Is it possible to have a Kanban Backlog, with Scrum Board Sprint(s) inc Data Mapped to Sprint

Question

I have enclosed a screenshot. Generally its a large backlog on the left (from Atlassian University Course im taking) but the items on the right are a Scrum Board.

I want the red area for Sprints and the left kanban for backlog. I guess the only issue would be when you finish a sprint, so it doesnt clog up "Done" field you would need to move it off the board into an archive somewhere.

Can anyone help the best way to support this? Basically every two weeks we take from the  kanban and make into a sprint. The view on this Atlassian Course is perfect for us because it means we can keep grooming the backlog and have an audio/visual indicator on the board of this. The certification recommends this anyway (regular grooming of backlog).

In a perfect system where its well groomed you kind of know whats coming in the next sprint (ie> All the items on the left kanban). Bearning in mind we have 00s of tasks/issues/sub-tasks in the kanban with a complex project.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

GameDev_z4il3c · Answer

Hello Trudy,

Its funny your answer because we have actually been doing that and i just wondered if this way was better having enrolled for the "Managing Jira Cloud Projects" Certification.

Basically we have been doing it the Scrum board way (with a seperate large backlog to groom on another board) exactly like you say. Sprints are generated every 2 weeks. Items not done are then carried over onto the next sprint, plus new items from the backlog. It worked well enough for 9 months.

The course has opened my eyes to other methods though and it was almost recommended as a pre-QA check having a backlog on the Scrum board like the above, but also a seperate backlog can be used. I like the extra QA (basically time spent grooming the backlog) to get the next things ready because then, and this is the point - the whole team in a scrum board on a sprint know whats coming next (ie the backlog board on the same screen to the far left).

Meanwhile, you still take from the larger kanban backlog as per before , and not only groom it, but get it ready for the backlog on the scrum/sprint board.

I guess ultimately it means you have 2 sprints planned in advance as opposed to 1, because that left hand board becomes the next sprint.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @GameDev

If you want to run the Scrum methodology with Sprints, why are you not simply using the Scrum board? With that, your Board view shows your active sprints, and your Backlog view shows in list form your active sprints and their contents, future sprints that you have not yet started, and your Backlog. With Scrum, when you complete the sprint the cards within the sprint are cleared from the Done column.

When you say every two weeks you take from the kanban and make a sprint, how exactly are you doing that?

Are you managing your work by planning and executing sprints? Or are you managing your work using the kanban methodology of a continuous flow of prioritized work? If the latter, than what are you trying to achieve with the "every two weeks...a sprint" activity?