scrum backlog view without board?

[Calvin Hoot]

I understand that a board drives the UI for an agile project. Is there a way to add a backlog page/view (like in Scrum templates) without having to switch to a separate board?

WHY: I created a project with a kanban template but would like to drag items between either an 'icebox' that's off the board into the backlog, or move backlog off the board and drag them into a 'ready to pull' status. This way the board is manageable but still gives a way to quickly prioritize.

[Calvin Hoot · Accepted solution]

For anyone looking for an answer rather than an argument about Kanban, this is now a feature that can be administered within JIRA Software Labs:

Kanban Backlog.png

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Bear in mind that it may go away, as it's a Lab experiment (it probably won't, but don't rely on it while it's a Lab)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

You don't have to switch to another board.  Just create a new Scrum board and change the filter to be the same as the one for the Kanban board.  People can work in either board and jump between them if they want, it's all the same underlying data

Kanban doesn't have the concept of a backlog, so you won't quite get what you want.

[Calvin Hoot]

Kanban absolutely has the concept of a backlog whether it's called that or a pool of stories/issues/tickets, or has acceptance criteria, or whatever else is needed, there is some mechanism of managing ideas that aren't board ready.

[Calvin Hoot]

also, this won't explicitly work; for the work to show up on the scrum 'active sprints' a sprint has to be created to capture all of the kanban backlog. If we started to work from this new board after modifying the backlog, closing a sprint does not 'release' and the tickets themselves would show up as part of the kanban board should you switch back.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Sorry, I phrased that incorrectly. Kanban's backlog is the first column on the board, it's not that it doesn't exist, it's just there so you can work on it. You're moving away from doing Kanban "properly", so it's not supporting you. Not that this is a bad thing, Kanban is often over-simplified for the real world. If you want a method of moving the backlog towards a more Scrum model where you don't put things in the to-do pile until they've passed some gate, then remove the first column from your main Kanban. Issues that aren't ready to go won't be on the board. Then come up with a way of managing them on to the board. Using a scrum board is one way to do it, but you could simply slap a "backlog" Kanban in place too. Let's say your current Kanban board has columns "new, approved, in dev, in test, done" which are identical to the status. Remove "new" from it. Create a new Kanban board with columns "new, approved, in-progress (which contains the in dev/in test status), done". You can manage your backlog in the second board

[Calvin Hoot]

1) I am not moving away from running kanban properly; there is nothing in "proper kanban" that dictates what the first column of any board is. 2) My goal is that I want to manage the priority in a view that gives me wide and thin items rather than card shaped items so I can see more than 6 without having to scroll. Putting them on a new board with only one column still makes them 4x as tall.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

1) Then you don't need to mess with the columns at all. 2) Ah, right, that's completely different from what you asked. You could still use a scrum board to do that and just not use the board view.

[Calvin Hoot]

it is what I asked. I said that a board drives the ui, and I want to add a backlog page (like in scrum) to a kanban view. I still want to use the board, and everything else in Kanban, but have a way to prioritize things before they enter the board without switching boards and using the better ui that the backlog gives you.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That's not what Kanban is for, so it's not been coded for.

[Calvin Hoot]

For example, some stakeholders feel like if their idea or bug they found isn't in the backlog then we've forgotten about it. Or, we want to decentralize idea generation but only have the board show what is vetted/triaged/whatever and ready to be worked on.

[Calvin Hoot]

fine. it's not been coded for; Kanban's Core Practices: Visualize Limit WIP Manage Flow Make Process Policies Explicit Implement Feedback Loops Improve Collaboratively, Evolve Experimentally I am trying to make a better visualization and manage the flow to improve our delivery. This is exactly what kanban "is for"

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, and none of that includes "adding an extra step that was explicitly dropped from Kanban because it didn't fit the Core Practices"

[Steven F Behnke]

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Nic, the Kanban Board does NOT support a planning mode like the Scrum Board does. In the JIRA Software Product, when using a Kanban Board, the first column represents your backlog. Period. It's as much as Nic said.

You can leverage the boards as they exist and create a planning-specific one built off a query that would represent your 'backlog' but JIRA doesn't provide anything outside of it's query-based model (which lets you do anything your data has the granularity for).