Use backlogs for planning
10 min
Intermediate
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Compare scrum and kanban backlogs
- Prioritize work by using ranking in the backlog
Use the backlog to plan upcoming work
The backlog is a place in your project where your team can add, prioritize, and plan upcoming work. While both kanban and scrum boards can have a backlog, they serve slightly different purposes.
👇 Click the boxes below to learn more about the differences between backlogs.
Configure and use backlogs in Jira
In Jira, backlogs behave differently for different project types (company-managed or team-managed) and different agile methodologies (kanban and scrum).
👇 Click the tabs below to learn how to use kanban and scrum backlogs in Jira.
In team-managed projects, you can enable the backlog as a separate feature of the product.
In company-managed projects, by default, kanban boards have a Backlog column on the board, but don’t have a separate backlog area. However, you can enable the backlog if you want a separate place to plan work. With this method, you can easily plan and organize many work items and only include planned work on your board.
To enable a separate backlog:
- Open your board.
- Next to the board name, select More actions (represented by •••), then Board settings.
- In the sidebar, select Layout, then Columns.
- Drag the first status column in your workflow (often Backlog) to the Kanban backlog section.
👇 Here's where you can enable a separate backlog.
Prioritize your team’s work with ranking
In both kinds of backlogs, you can rank work items to visually demonstrate their priority. Your most important work item should be at the top of the backlog, with the next most important work item underneath it, and so on. This way, you know what to work on next, when you complete all of the work currently on your board.
There are two ways to rank a work item:
- Drag and drop it below work items that are more important or above work items that are less important.
- Right-click the work item and choose to move it to the top or bottom of the backlog, or up or down one work item.
You can also rank epics in your backlog in the Epic panel. This won’t update the ranking of individual work items, but can help you prioritize larger efforts.
To rank work items, your board filter query needs to include Rank.
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next lesson
Use swimlanes to group work on a company-managed Jira board
- Use swimlanes to group work for better visibility
- Let's explore an example!