The Kanban Backlog feature is now available for JIRA Software Cloud. The release of Kanban Backlog for JIRA Software Server will be scheduled and updates will be posted to this issue. We cannot advise a release number or date for this at this time.

Sub-tasks are supported in the Backlog for the first time. The initial solution will show them by default. We are working on improved cards with functionality to hide/collapse sub-tasks. If you do not want to see sub-tasks in the Backlog then at this point then adding a Quick Filter to hide them is one solution.

The Epics panel is available for the Kanban Backlog but is not enabled by default. This is because the epic issue type has historically been available for display as a card. To change the epics to display in the Epics panel there is an option in the board configuration once the Kanban Backlog is enabled i.e. has a status mapped to it.

The addition of estimates for Kanban is tracked elsewhere at https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSW-7265
and there are a number of related Suggestions and improvements for Kanban planning which are tracked separately.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

Yes, please!!!!
Having only these two fixed board types SCRUM and KANBAN without any means to configure a mixture seems absolutely weird!
If you want to be religious about either of the two processes, please be, but allow others to configure the tool to their needs. Each of the differences between the boards should be configuration options with the two existing styles being simply two default configurations.

wcoka396006515 - you don't need to activate extra anything to see changes - if you have the Labs feature on you'll get them by default. Recently released changes have been for the onboarding for Kanban backlog and some bugfixes, the next release of changes will include the epic panel and sub-task support.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

We're in the final stages of development, there'll be some updates visible for those opted-in to JIRA Software Cloud Labs instances this week.

Hey Martin, any update on this? I see mention that last week there was going to be some update but I cannot see it. Should I activate something?

YAY! any vague estimate for when the feature will be migrated to server instances?

Thanks for watching, commenting and voting on this Suggestion.

We're in the final stages of development, there'll be some updates visible for those opted-in to JIRA Software Cloud Labs instances this week. The team have been working hard on implementing Version and Epic support as well as updating the onboarding experience to be simpler. We're finalising sub-tasks in the backlog and preparing for the feature to exit Labs in the near future.

Kanban Backlog is available in JIRA Software Labs for JIRA Software Cloud as we iterate on the feature. The release of Kanban Backlog for JIRA Software Server will be scheduled once the feature gets fully incorporated into the application.

As clarified in the Current Status field above on 8 August 2016, Kanban Backlog will be scheduled for JIRA Software Server once the JIRA Software Cloud version has been released (out of Labs).

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

I would love for Atlassian to prove Keith wrong.

On the evidence of this issue though, which I have found very frustrating, I think he may be right.

It should be quite obvious at this point that Atlassian simply does not care about getting this feature to server customers, or about the server product in general. They are of course more than happy to take tens of thousands of dollars over decades from loyal customers, rewrite licensing terms to invalidate perpetual unlimited user contracts, and send you obnoxious "reminder" messages to give them more money for upgrade subscriptions and support that takes 5 days to answer a ticket and only works during AU business hours. But when there's a new feature you actually want, they give priority to their cloud offering to give the higher margin product a competitive advantage and give the big middle finger to their long-standing server customers on whose purchases they built their company. When (if) this finally comes out for server, I give it about 95% odds that all this extra waiting was so they could put it behind yet another addon paywall somehow (Questions for Confluence comes to mind) or create another new, more expensive version of JIRA that you have to buy. But they'll still keep reminding you why you need to give them another several thousand dollars every year for updates.

I've seen failed Kickstarter projects run better than this has been.

When can we expect the JIRA Server version?  I am setting up a scrum board just to get the backlog view and then a Kanban board to enable users to use Kanban, Cloud Labs have been out since Feb?!??!  Please can we get some sort of date?

+1 for Epic Support!

There is mounting frustration on this blog http://blogs.atlassian.com/2016/03/kanban-backlog-jira-software/

You need to actually do something right now: update the community on the status, what you're doing, and when it will be released.

Hi there. I'd like to add another +1 to getting this to JIRA Server. In the original blog post http://blogs.atlassian.com/2016/03/kanban-backlog-jira-software/ there are many comments asking for it as well.

An update would be great. Thanks!

