Best practices for management obsolete cards in a project?

[Michael Crincoli]

I am seeking recommendations or the best way to manage obsolete cards from a project.  I see conflicting recommendations on deleting cards.  Looking for ways to minimize the impact on reporting and not clutter the backlog. Thanks in advance.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

We use three different statuses in each of our Workflows for handling Obsolete work. 

Discarded - this is for work that is in the Backlog and was never started and we are not going to do it. 

Abandoned - this is for work that has been started but we decide to not continue working on it right now. This status closes the issue and clones a new issue in the Backlog

Aborted - this is for work that was been started but we decide to kill it and not do the work at all.

All 3 of these statuses set the Resolution field to a value of Obsolete. That way we can filter out Obsolete work versus Done work. 

Take a look at this blog by my boss: https://blog.huge.io/kanbans-four-conclusions-5cfb1716fa39

[Michael Crincoli]

@John Funk Thanks, John.  Just so I can clear.  So set up three different options in the workflow and tie to a single status, Obsolete?

[John Funk]

No, the options are themselves each a separate status. Obsolete is the value you would set for the Resolution field using a Post Function. 

[John Funk]

Here's a screenshot of part of our software development workflow. Done is another status used elsewhere in the same workflow. 

[Michael Crincoli]

Thanks.  Do you leave these cards in the backlog and filter out from there?  

[John Funk]

They don't go to the Backlog - they are in a "Done" status category (like the Done status) so they do not appear in the board anywhere. The exception would be that the Abandon status clones a new ticket and places the new ticket in the Backlog to be worked later. 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Michael Crincoli 

One method is to never delete issues from Jira Cloud, especially given there is no "undo", and recovery from a backup is a bit of an involved process.

Instead consider adding a boolean custom field to indicate "Abandoned".  Then update your filters to ignore abandoned issues, keeping backlogs, boards, and reporting clean...while you can still view the abandoned items with a search.

Best regards,

Bill

[Michael Crincoli]

@Bill Sheboy Thanks, Bill.  Just so I am clear, you create a custom field in the issue layout than filter out?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Michael Crincoli 

Please talk to your site admin about adding a custom field, which you can learn more about here:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/create-a-custom-field/

One you have the field available to the project, update your filter to remove abandoned items from reporting, such as adding the following to the filter:

... AND Abandoned IS EMPTY

Then set the field for the items you would have previously deleted.

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

So I am not a fan of deleting, with the exception for the reason I just happened to be doing so now - i'm setting up a new project and importing from an external system and running multiple tests and wish to delete the test issues.

Now back to your question...

So if you goal is simply to keep a tidy backlog by not including some issues I would inquire as to what defines these "don't want to see" issues? This will tell us the best way to exclude. For example, let's say an issue was created but ultimately it was decided not to proceed with the work. In this case I would choose to mark as Done w/ a resolution of Cancelled or Won't do. In so doing they disappear from the backlog naturally. Alternatively, you could have a different done statuscategory status, e.g. Cancelled or Obsolete. In that case they would still disappear from the backlog since the status is of type done statuscategory.

[Michael Crincoli]

@Jack Brickey Thanks, Jack. The cards are mostly obsolete.  Either scope changed or was addressed in another card.