If a incomplete story is moved to backlog in Jira on sprint closure, does Jira Align reflect same?

Question

Dear Team,

At one of our client implementations, we have got sync between Jira & Jira Align, with sprints syncing from Jira into Jira Align.

As per the recommended best practices, the scrum masters are not moving imcomplete stories from 1 sprint to another sprint, upon sprint closure, but moving them to backlog and pulling the incomplete stories from backlog into the future sprint.

This works fine as long as the incomplete story gets pulled in the future sprint.

However I have noticed that when the scrum masters move incomplete stories to backlog, & those stories are not pulled in a future sprint (for some reason - work getting de-prioritised etc.), the sprint value in Jira Align still persists to show as if the story is tagged to the previous sprint

Is this expected behaviour or once the incomplete story moves to backlog, upon sprint closure the story's sprint value in Jira Align should also change to unassigned backlog?

Thanks and Regards,

Mit Tolia

Rob Phillips · Answer

I would also add that although there are different Agile community viewpoints about move vs. split, for Jira Align to maintain visibility of the historical attempt at a Story then splitting may offer a more accurate path.  Check out this article which outlines options in Jira:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Carrying-forward-unfinished-work-in-Sprints/ba-p/672304

Tina Behers · Answer

@Mit

If it is an effort that has been deprioritized and you want it to reflect in the unassigned backlog.  You will need to "drop" it from the sprint in Jira Align.

User with system permission to drop a story, AND team role permissions of either scrum master, product owner, team coach, or analyst can perform this function.

1) Unlock the sprint (if needed)

2) Openths story card

3) scroll down the links on the right side -

4) Select more options

5) Select Drop Story

This will move it to the backlog in Jira Align.

Rob Phillips · Answer

Hi Mit,

This is expected behavior as the update across the connector when moving to backlog will not occur.  The presumption is that eventually the story get assigned into a sprint and as you mention this resolves.