Any update on when we can expect this for SERVER version of Jira? Would be awesome.

@Merv - THANK YOU! I didn't realize that was there.

2) Right-click on the issue and choose "Send to Scheduled".

I've been using the Kanban backlog in Jira Cloud, and it's a big help, but there are still two improvements I'd love to see:

1) Allow me to show other columns such as estimates, story points, labels, etc. so I can use that information to plan what moves out of the backlog.

2) Give me an easy way to move an item out of the backlog without dragging and dropping. In a long backlog, the dragging process is a big pain in the butt as you wait for the page to scroll to the top.

Hey guys,

We have a solution, very similar to KanPlan for JIRA Server(it's called Plangle) , it already has

• Epic support
• Sub-task support

but it needs some modifications to fit your needs perfectly.
Knowing, that Atlassian will possibly release their own solution for server in 6-12 months, it got us thinking whether we should modify our add-on and provide a fast and easy solution for you or not.

Modifying costs us money, therefore we are interested if there's anyone who's willing to pay for this add-on, since they don't want to wait 6-12 months for Atlassian.
To help us decide, please fill out this short form linked below
https://goo.gl/FJDksV

Thanks for your help, looking forward to your feedback,
Aron Boldog
Plangle Product Manager

Alternatively instead of showing the subtasks, a small indicator, next to the spot where story points are displayed in a scrum backlog, would also do the job.

flaimo+jira1939329403 - we're working through sub-task behaviour for the kanban backlog and also epics and versions.
A workaround to help with sub-task visibility meanwhile could be the add them as one of the additional fields on the card.
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRASOFTWARECLOUD/Customizing+cards#Customizingcards-fieldsAddingfieldstocards

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

BTW: Why can I set fix-Version on Sub-Tasks, but not plan them separately from theis parent? I cannot even remove the field in the subtasks? That's a nasty inconsistency in the JIRA strategy.

I know, this annoys us too. In our case, QA only tests Standard Issue Types, and not subtasks. Therefore an issue can only go live in a version if all its subtasks are resolved. So we make PRs only for the parent issue, and not for subtasks, as we can only merge the PR when all subtasks are done. Therefore it does not make sense to have a different fix version for subtasks.
I could imagine other workflows, but for our workflow it does not make sense for subtasks having a fix version field. It also does not make sense for Epics for another but similar reason - the epic versions are implicitly given by the versions of its contained issues - in a similar sense, the subtasks versions are implicitly given by their parent issues.

When discussing a Story in the Sprint planning:

• Ranking inside the story to reflect priorities
• Assigning them in a push-situation (expert teams) during the planning meeting (where the focus is on the planning board)
• While planning a story, check with the team if the Sub-Tasks are complete
• Moving into another story to do scoping
• View some of the additional fields (now limited to three) directly on the sub-task
  This was indeed very handy in the classic boards.

I do not vote to have them always visible, but being able to expand a Story with all planning means available (rather than just the summary in the Story detail view) would be indeed useful.

BTW: Why can I set fix-Version on Sub-Tasks, but not plan them separately from theis parent? I cannot even remove the field in the subtasks? That's a nasty inconsistency in the JIRA strategy.

In our case we're actually using several backlogs in the same project. We have mapped our entire product development process, and using a number of different boards to focus on the different parts. We've got one board for product management that have their main backlog + a few steps for discovery, and then move issues to Selected for development. The development team has their own board, and their backlog is the selected for development-column - so it's automatically replenished by the product team. And the product team sometimes need some analyzing / prototyping work or something on an issue, and initially created a subtask for this purpose and put it in the selected for development column. The problem then is that this subtask is invisible in the dev team backlog, so they can't select it for development.

We've worked around this issue by changing any issues that needs to spawn subtasks into epics instead, and create new issues with epic links instead of using subtasks. Works well enough for us, since issues where we need to do this are usually quite big anyway, so an epic makes sense most of the time.

OT: You could also display a field (ScriptRunner calculated/scripted field) that you configure to show number of subtasks, or their issuekeys?

This is not an option, since we already use card colors in another way.

