Keeping backlog order correct within the current sprint

Question

When we start a sprint, we order the issues with the ones we want to do first at the top and last at the bottom. However, the NextGen board reorders the sprint backlog when changes are made. How do we keep the backlog view from changing this order because if we can keep the order the same this helps with the clarity of executing the sprint plan?

Andie Morton_5vts5p · Answer

Having said that, it couple be people dragging stories around on the board instead of going into the story and updating the status. I will check with the team if that's what is going on.

Andie Morton_5vts5p · Answer

Thanks, I'm acting as a scrum master for two teams and it's an issue with both teams. When we start it's fine but as subtasks are added and moved through the swimlanes and the stories are also updated the order gets mixed up. I'm not sure exactly when the sprint backlog changes or what causes it because I only look at that view a few times each sprint (2-weeks) to ensure we are still working on the most important stories for the sprint plan. We switch frequently between sub-task and None filters on the task board as well. I hope that helps.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Andie Morton

Welcome to the community.

Can you be more specific on the actions you are executing and the before and after of the reordering of issues?

I just did a test of adding issues to an unstarted sprint in the backlog screen, starting the sprint, and then flipping between the Backlog and Board views. There was no change to the order of issues from how I had set them when adding the stories to the sprint.

What "changes are made" that results in the issues being reordered?

If you reorder the issues in the board view, that will be reflected in the backlog view. There is only one ordering of the issues and it will be reflected the same way in both views. And the ordering can be changed in either view by dragging and dropping the issue cards.