The backlog is where your team manages its day-to-day work. Each team has its own backlog, with customizable workflow steps that guide stories and bugs from start to finish.

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Team backlog

A team backlog offers both list and board views, presenting key details for each story and bug, including:

• Item type and ID
• Title
• Assigned user
• Size (stories only)
• Risk rating (bugs only)
• Staleness indicator (for items taking statistically longer than expected in a specific workflow step)
• Optional settings (for more details, see List and board view settings):
  • Product theme
  • Timebox
  • Estimated completion dates (for items in the first workflow step)

Click any item to view its full details.

Choose between list and board views to manage your backlog in the way that works best for you. Your selected view applies across all team backlogs until you change it, making it seamless to navigate between backlogs while keeping your preferred layout.

List and board view settings

You can choose whether to display product themes, timeboxes, and estimated completion dates in list or board view. These settings can be configured separately for each view from the Settings menu.

1. Open your backlog in either list or board view.
2. Click the Settings (gear icon) menu in the backlog header.
3. Select or clear the checkboxes for Product theme, Timebox, or Estimated completion dates to control what's displayed in that view.

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Access team backlogs

Quickly access the backlogs of your teams or others in your organization to stay aligned on tasks and priorities.

Your teams

Find backlogs for your teams (or those where you're an admin or backlog owner) in the Your teams section of the side menu.

Public teams

Access a public team's backlog through the team's overview page. Any workspace member can view public team backlogs.

Private teams

Only team members, the team's admins and backlog owners, product managers, and other users with elevated administrative privileges can view private team backlogs.

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Manage the backlog

Effectively managing the backlog keeps development running smoothly. Create new stories and bugs to capture work, and move them through workflow steps as they progress. This helps your team maintain accurate cycle times and estimated completion dates.

Views and layout

You can toggle between viewing your backlog in list view for a simple breakdown, or board view for a more visual Kaban-style workflow. Use the icons in the backlog header to switch your view:

In both list and board views, you can collapse or expand steps to keep the backlog manageable:

• List view: Click the arrow next to the colored circle in the section header to collapse or expand the step.

• Board view: Hover over a step name and click the collapse (><) icon to collapse the column.

• Collapsed columns appear as a circle and vertical bars, with each bar representing an item. Hover over the circle to see the total count, or click the circle or any bar to expand the column again.

For example, collapse sections like 'To do' and 'Done' when focusing on active work to reduce distractions. Expand them later to review completed or upcoming items.

Filter the backlog

Filter the backlog to focus on items that match specific criteria. For example, you could filter for stories in a particular timebox that were last updated in a specific timeframe.

1. Click Filter by at the top of the backlog.
2. Select one of the available filters and fill in any required details.
3. Click Done.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 to add additional filters as needed.

The list updates to display only items matching criteria from all filters.

For multi-select filters, items matching any of the selected values are included. For example, using the Assignee filter to select more than one user includes items assigned to either user.

Active filters appear at the top of the backlog. Steps without matching items are hidden, and item counts are updated accordingly to what's currently being displayed.

To remove a filter, click the X on the filter tag or adjust the filter settings.

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Clear filters to reorder backlog items

You can't reorder or move items between steps when filters are applied to the backlog. Clear any filters to make these actions available.

Available filters

Add new items to the backlog

Add stories and bugs directly to workflow steps to keep your team’s tasks organized and up to date. New items are added to the bottom of a step but can be dragged to a new position.

For teams with backlog management enabled, only the team's backlog owners can add new stories to the backlog. Team members won't have permission to perform this action.

List view

• Click the plus (+) icon next to a step and choose Story or Bug.

• Add items inline at the bottom of a step. Press Enter to quickly add additional story titles, then fill in the details later.

  

Board view

• Hover over a column header, click the plus (+) icon, and select Story or Bug.

For more information on managing stories and bugs, see Stories and Bugs.

Move items through the workflow

To move an item from one workflow step to the next (for example, from 'To do' to 'Design'), do one of the following:

• Drag and drop: Click and drag the item to a new step.
• Select the step: Open the item's details and choose a new step. The item moves to the end of that step but can be repositioned.

Create an item in progress

Sometimes, work on an a story or bug starts before it's added to the backlog. To ensure accurate cycle time tracking, you can create items directly in an 'In progress' workflow step and specify when work began. This helps maintain reliable metrics for planning and process improvement.

For teams with backlog management enabled, only the team's backlog owners can add create new stories in progress. Team members won't have permission to perform this action.

1. Create a new story or bug in an in progress workflow step.
2. In the Create an item already in progress dialog, specify the Date and Time work on the item began.
3. Click Create story or Create bug to create the item.

The cycle time for the story or bug will begin from the selected date and time once the item is created.

Assign items to a different backlog

Reassigning items ensures the right team owns the work. Move stories or bugs to another team's backlog when responsibilities change or another team is better equipped to handle them.

If you're assigning a story to a team with backlog management enabled, you won't be able to perform this action unless you are one of that team's backlog owners.

1. Open the item and click the team name in the side panel.
2. Select a new team.
3. Confirm your choice by clicking Change backlog.

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Reset size estimates

When reassigning a story, the original team's size estimate is removed. This allows the new team resize it based on their own processes and capacity, ensuring accurate planning.

Remove items from a backlog

Unassigning items from a team helps keep its backlog focused on current priorities.

1. Open the item and click the team name in the side panel.
2. Select No team.

3. In the Unassign from team dialog, confirm by clicking Unassign from team, or X to cancel.

Bugs unassigned to a team appear in Bug triage, while stories unassigned a team move to the Story refinement backlog. This ensures they remain visible and ready for reassignment.

If you want to permanently remove an item from the workspace, you can delete it.