backlog order with new issues created

[Kevin Wu]

When you create a new issue and then try to see that issue in the backlog, it appears that the issue is inserted somewhere in the middle of the backlog order.

Is there a way to configure the default order of newly created issues?  Either at the beginning or at the end?

[Tarun Sapra · Accepted solution]

Currently it's an feature request in JIRA

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSW-11139

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSW-5368

[Joe Kirschling]

I have a similar issue... when a sprint is closed with existing PBIs that are not DONE, the incomplete PBIs are randomly placed in the backlog with no apparent rhyme or reason... since these are current issues that will likely be pulled into the next sprint to complete they should be placed at the top of the backlog.

Are the above tickets likely to resolve this issue as well or do you think I should open a separate request?

Also, there has been no recent activity on those tickets... I feel like this is a common, highly visible problem that should be resolved sooner than later.. what can be done to raise visibility of these issues?

[Joe Kirschling]

Trying to figure this out... found:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-7579

Says items are added back to backlog in order of 'rank'

This sounds good, but in practice it doesn't work well.

The items placed in an active sprint should be defacto the highest rank regardless of where they were pulled from. Moving an item from the backlog to an active sprint is (or should be) a 'ranking' action.

The backlog is groomed and re-ordered while the sprint is in progress and those items in the active sprint are excluded from this ranking (for obvious reasons), so when the unfinished items return to the backlog they are bumped lower into random spots and are hard to find.

It seems like they changed this from incomplete items being placed at the top of the backlog in previous versions for some reason..

I'm not really sure what to do about locating these stray issues.

[Monika Gottwald]

We have the same problem here. To workaround the problem with completing sprints we create a new sprint before we complete the current sprint. Then there is a possibility to send the incomplete issues to the next empty sprint.

[Dave Furlani]

There are requests for this feature (default new items to top/bottom of backlog ranking) going back to 2013. I know it was fixed in GreenHopper, way back when, but the baked in boards now suffer the same issue.

This really causes stress for teams as new items are not easily found or end up being executed out of order., especially if they were created by people outside of the team and/or not during sprint planning sessions. 

[Tarun Sapra]

Hello @Dave Furlani 

I can understand your pain on this issue, as it's very annoying for Product owners when they create new issues.

We have a separate Kanban board for Backlog grooming, once the stories are moved from open->refinement->ready for sprint, only then they appear in the backlog of sprint board.

This is somewhat has helped us in better streamlining the process and also has eased the life of POs as they have a separate kanban board for refining newly created items.

[Dave Furlani]

I assume from that comment that you have a more complex workflow than the default Open > In progress > Done, or some other way of indicating the PO believes the items are ready for sprint so that the Agile board can filter out those not yet ready.

[William Bardallis]

Jira has been around for a long time and should follow Agile/Scrum standards. New issues should go to the bottom of the backlog until the Groom/Planning cycles. Then you drag it where it belongs/prioritize/estimate/etc.