Backlog for stories

A backlog is a prioritized list of work for the development team that is derived from the roadmap and its requirements. The most important items are shown at the top of the backlog so the team knows what to deliver first. The development team pulls work from the backlog as there is capacity for it.

You can manage and prioritize the stories in the story backlog. Click a title of a story to open a slide-out panel with more information about that work item.

Note: To view the story backlog, select a program as your scope.

Options

The following controls and progress indicators display at the top of each backlog section when using List, Kanban > State View, and Kanban > Process Flow View view options: 

• Avg Team Velocity: The average number of effort story points accepted by the team during the last five sprints. For Kanban teams, this value displays as Throughput, which displays the average number of stories delivered and accepted by the team each week. Click this value to open the team’s Details panel, focused on the Sprints tab. There, you can see more details about average and per-sprint velocities.  
• Export: Click this button to export the displayed work items and details into a .csv file.
• Estimate: Click this button to navigate to the Story Estimation page, where you can quickly enter estimates for all stories displayed in the sprint or Unassigned Backlog.
• Pull rank: You can use a parent feature rank to sort stories. You can also push the backlog rank to or pull ranking from a connected external Jira system when a program is selected and the PI is set to All time. Otherwise, to prioritize your stories, you can drag them to the necessary position. Ranking is disabled if filtering is on.
• Sprint Progress: Progress bar that displays the percentage of story points accepted in the sprint. The bar is calculated as follows:
  
  ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points for all accepted stories planned for the team and sprint) / (sum of LOE points for all stories planned for the team and sprint)) * 100 = Sprint Progress
• Reports:
  • Story Burndown Chart displays story point burndown/burnup for a selected team. These charts represent work remaining/completed versus time.
  • Story Allocation shows the allocation of team members assigned to the selected sprint.
• Points Planned: The total number of story points planned in the sprint.
• Override Velocity/Throughput: This field displays when an override velocity or throughput is present for the sprint.

The following controls and progress indicators display at the top of each backlog section when using the Kanban > Sprint View view option: 

• Sprint Load: Progress bar that displays the percentage of story points planned in the sprint, versus the team’s average velocity. The bar is calculated as follows:
  
  ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points for all stories planned for the team and sprint) / (Average Team Velocity)) * 100 = Sprint Progress
• Points Planned: The total number of story points planned in the sprint.
• Points Accepted: The total number of story points accepted in the sprint. This field displays when viewing a completed sprint.
• Avg Team Velocity: The average number of effort story points accepted by the team during the last five sprints. This field displays during in-progress sprints. Click the Override link to enter an override velocity for the sprint.

Default fields

The following values display on all stories listed on the page, regardless of selections made in the Columns Shown menu:

• Rank: The number displayed at the far left of a story's row is the rank of the story in the selected sprint or Unassigned Backlog.
• State: A colored dot displays the state of the story. Hover over the dot to view the state name.
• ID: The unique ID number of the story.
• Name: The name of the story.
• Labels: Use this dropdown to display different information labels on the right of each story row. You may select one of the options:
  
  • Parent: The parent of the story.
  • Schedule: The sprint the story will be delivered in.
  • Tags: Tags that are used to make it easier to find a story.

Columns shown

The Columns Shown option offers to select which columns to display, providing some level of customization. Columns Shown controls what columns are displayed for two different scenarios:

• Main View: Displays up to 5 columns on the Backlog page in List View.
• Small View: Displays up to 2 columns when the Unassigned Backlog slide-out is opened in List View.

For the story backlog, you can choose to view such columns as Story Point Progress, Age, Child Count, Tag, Persona, Feature, Blocked, Process Step, Owner, Acceptance Criteria, Chat, LOV, LOE, MMF, Accepted, Story Type, Automation, and Objectives. You can find out more about these columns in the Manage stories topic.

Additionally, you can select custom fields that you have created for stories in Details Panels Settings. Only fields that are set as Active in Details Panels Settings are available for selection as columns in the backlog.

Filter

With the available filtering options, you can filter stories by tag, persona, feature, title, process step, owner, state, blocked, Jira project, LOV, LOE, MMF, accepted, story type, and automation.

Quick add

You can quickly add a story directly in your backlog.

To add a story:

1. In the New Story Name box, type the title for the story.
2. Select the story’s LOE.
3. Click Add. The story is automatically prioritized at the bottom of the list and is assigned to a program, team, program increment, or sprint based on where it was added from.

Right-click menu options

For faster navigation in the backlog, right-click a story to do the following:

• Open in new tab: Open the work item in the full-page view in a new tab.
• Duplicate: Copy the existing work item. You need to type a new name for the duplicate work item. The name must be unique. The work item is added to the bottom of the list and assigned to the same team and program increment/sprint that the original work item is assigned to.
• Move To Next Sprint: Move the work item to the top of the next program increment/sprint. The new program increment/sprint is assigned to the work item. This option is grayed out if there is no upcoming program increment/sprint.
• Move To Unassigned Backlog: Move the work item to the top of the unassigned backlog within the selected team/group.
• Move To Top: Move the work item to the top of the list the work item is contained in.
• Move To Bottom: Move the work item to the bottom of the list the work item is contained in.
• Move To Position: Select the place to move the work item to. It is useful when you have a long list and dragging the work item is not convenient.
• Move To Recycle Bin: Move the work item to the recycle bin if you no longer need it.