issues not appearing in backlog

[Saad Ahmad]

Hi, i have a project in which I have several kanban boards. 
I just created one new scrum board and created a few new epics (in To Do status), but they aren't appearing in the backlog list. I checked the status mapping in 'column', ensured there's no filter blocking them to appear on the backlog list, but still they aren't getting listed.

what could be the reason and how to resolve it? Please see below SS. they are appearing in Epic panel, but not appearing in backlog. 

[Saad Ahmad · Accepted solution]

@Jack Brickey @Trudy Claspill @Seifallah Bellassoued 

If you please see the below screenshot. The epic is in 'To-Do' status and the status category is 'In Progress'. The epics are appearing in the epic panel and I want them to be listed in backlog.

I want epics to be listed in the product backlog where I can arrange them and then eventually move them to a sprint. In my case, we're not breaking an epic to one or more stories, rather we want to take epic to an active sprint. 

How can I achieve it?

[Trudy Claspill]

You cannot.

It is not possible to make Epic type issues list in the issues list section of the Backlog screen of a scrum board. Jira functionality does not support that.

I would ask you to consider why you feel you need to add Epics to sprint.

Typically items are assigned to sprints based on the work being scoped so that it can be completed within the time frame of a single sprint. Typically the scope of an Epic encompasses a volume a work that is too large to complete within a single sprint.

So, what is your use case for assigning Epics to sprints?

If you feel that you must assign Epics to Sprints, you can edit the Sprint field within the details view of the Epic.

[Saad Ahmad]

@Trudy Claspill We're just starting off with jira and all changes and projects have been tracked outside the system in excels. 

to kick start, we've created kanban boards, and each project/change will represent an epic. This is till the time the team is well versed with jira and scrum model. Team doesn't know how to break down big requirements into stories. There's a learning curve here.

With so many kanban boards (created application/platform wise), where the epics are listed, I need to create on scrum board where just to keep things in sync (as its in the same project), I want the epics to run through the sprint (same challenge i.e. team don't know how to break big requirements into small deliverables). 


I'm looking for a way to put epics in backlog, prioritize them, pick them in sprints and deliver (same what we do with the user stories).

[Trudy Claspill]

As I said, showing the Epics in the issue list on a scrum board is not possible.

As to prioritizing them along side user stories you can do that only in a Kanban board backlog where it is possible to show the Epics in the backlog issue list.

And assigning them to sprints will be possible only by directly editing the Sprint field in the Epic, since you will not be able to drag the Epic into sprints in the scrum board.

If the team doesn't want to work on decomposing the Epics into smaller deliverable Stories then you might as well create them as Stories. Then you can display them in the Backlog, prioritize them with the other Stories, and assign them to sprints like you would any other Story.

I don't actually advocate that. I advocate that the team begin breaking down the Epics into Stories, and only assign Stories to the Sprints. Part of using sprints is to have the team size the work items and commit to only what they think they can deliver. If they think the can deliver an entire Epic, then that should be changed to a Story.

[Saad Ahmad]

@Trudy Claspill Make sense. Thanks for the detailed response.

[Seifallah Bellassoued]

Hello @Saad Ahmad

This is the default behaviour. Epics appear in epic's pannel and not in backlog.

Please refer to this khnowlage base for more details:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwareserver/managing-epics-in-a-scrum-project-938845409.html

Best Regards,

[Jack Brickey]

Hi @Saad Ahmad , the first thing to check is the "epic status" to insure it is not in the Done status. This is different than the "issue status". Lease feel free to share a SS of your missing epic.

[Trudy Claspill]

@Jack Brickey 

Epic Status has been deprecated. The display of Epics in the Epics panel is now based on the Status Category of the Status currently assigned to the Epic.

[Jack Brickey]

ah yes...of course. old knowledge dies hard. :-(