status "Done, waiting for review" doesn't show on the boards. This is puzzling me.

Just to make it more clear (not that you need more clarification, but maybe someone else reading my attempt at explaining this), when I say these mentioned issues show or don't show in our boards I mean the sprint boards and not the Backlog.

Ste Wright · Answer

Hi @Aki Martiskainen

As this is a Scrum Board, the backlog will show any issue which is not completed in a sprint (complete is defined as any statuses mapped to the right-hand column) and not in the active or a future sprint.

Can you confirm if any of the issues in "Idea" or "Analyzed Idea" have a sprint set against them?

You can try searching for this using JQL - for example:

issuetype in ("Idea", "Analyzed Idea") and sprint is not empty and (Sprint not in closedSprints() or (Sprint in closedSprints() and (Sprint in futureSprints()) or Sprint in openSprints()))

This searches for issues with a sprint which are either:

* Not in a Closed Sprint or...
* Are in both a Closed Sprint and a Future / Open Sprint

This is because both scenarios could lower the number of Ideas on your Backlog.

Alternatively, you could add a Quick Filter if you're the board admin for the two issue types:

* Go to Board > Board Settings
* Select Quick Filters on the left-hand menu
* Create a Quick Filter which searches for issuetype in ("Idea", "Analyzed Idea")
* Press Add

Then you could apply the quick filter on the board and see where the Ideas sit - either in the Backlog or in Sprints.

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In regards to your second question, you have the statuses mapped - but this doesn't change your workflow.

This means if you need to be in "Accepted" before you move to "Released" - it will only be an option for drag/drop on the board for issues already in "Accepted". It also means if this is the case you'll need to have "Released" in a different column to drag the issue into - you cannot drag between statuses in the same column.

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Give both of these a try and let us know the results :)

Ste