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Use your kanban backlog

Before you begin

You can only use the kanban backlog if it's already enabled by a Jira administrator or a board administrator.
The kanban backlog must be enabled for a particular board, for the board users to use it. See Enabling the kanban backlog for more information.

About the kanban backlog

Managing your backlog in the first column of your kanban board is easy to do—as long as there are only a few work items in your backlog. As your backlog grows, viewing and scrolling through these work items can become difficult.

If you're planning work for your team, the kanban backlog gives you a bigger backlog with an optimized list view of the work items you're creating and ranking for your team. If you're a team member working on a kanban project, you can focus on your work-in-progress on the kanban board, without the distraction of items in planning.

Accessing the kanban backlog

Go to the Backlog of your kanban software project.

The kanban backlog shows work items in both the Backlog and Selected for Development sections. This makes it easy for you to drag work items from one section to the other. Drag work items from the Backlog section when you're ready to work on them.

A work item will only be visible in the kanban backlog if:

the work item matches the board's saved filter, and
the work item’s status maps to the kanban backlog column and the next column on the kanban board.

This means that if you have the columns Selected for Development, In Progress, and Done on your kanban board, ensure that you have a status mapped to In Progress at least. If you map all the statuses to the first column (Selected for Development), you won't see any work items in the Backlog section of the kanban backlog. You will only see work items in the Selected for Development section.

What can I do in the kanban backlog?

Task	Instructions
Add work items to the backlog	Select Create in the top navigation bar. Fill in the work item details in the Create work item dialog, then select Create. The work item will be added to the backlog under the currently selected work item, or at the top of the backlog if no work item is selected. Check the Create another checkbox in the Create dialog to keep it open, if you're creating multiple work items. You can create work items directly on the backlog. Just select + Create at the bottom of a sprint or the Backlog section.
Prioritize the backlog	Drag and drop a work item to rank it. You can also right-click the work item to open a menu that allows you to send it to the top or the bottom of the backlog.
View and edit fields in a work item	Select a work item on the board to view the details and edit fields. To open the work item in a separate tab or window, right-click on the work item key. You can edit the following fields directly on the backlog: Summary Assignee Story point estimate Parent Priority Select the relevant field on a work item card to edit it. To edit multiple work items from the backlog: Select multiple work items from the backlog. You can either: use the checkboxes hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items Once you’ve chosen the work items you’d like to edit, select Edit, then Fields from the toolbar that appears. This will open the bulk edit sidebar. Choose what you’d like to do with the fields shared across the selected work items by clicking into the field and making direct edits. You can also search for additional fields you may want to edit using the search bar. Some fields may require you to choose from a handful of options. The options depend on the type of field, but may include: Keep as is - Make no changes to that field across the selected work items. Add new - Add new values to what’s already there across the selected work items. Find and remove - Remove a specific value from the field across the selected work items. Replace all - Replace the existing content for that field across all selected work items. Remove all - Remove all values from the field across the selected work items. When you’re done editing, select Next to review your changes on a confirmation screen. Select Confirm to save your edits.
Create subtasks	Select a work item, then select Subtask Subtasks are useful for breaking a story down into implementable chunks. Notes when creating subtasks A newly created subtask is displayed with its parent task expanded. The subtask itself is slightly indented after its parent task. A subtask comes with a label that indicates it's a subtask of a parent task. You can view subtasks by expanding their parent tasks. Subtasks may or may not be included in the work item count. This depends on column constraints configured for the board.
Transition a work item	Drag and drop a work item from the Backlog section to the Selected for Development section (or the next column of your kanban board), to move the work item from the backlog to the next status in your workflow. Note, the Selected for Development section may be named differently, depending on the column configuration of your kanban board Transition work items with subtasks To transition both the parent work item and its subtasks, drag and drop the parent work item while it's collapsed to the corresponding section. To transition just the parent work item or a subtask, expand the parent work item first, then drag and drop only the parent work item or the subtask to the corresponding section. To transition multiple work items from the backlog: Select multiple work items from the backlog. You can either: use the checkboxes hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items Once you’ve chosen the work items you’d like to edit, select Edit, then Status. Select a status from the dropdown. If your selected work items don’t share the same statuses or transitions, this will open the bulk edit sidebar. Work items from the same workflow will be grouped together and you can select a new status for each group.
Split a work item	Right-click a work item and select Split work item. You can split a work item in the Backlog or Selected for Development sections. Note, these sections may be named differently, depending on the column configuration of your Kanban board. Splitting a work item is useful when it’s so big, that it's better to divide it into two or more work items, and make work more manageable. Note that you can only split a work item from the Kanban backlog, and not from the Kanban board. What happens when I split a work item? After splitting a work item, the new one will be sent to the Backlog section. This depends on the column configuration of your kanban board, but this is essentially the section for the column that's mapped to the initial status of your workflow. What happens to the details of the work item? The new work item will be of the same work type as the original. For example, if you split a task into two or more work items, the new ones will also be tasks. The new work item will have most of the same details stored in the original, including priority, component, and label. The details that won't be copied over include work log, comments, history, and links, though the original will be linked to the new work item. The new work item will have the summary that you entered upon splitting it. The status of the work item also returns to the first step of the corresponding workflow, and the resolutions are cleared.
Flag a work item	Select a work item and select More actions (…), then Add flag. You can also add a comment with your flag, perhaps to indicate your reason for adding the flag.
Delete a work item	Select a work item and select More actions (…), then Delete. To delete multiple work items from the backlog: Select multiple work items from the backlog. You can either: use the checkboxes hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items Select More actions (•••) on one of the selected work items, then select Bulk change. Select Delete work items and select Next. If available, decide whether you'd like to send email notifications and select Next. Select Confirm, then Acknowledge.
Find work items	Create your own quick filters to only view the work items you want. See Configure quick filters for details.
Organize work items into epics	An epic is essentially a large task, used for grouping smaller tasks. For example, you may have a 'Quarterly audit' theme for your release, which you could capture as an epic. You can create epics, drag and drop work items into epics, and filter epics by using the epic panel. Note, you need to enable the epic panel for your board for this panel to display. Once enabled, use the toggle in the epic filter dropdown to open and close the panel (or use keyboard shortcut 'E').
Plan versions	You can create and edit versions, assign work items to versions via drag-and-drop, and filter by versions using the version panel. To open and close the panel, use the toggle in the version filter dropdown (or use keyboard shortcut 'V').
Select work items for your team to work on	After grooming the work items in your backlog, you can select which ones your team will start working on, by dragging and dropping them from the Backlog section to the Selected for Development section. Work items selected for development will then appear on your Kanban board, and your team can start working on them accordingly. Note that you can move a subtask from the Backlog to Selected for Development independently of its parent, and vice versa.

Need help? If you can't find the answer you need in our documentation, we have other resources available to help you. See Getting help.

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