If you have ScriptRunner or JQL tricks, you can easily change the card's color based on this kind of query:
issueFunction not in hasSubtasks()

Or you create a quick filter for the same purpose.

In our case for example the teams do a grooming session one a week, where they decide on how to split the user stories in smaller subtasks (technical and graphical subtasks). Showing the subtasks would make it easier to see where a discussion still needs to take place.
Alternatively instead of showing the subtasks, a small indicator, next to the spot where story points are displayed in a scrum backlog, would also do the job.

Out of curiosity, what kind of operation would you do on sub-tasks if they were visible in the backlog view? Sub-tasks can't be ranked separately from the parent story.

^^^ to add a vote here (not that it actually counts. ) - if subtasks were to be viewable in the backlog, I would like that to be an option, not a default - primarily because of how we can organize stories / sub-tasks / epics. (i.e. I tend to organize a Kanban board similar to how I do Scrum - with a 'story' being the definable and estimate-able unit of work. Sub-tasks might be additional detail, or a ticket that needs to be assigned to someone external to the assignee of the story. Larger groupings of work I put in 'Epics' - and those are the things that need to be broken up over weeks and longer periods of time. That helps ensure - hopefully - that work keeps flowing through the system and large nebulous tickets aren't 'stuck' with no motion on them.)

Yes, viewing sub-tasks would be great.

Apparently subtasks aren't visible in the backlog view? Any idea when that will be fixed? Except from that problem it looks really promising so far!

Three months have passed since the feature was enabled in the cloud. How long do we have to wait until we can activate the lab feature it on our server installations?

As a follow up to my previous comment the plugin has been released

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/io.extensi.jira.plugin.agileboardfilter/server/overview

@Roger Oberg

I know that may not be an ideal option for Jira users but as an alternative next week we're launching a new plugin that will support full backlog and board filtering

Along to the Quick Filters It will introduce a concept of personalized board and backlog filters, so a kanban board owner will be able to prepare set of complex filters for a planning session without messing around with Quick Filters.

Cheers
Prem

Hi!
While you are working on this, please add the
– Epic Sidebar
– Version Sidebar
to NOT only the backlog view but also the "normal" kanban view, as today in order to filter out these issues, you have to create quick filters on the kanban view in order to quickly filter out epics and/or version on the kanban view.

We’re still improving this feature and getting valuable feedback from those using it in Labs on Cloud. Once it’s ready we’ll be releasing it out of Labs for both Cloud and Server customers. We cannot provide dates unfortunately but please continue to watch this issue for updates.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

I see this plugin will come available in the next major release from Jira Server. When will this be?
It would really help us a lot with our project.

Regards,
Dylan

Is there any word on when this will be available in the standalone server version of JIRA (not the cloud hosted one)?

fabian.ehrentraud - no, this will not be available in JIRA 6.
Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

It's happening!

http://blogs.atlassian.com/2016/03/kanban-backlog-jira-software/

@Martin Jopson: It might be early, but when this feature comes to Self Hosted Jira, is there any chance this will come to Jira 6 too?

Brilliant - was googling for this very feature and stumbled across this request and turned it on and bingo. Just what I wanted.
Thanks for listening guys.

Thank you!

Aaron I want that too (both epic labels and the epic sidebar) in the Kanban backlog view, I think the linked request JSW-7052 is the place to vote for it.

(I don't know the best place to say this.)

Awesome work with the Plan mode, but there is one big missing piece for me: epic labels in plan mode. They show in Kanban mode but not in Plan mode...

shawn.mcdonald1170824137 - that's a bug in the Labs feature, it should not render like that. I'll email you directly for further information.
Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

When we enable the KanBan Backlog feature our board looks like this (all tasks displayed in a single column)..

Disabling the feature will correctly display the board..

We do tend to have a number of sub-tasks in our Stories. Is that the reason this feature is causing this behavior?

