What is the best way to handle a "cancelled" status in the workflow?

Question

In our backlog, we have items that were originally started but stopped in the middle for whatever reason, so they are effectively "cancelled" items. However, the team wants to retain these items on the backlog as a reminder (maybe in the future) that these tasks were started but abandoned in the middle.

So I set up another status called "cancelled" and associated it with the done workflow so that it will disappear from the board. But now I want to make sure that the story points from this task will not get counted in reports.

I am wondering whether creating the new status was the best way to handle it, or should I be using another Jira native feature like the resolution field?

Thanks!

Fabian Lim · Answer

Hi @Stefannie Tan

There is nothing wrong with a story that gets cancelled in the middle of the sprint. You thought it was going to add value and then decided that they were no longer needed. The reports will show that when you compare the committed vs actual story points.

You can update the filter so that it does not include the cancelled status. Then you can create a dashboard with the filter results gadget to show stories that were cancelled and review them again if you want to re-open them in the future.

Benjamin_tmh9yg · Answer

@Stefannie Tan - It really depends on the intention. There are times I have experienced it being in the resolution. However, that would mean it will not be in the backlog anymore. In this case, it is usually sent to close status and cancel in the resolution. Meaning cancel for good unless the ticket got reopen. In the case, you describe, the end-user would like to cancel but come back to it. I would suggest that it isn't necessarily canceled. This is more like no longer require or needed for the product. So, it would be left open status with a comment and place in the backlog.  I would target to keep work status as minimal as possible unless a status is really needed.

If story points are not to be counted, it should be remove from the sprint.

Hope this helps.