How can I remove a status from the board (columns) without removing it from the backlog?

Question

Hi there,

I understand that in order for issues to show up in the backlog, the issue's status must map to one of the board's columns. We however, do not want this.

In our use case, we want our board to have three pipelines:

- Committed for the Iteration (status: In Progress)

- In Progress (status: In Progress)

- Done (status: Done)

The reason for this is because from a higher level (managers, etc.), anything that we've committed to for the iteration is technically _In Progress_.

We'd like for an issue status to automatically be updated to "In Progress" when we move it to the sprint from the backlog. This however does not work because removing "New" from our board just hides everything in our backlog.

Anybody know of a workaround?

Any help is much appreciated!

Annuschka Bork · Answer

That's unfortunate.

Yes, you are correct. I've modified the workflow to include two "In Progress" status'. To management there is no need to differentiate between Committed and In progress. That is a team differentiator. But we might be able to find a middle ground that works.

Thanks Nic.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

No, the board needs to include all the status for Scrum to work properly - note that you normally would take issues into a sprint as "new", not in-progress.  There is no way around this, you have to have a column with the status in it somewhere.

Also, I'm assuming your committed and in-progress status are different (not the one status in two columns you've described)?