Can't wait until this is out for on-premise! Please let me know.

rob.geraedts545637703 - thanks for your comment.
Please create a new Suggestion for any additional features you would like to see, this allows for more focussed discussion on each issue.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

Very happy with the Kanban Plan mode!
Apart from the roadmap features in the description, and the need to edit estimates, I would like to add another feature request to this: on a Kanban board, there is a "Release..." button/link on the right. The idea is that all Done items are linked to a version and then they are removed from the board. I think that this should be possible in other ways. The "Release..." button looks a bit "optional", but in fact is very "definitive": using this button puts all done items in a version and releases it immediate.
Could we have a more control over clearing the Done column? More more like a button somewhere (with permissions!), like on the Scrum board? I would like to clear the Done board more often than I want to release a version.

Rob

I have raised our first findings via the Feedback button inJira. I do want to raise it here aswell since we found a bug in the order of the backlog for new issues. New issues show up in random positions and not always on te bottom like on the scrum boards.
This currently made us decide to turn of the labs functionality regarding the kanban backlog. Really too bad since everthing else looks good and prommising with al the new planned features.

Will planning by Fix Version be possible too?

asafm - as noted previously we plan to add epic support to the kanban backlog.

Thanks for your feedback, the first column of the 'work' board is presented at the top of the Backlog 'plan' board to allow for drag and drop, in your case - from backlog to todo.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

Martin - it now works.

Two points here:
1. I have 465 issues. It's simply unusable to view them in a plain list without grouping them to Epics.
2. My first column was Backlog (status = backlog) and the second column was TODO (status = TODO). From some reason, Todo is also displayed on my Kanban board. It says: Todo 27 issues, Backlog 465 issue. I don't understand it. In the configuration you clearly see that the grey column added is only contains Backlog status

A BIG vote for #4 list a few posts above (#4 If the field "story points" is enabled in the field config for a project, the story point value should be displayed for each issue an the right side, just like in the scrum planning mode).

The ENTIRE point of having a dedicated backlog is to show them concisely so that you can see more of them at once, as you try rank them for working on. Sticking Story points down on another line all by itself, effectively doubles the size of the card, which cuts the number you can see and work with on the same screen in half. Please implement this off to the right in the little gray oval, like the other user suggested.

amesika758670979 - please check again, your Cloud instance may have been in the last zone to receive the update.

If you are still not yet seeing the option in Labs, please create a support ticket at https://support.atlassian.com
That way we can provide you with support specific to your circumstances and with higher security. The credentials to access the Support site should be the same as this one (jira.atlassian.com).

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

@martin - this still doesn't help me as i'm a server user however - congratulations to you & the team for getting this out! It looks good and i'm looking forward to further developments. Onwards & upwards...

Thanks for your feedback on the first iteration in Labs. To get the first version out asap we released a minimal feature set and plan to iterate while the feature is in Labs.

To give feedback please click the feedback menu item, on the left hand side (in the sidebar) of your JIRA instance, and include the term kanban in your response.

Planned improvements include:

• Epic and version support
• Availability of the context menu on each card

The addition of estimates for kanban is tracked elsewhere at https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/GHS-7265
There are a number of related Suggestions and improvements which may be tracked separately to allow earlier completion, and release, of individual items.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

I only see Burnup Chart - I'm using JIRA Software Cloud.

Here's my feedback on the new planing mode based on a couple of minutes testing:

Like it so far, please roll it out as soon as possible, even if some features based on the feedback here are still missing.

1) I consider this a bug: The context menu on issues is not available jut like on scrum boards (Safari on Mac OS X 10.11)
2) Please add support for epics and releases
3) The indicator for an exceeded WiP limit for the "Selected for Development" column should be better visible. At the moment there is a tiny red text telling that the limit has been hit. Put a red border around all issues just like in the column board. Even better would be if the WiP limit would result in not being able to drop something into "Selected for Development".
4) If the field "story points" is enabled in the field config for a project, the story point value should be displayed for each issue an the right side, just like in the scrum planning mode.

5) If the field "priority" is disabled in the field config for a project, then there is useless white space between the issue icon and the rest of the ticket information. in such cases this white space should be removed so that the screen space is used more efficiently.

6) When pressing "m" to add a comment, the overlay dialog is now more narrow than it is currently in 7.0.10 (maybe a separate bug?)
7) When defining more than one status per column, I get an overlay dialog, if I D&D an issue, making me choose the correct status. I have to explicitly click on the radio button to select the status. It would be more user friendly if I could click the whole text to the right of the radio button (possible with the HTML label tag).

