Kanban projects, backlog view and stories that are in a further column

Darren Bryant

Like many Kanban's ours has more than two columns, specifically we have (the Backlog), Selected >  Analysis > Development > Testing > Deploy.

However as per this documentation and my own experience, the backlog view within the Kanban project only shows items that are in Backlog and Selected (or rather those that have status' that dictate they're in those columns).

I want to be able to see all items in the backlog view regardless of whether they're in the Selected column or further down in Testing.

Is that possible?

Walter Buggenhout

Hi @Darren Bryant,

No, that is not possible. By definition, the backlog is the work that is waiting to be started. Once work on an issue starts, it is no longer in the backlog, but work in progress and as such no longer a backlog item.

Organisations sometimes have teams doing just analysis work, development or analysis. And then indeed, a 'handover' status can be interesting for your process.

Suppose you extend your workflow to something like: Backlog / Selected / Analysis / Ready for Development / In Development / Development Done / Testing / Tested / Deploy.

This would allow you to create separate kanban boards:

• one for analysis, only containing Backlog / Selected / Analysis / Ready for Dev
• one for dev, containing Ready for Dev / In Dev / Dev Done
• one for testing, containing Development Done / Testing / Tested