Flagged items

[Micaela Barros]

Does flagging items in Kanban mark them as blocked? 

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Micaela - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

We actually use the Flag to indicate it is blocked for us. I guess it's just a terminology thing, but there is no other way to record something as "blocked" in Jira. Given that Jira adds a flag and changes the shading, I think the intent is to treated it as blocked. 

Having said that, it's a little different than creating a link between two issues and saying one blocks the other or is blocked by the other. Maybe that's why Jira uses the word Flagged instead of Blocked in that instance. 

The main thing is that it is a visual signal that work has stopped on that issue due to an outside force preventing the work. 

That's all just my opinion though.  :-)

[Micaela Barros]

Thank you!

[Deepak Rajput]

thanks

[Flavien Gache · Accepted solution]

No it does not. It allows you to distinguish them from the other tasks but it does not mark them as blocked.

You could imagine a status "blocked" in your workflow to achieve this but it means you need to think again your WF which might be a hindrance.

[Micaela Barros]

Thank you! Trying to figure it out what triggers the blocked in Actionable Agile metrics. Do you happen to know?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Micaela Barros  -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

As you are using Kanban practices, I would not recommend using "blocked" as a status/state in your workflow (or on the board's columns).  That will drive up work in progess (WIP) count, lead the team to believe blocking is a normal practice, and discourage resolving blockers faster.

Please consider instead that "blocked" is a condition of an issue in a particular step.  I do not believe Jira has a built-in way to manage that condition, and so teams use Flagged, links, and other fields to indicate blocking situations.

Best regards,

Bill

[John Funk]

@Micaela Barros  - Yes, Actionable Agile uses Flagged to mean blocked for calculating metrics, especially Efficiency. When something gets flagged, then the clock stops counting for measuring Efficiency. Or it did when I last used it. 

[Micaela Barros]

Right :) Thank you! 
Actually, my team is not using blocked, we are using the flag to help us highlight certain work items that we will pay more attention for some reason.

Our doubt is precisely to understand what does Jira consider as blocked item in the add on Actionable Agile.

[Micaela Barros]

@John Funk That's exactly what I was trying to understand! Thank you :)