That's EXACTLY what I was going to add, @michielmissotten - massively disappointed that they weren't there, to the extent I turned the feature off and continued with my bodge version of using a secret scrum board to access that functionality.

I have created an online account to test it out. Looks great ! Can't wait to enable it on our Server instance.

However, as you state "first iteration", I do not know exactly what is planned for the future but "Epics" and "Versions" are a "must-have" for our process.

Do you want us to feedback now/here, or shall we wait until you're in a position to process everything?

The first iteration of the Kanban Backlog feature is now available in JIRA Software Labs for JIRA Software Cloud.

If you're using JIRA Software Cloud, you now have the option to enable the Kanban Backlog Labs feature in your instance. You can enable this via the JIRA Software Labs section of JIRA administration. You need to enable the Kanban Backlog Labs feature first, so you can enable the Backlog for your Kanban board. See this page for more information on enabling the Kanban Backlog Labs feature.

If you're using JIRA Software Server, the Kanban Backlog feature isn't available for your instance just yet. However, once the feature graduates from Labs, it will be available in the following major release of JIRA Software Server.

We look forward to your feedback as we iterate on this feature.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

As noted above, I'll advise when this is available in Labs.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

I'm an administrator of my JIRA instance but I can't find the Backlog option to be turned on in the Lab section. I only see the "Burnup Chart".

@mjopson Are there any updates on this?

@Fabrizio @Arkadiusz Martin gave specific instructions in his last comment including his email address.

When it will be available for Jira Cloud and how can I activate it?

@martin i'm interested, where can i find ur email?

barryvan - correct, we're rolling out to Cloud in Labs to get early feedback allowing faster iteration and refinement. When the feature is ready for prime time it will graduate from Labs and will be released in the product for Cloud and Server.

For any customers (Server or Cloud) interested in user testing during the Labs phase please send me an email (martin at atlassian dot com) and I will get in touch.

Please note for Cloud customers it will be possible to turn on the Kanban Backlog Labs feature without contacting Atlassian. Labs features are administered via JIRA Administration. I'll update this issue to advise when this is available.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

@MartinJopson: OK – is there a timeline at least on when we can expect to see this coming to Server customers? Is it being rolled out to Cloud only to begin with because that's where you can run analytics and so on, or is there some technical impediment to rolling it out to Server? My assumption would be that the two products remain in lock-step, including for labs features – at least where those features are applicable in both contexts. Is this not the way that Atlassian works? Will Server now be the unloved cousin?

Unbelievable. I'm done. Best of luck with the next four year wait folks.

barryvan - the Labs phase of this will only be in JIRA Software Cloud.
Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

@MartinJopson: Is there a timeline on when this will become available to JIRA Software Server? At the same as Cloud (I hope)?

michiel2 - we're close to the first Labs release to JIRA Software Cloud, I expect it to be available within a few weeks but will update this issue when the release date is locked in.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

@Martin Any update on this? It has been two months since last update, nearly 4 years and a half since first report...

Great news, thank you for the update @Martin Jopson

It's got to be a vendor's dream to have a thread like this. Talk about user lock-in! If I were Atlassian I'd leave the issue open and bleeding for three more years just so I could repeatedly link the comment thread for investors.

Appreciate the feedback Martin.

Thanks for the update Martin!

atlassian508, buchleim - this is high priority, we're aiming for the first Labs release to JIRA Software Cloud this quarter.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

Hi

A friend of mine brought my attention to this thread where a large number of you seem to be wanting a particular feature, yet Atlassian is taking time to respond satisfactorily.

I have a solution in mind that could work, similar to how sales deals with sales pipelines. The analogy here is that if you have a large number of sales opportunities, you want to move them up in the pipeline to either a winning position or lost. If lost, they get added back to the start of the pipeline. There can be many stages between the start and the end, all shown on a pipeline with the ability to move from left to right.

With backlogs, I see the same issue. You have a large number of issues, and its overwhelming to deal with them all at once. The pipeline could help you groom them into many different stages with the intention of getting them eventually to the next sprint.

