Customise Jira Kanban backlog view with more status

[Deleted user]

The new kanban backlog is great, however it is limited to only viewing the statuses of "backlog" and "todo" or whatever is the first status after backlog.

Is is possible to configure this somehow and show more than just these two statuses, e "backlog" "todo" and "someotherstatus"?

We would like to have a single workflow that covers designers and developers.

backlog
-> design_todo
-> design_progress
-> design_done
-> dev_todo
-> dev_progress
-> dev_done

In the backlog we can see backlog and todo, but we would also like to see dev_todo. This would mean if a task needs design work this can be done before it is handed over the the developers instead of having to create a whole new issue. It also means we don't have to have yet another column in the board.

It also means the designers board is not filled with developer tasks.

It also means the PM can move an issue straight to the developers board if it requires no design work.

[Calvin Luc]

I'm keen in looking at a solution to this as well.

• The quick filter is sort of a bandaid solution, the issue with quick filter is, if you click on a quick filter, you get shown what's filtered and therefore loose the view of the other status.
• If you want to visually view more than 2 groupings in the backlog view, it is impossible at the moment, Jira only displays 2 groups, the backlog and the first swim lane that is on your board.

The only thing I can think of is when you run the sprint boards, you can create multiple sprint groupings and all show in the backlog view, your issue here is, if you drag a ticket from one group to another, the status will not change, it will only assign the ticket to a different group/sprint.

You can reword the question to, how can you view the swim lanes that are vertical on the kanban board into horizontal lanes.

[Jeff Raymond]

Same problem.  When I drag a status (namely "Nouvelles DDC") within the left panel (in board parameters page) so I may see the tickets from that status, I see two groups in the kanban backlog.

The first group is all my tickets which have the status of "backlog"

The second group is all my tickets which have the status of "Nouvelles DDC". But the trick is that the two goups have the same name...

[Thomas B]

@[deleted] / @Miks - putting two status in the backlog does not create two backlogs for each status. You will have to create quick filters to identify status = 'design_todo' and another status 'dev_todo'. If you want to have to completely separate backlogs, you should create two boards and map the status for each type (design vs dev). 

Quick Filters are setup in board configuration > Quick Filters > and you can setup two different filters.

• status = "To Do"
• status = "Backlog"

Does this help? See similar thread: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Add-another-status-to-the-Kanban-Backlog/qaq-p/784670

[Thomas B]

Hello John,

If you open your board configuration (Board > Configure) and then click on the Columns option under the configuration choices, you should see the Kanban backlog on the left side of the screen. You should also see your workflow statuses mapped to columns. You can simple drag and drop any statuses into the Kanban backlog. This will map that step of the workflow to the backlog. 

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have additional questions. 

- Thomas

[Deleted user]

Hi Thomas,

Thank you for your reply, this does not however solve our problem.

I have added 2 statuses to the backlog. "Kanban backlog" & "Waiting".

Below is a picture of the Backlog tab (clicking the jenga stack icon on the left titled "backlog"). Within this screen you can see 2 groupings, "ToDo" and "Backlog". In the 2nd grouping on the backlog page titled backlog there are 2 issues, the bottom with status "Kanban backlog" &  the other with status "Waiting".

There is however no way to tell which issue has which status.

Ideally what we want though is something different to multiple statuses in the backlog grouping on the backlog page. We instead would like to customise the groupings on this backlog page. We would like to see "Todo Developer" then "Todo Design" followed by "Backlog".

We can then use this setup to transition an issue from "Backlog" to "Todo Design", once the design is done move the issue to "Todo Develop". Or alternatively move straight from "backlog" to "todo develop."

This means the designers and developers can have their own boards and columns, but work on the same project...

So, multiple statuses in the backlog is not very useful to us.

Is there a way to add more groups to the overall backlog page?

[Miks]

Same interest here. It only makes sense that statues mapped to Backlog should show up like that. Otherwise, whats the point of that?

[bkelley]

+1. We have a rather large backlog, and then use the "To Do" status to indicate that a ticket is ready to be worked (and a corresponding column on our Kanban board). But to help us with planning, we created other statuses (mapped to the "Backlog") like "On Deck" and "In Requirements". Would be great to have those statuses showing up as separate sections within the backlog.

[Deane Smith]

+1  Being able to categorize and stack rank backlog items in a subset of the backlog is legit.  I believe this may be a byproduct of not being able to filter items in the backlog view by specific details.  There is only a simple search field.