Kanban Backlog - there is no Send to top of <first kanban column>

[Tom Hudson]

I've got a Kanban board set up with a Backlog.  The first column in the Kanban board is "To Do".  When an item is in the Backlog, I can right click and send it to the top or bottom of the backlog, and I can send it to "To Do".  Typically, because of the order in which things were created, items in the backlog will de facto be at the bottom of To Do when moved there.  Once in To Do, I'd like to easily send it to the top of To Do. But this option appears to be missing. All I can do to items in To Do (from the Backlog view) is to send it to the top or the bottom of the backlog (which is where I just removed it from).

Is this a bug, or has anyone else observed this weird limitation?  If there's already a discussion about this or a request ticket somewhere, I've been unable to find it. 

Given that even my To Do column in this particular board (which is an aggregate of several boards in the same project) has a few hundred items in it, manually dragging the newly placed item is a giant pain.  Switching back to the Kanban view, finding the item, and then sending it to the top is cumbersome.  I prefer grooming even my To Do in the Backlog view given that I can see so many more of my issues at once.  But I'm stymied by the fact that I can't send an item in To Do to the bop or bottom of the "column" once it's there.

Any insight (or even commiseration) would be appreciated.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Tom Hudson 

Is this a next gen or classic board?  I just tried this with my classic Kanban board, and when I was on the board I have the right-click option to "Send to Top of Column".

Best regards,

Bill

[Tom Hudson]

It's a classic project.

That option does not exist for me. 

Is it possible that one of the statuses mapped to my backlog is actually named "Backlog" that could somehow be contributing to this issue?  Like.... maybe when the javascript is trying to populate the right-click menu, it somehow trips over the fact that it's creating a Send to Top of Backlog item but there's also already a status with this name and it loses the index as it's iterating through the possibilities?  I'm leery to rename statuses as that will impact a lot of other projects' workflows, and not sure how much time I want to invest in customizing my workflow to test out my hair-brained theory.

Idunno, but it's frustrating. Glad to know it seems to work for you, Is the discrepancy between your experience and mine enough to file an issue?

[Tom Hudson]

Oh, and... just to be clear, Bill: your observation is for when you're IN the Backlog view and looking at the items in the top "column", versus the section named "Backlog".  For me, on my Kanban board, the first column is named To Do, so the top section in the Backlog view is also named To Do.  The issue I'm having is not on the Kanban board itself, but the Backlog.  When in the Kanban board, I have the option to Send to Top of Swimlane (since I have swimlanes established on my board).  If all the swimlanes were empty, then right-click gives me "Send to Top of Column".

When I'm in the Backlog of my Kanban agile board, issues in the Backlog section have these options.

Send to

• To Do
• Top of Backlog
• Bottom of Backlog

Issues in the To Do section have these options:

Send to

• Top of Backlog
• Bottom of Backlog

Based on the paradigm established for the Backlog issues, I would expect it instead to give me

Send to

• Top of To Do
• Bottom of To Do
• Backlog

But... it doesn't.

Thanks for the response, but can you confirm we're talking about the same thing?: not the Kanban board itself, but the 'Backlog' of the Kanban-style agile board.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi, Tom.

Yes, I meant it worked when on the board.  The behavior appears to be the intended design:

• When on the backlog view, the view helps with refinement and selection of work (scrum or Kanban) and so only offers to move issues up/down in backlog and in/out of selection for next work (a sprint for scrum and your first column for Kanban)
• When on the board view, the work is already selected. The only remaining options are to move through workflow or to move up/down in a status.

If you have an additional idea, I recommend adding it as a suggestion.

__Bill

[Des Kelly]

It's a shame this feature isn't there - it would be really useful for us