Would a solution similar to above of interest? If so, we can explore building it for you on our UnifiedVU platform.

a timescale as in other issues already provided would be a welcome update

Great that you're going to improve communication and introduce via Labs in "due course" - however the only meaningful functional update we had was back in July. Can you give us an idea of priority or timescale even if it's only at a "Q2 2016" level.

Thanks for your comments and feedback. The JIRA PM team will endeavour to improve communication for the top voted JAC (JIRA.Atlassian.com) issues.

For an overview of how the JIRA team use JAC please see https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/110373/how-does-the-jira-team-use-jira-atlassian-com

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

What really makes me mad is that Atlassian withdrew the Classic Boards before releasing full fledged replacements. We were basically following a Kanban process with planning on the classic boards, this is cumbersome to do without Kanban planning mode.

Atlassian has become quite good at making their products harder to use, while adding a lot of UI polish and increasing prices.

Totally agree with Keith. Atlassian has a great pool of very talented developers in their team. But they are very poor on customer relationship. They are having a hard time going from the "geeks only" strategy they could adopt a few years ago to a business minding that we, as customers are expecting. If we would treat our own customers like Atlassian is too often treating us, I am pretty sure we would no longer be in business.
If you want to do yourself a favor, just Google "Emotional Intelligence" and start recruiting employees based on that and not just on technical skills. You have no idea how great you will become on customer relationship.

@Martin, I don't believe Merv's comment was so much a criticism of how this feature is apparently being prioritized relative to others, but rather of the poor communication Atlassian has employed here. I would second that commentary. You announced that this feature would be coming soon to labs three months ago then went completely silent. Not even so much as a "sorry this has been de-prioritized" or a ballpark estimate of when it might show up in labs. I agree completely with Merv that this alone is an unacceptable way to treat paying customers who have been waiting on this feature for over three years already at this point, and something many of your customers who are software developers ourselves are not likely to tolerate given the high standards we uphold for how we treat our own customers.

If you don't have the resources or the corporate prerogative to use this forum to maintain an open channel of communication with your customer base for months or years at a time, why does it even exist? You're doing more harm than good by running it this way.

mepate - we're working on this at the moment, the team are also working hard on a number of other highly requested items too.

Kind regards,
Martin
JIRA Software

D- on the communication on this issue, JIRA.  When customers are asking for an update, or threatening to take their business elsewhere, or mocking you for the lack of communication, that's a REALLY bad effort.  Even if you have nothing new to report, at least extend the courtesy of posting as much when asked.  You dangled some news in front of us over 3 months and haven't followed up. Not sure how you guys run things at JIRA, but many of us would get fired for treating customers this way.

Martin, do you have any timeframe as to when this will be implemented? I've just been updated to Jira Software and this functionality is not yet available.

Perhaps as a Business Project in 7 I can split sub-tasks across sprints? That could be a useful work around to not being able to plan from a Kanban board.

https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/30954180/can-i-create-a-scrum-board-for-business-projects-in-jira-7

doesn't look to be in 7 by default according to the new documentation:

hopefully will still be along in labs

That email says next week "You'll see changes to your JIRA the week of October 12th." If this isn't one of the, I'm done.

JIRA's main product isn't a software application. It's a philosophy on Agile. One that not everyone shares.

Maybe the delay has something to do with the "JIRA Software" announcement I just got in my Inbox. The communication on this issue has been poor over the months (years?).... almost 3 years now. While I really like their products, I'm REALLY, REALLY disappointed in the approach Atlassian has taken on this issue and how they have handled the user base's need for information on it.

Guys,

The date on this ticket is 10/2012. We've been waiting literally years for this. This isn't a Kickstarter project; you don't announce early access is coming in July then go silent until October. This is a five to six figure license customer base you're treating like $8/mo Netflix subscribers from a customer service standpoint on this issue.

I need a hard date for the availability of this feature or I'm taking my business elsewhere.

When will Kanban plan mode be available in the cloud version? We can't make a buying decision until we know.

In the Description, the link to Using Plan Mode is 404

Would love to try that out in labs.

+1 as well, would like to know when this is expected to either release or land in Labs.