Bug backlog vs created and resolved

KC74

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how JIRA calculates bug backlog vs bugs created and resolved (Done)

I am running stats for 2023 and prior to 2023 (Dec 31, 2022) we had a backlog count of 352 bugs.  In Jan we created 222 and Resolved 224 but our backlog went up to 357 - shouldn't it have dropped to 350. 

There are several months where created issues were less than resolved issues but the total backlog keeps climbing - I can't figure it out. 

Here are results and what is returned using Custom Chart searches. 

Backlog: (filter IN ("All COMs") AND project IN (Company) AND issuetype IN (Bug, bug) AND status IN ("In Progress", "To Do", "Code Review", "Internal Review") AND (created >= "2022-01-01" AND created <= "2023-01-31"))

Jan created: (filter IN ("All COMs") AND project IN (Company) AND issuetype IN (Bug, bug) AND status IN ("To Do", "In Progress", "Code Review", "Internal Review", Done, Cancelled) AND (created >= "2023-01-01" AND created <= "2023-01-31")) 

Jan Resolved: (filter IN ("All COMs") AND project IN (Company) AND issuetype IN (Bug, bug) AND status IN (Done, Cancelled) AND (resolutiondate >= "2023-01-01" AND resolutiondate <= "2023-01-31"))

 

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Backlogs are not the same thing as a filter result.  A backlog is based on the filter for the board it is as a part of.

You are slightly different filters for "Jan Created" and the board.  So you are comparing two different lists here.

To debug this:

• Use the same filter for the board/backlog (the backlog uses the board filter for the board it is a part of) and the gadget.  Temporarily of course, you can always flip back to what suits you best when you've finished working out what is happening.  This might actually explain the whole lot in one hit!
• Check what your board thinks is "done".  A board's "done" is not the same as "resolved" (most of us try to make them tied together, but there are uses for having unresolved issues that are done on some boards and not done on others).  From your filters, I would expect your board to have "Done" and "Cancelled" status mapped into the last column on the board
• Try running the "Jan Created" filter in a statistics gadget.  Your filter says "in (Bug, bug)" which makes me suspect you have an Issue type called Bug, and a Sub-task type called bug.  The gadget will show you the split between types.

What you're looking for:

• A filter returns a flat list of everything it finds, exactly as you expect
• A backlog is part of a board, and boards and backlogs, while starting with the board filter, do further selections.
• The board only shows currently active work (although some can have a column that also contains the backlog)
• The backlog is a list of stuff that the team needs to do something about.  But it removes:
  • Stuff that the board would consider "done" (status mapped into the last column on the board, with another couple of conditions depending on the type of board).  Boards do not look at "resolved"
  • Sub-tasks on Scrum boards.  They're not that useful in a backlog, as you can't rank them outside their parents, and they're not sprint items.
  • Issues that are in a status not mapped on the board.  It's pointless showing issues in a backlog when they can't be used on the board.
• The gadget is very simple - it is looking for whether the resolution is empty or not.  Whatever filter you debug with, try running it through a 2-dimensional gadget with "resolution" on the X axis and "status" on the Y axis.  There are three things to look at, and group the numbers together (you'll need to read across each line and add up for all the different possible values of "resolution", other than "unresolved", but ideally you should find most of them are 0)
  
  • All status lines that are in the "done" column.  Are there any unresolved?
  • All status lines that are not mapped into a column.
  • The rest of the status lines.  Are there any resolved ones?
• This should give you 6 numbers which you should find add up in different ways to show the differences between backlog and the created/resolved gadget

 

A couple of related things:

Atlassian are planning to enable us to view sub-tasks in a backlog as more than just the current simple string of keys that you can add to a card view, but they remain noise in a backlog for most people.  So I'm hoping they let us turn the view off, or make it an expand area you have to click to view them under an issue.

Your board/backlog filter is not suitable for a board.

In most cases, a board filter should not filter by status at all.

 If you do need it to, then the board column mappings must be identical to the filter.  If your filter includes status A, B and D, but ignores C, then the board should have A, B and D mapped into a column, but C should not be mapped)

In the long run, I would suggest removing the date clauses for the boards, they're stopping the board doing its job.  The date clauses are absolutely fine for reporting, of course, and that includes using them in a board that is only for reporting (you wouldn't be using the backlog in a reporting board)