Viewing epics in the backlog

[Nic Easton]

Right now, I don't believe there is a way to see epics in the backlog. Can you confirm? Are you guys working on a way in which epics, stories, bugs, etc can all be seen in a single backlog? VSTS offers this and we will likely be moving away from Jira because of this amazingly helpful feature.

[P_D_ Foerster · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nic Easton,

are you referring to the backlog view in a Scrum or Kanban board? If so, there is an Epic panel left to the list of issues in backlog, also see Managing epics in a Scrum project.

EDIT:

@Nic Easton: I copied my comment here to be used as an answer. If you feel those information helped you please accept this answer so we can solve this topic :)

An issue's rank value is unique in this instance.

If you have your filter ordered by rank, only the epic is moved above/below the issue you chose to be next to it. Issues linked to the epic are not affected by this.

In your Scrum board the only way of showing epics (at the moment) is via the epics panel. Just checked on of our Scrum boards. They will always be shown in the epics panel. Only in Kanban boards there is an option to activate/deactivate the epics panel.

I think this goes along with Atlassian's plans to provide so called agility boards where you can enable additional features you need like epic / version panel, backlog view etc. But this is only available in Cloud for now. If you want to know more about that, check out

• A preview of the new agility boards in Jira Software
• Working with agility boards
• Common Jira Software boards
• Get started with agility boards

We server customers have to wait until they decide this feature is being rolled-out for server, too.

So, unfortunately, as far as I know there is currently now way to display issues of type Epic in the Scrum board backlog issue list, hence disabling the epics panel.

[Nic Easton]

Hi Patrice,

Scrum Board. I'm aware of Epic panel functionality but I'm looking to see stories, epics, etc in a single list prioritized against each other.

[P_D_ Foerster]

Hm, in a Kanban board you can disable the epic panel but I haven't seen that option in a Scrum board (yet).

[Nic Easton]

It was helpful in confirming that this isn't an option right now. I'll accept it. Thanks!

[Sreenivasaraju P]

Yes. you can view the epics in the backlog. on the  Left hand side, you can see them 

[Nic Easton]

I'm aware of that functionality but I'm looking to see stories, epics, etc in a single list prioritized against each other.

[P_D_ Foerster]

@Nic Easton: then you can build your own filter. Let's say

JQL: project = ABC ORDER BY RANK

Then you have all issues in your project (incl. Epics) in this list and your can drag and drop as you like. Or you sort by any other criteria you find useful.

[Nic Easton]

Lets say I move an epic above/below a story or defect not related to that epic, will all of the items inside that epic also be moved above/below?

[Nic Easton]

@P_D_ Foerster I double checked my configuration. My current query looks something like this "Project in (A, B, C, D, E) ORDER BY Rank ASC" and while you're right the query using the search functionality shows the epics, the epics do not show in the backlog.

[P_D_ Foerster]

@Nic Easton: an issue's rank value is unique in this instance.

If you have your filter ordered by rank, only the epic is moved above/below the issue you chose to be next to it. Issues linked to the epic are not affected by this.

In your Scrum board the only way of showing epics (at the moment) is via the epics panel. Just checked on of our Scrum boards. They will always be shown in the epics panel. Only in Kanban boards there is an option to activate/deactivate the epics panel.

I think this goes along with Atlassian's plans to provide so called agility boards where you can enable additional features you need like epic / version panel, backlog view etc. But this is only available in Cloud for now. If you want to know more about that, check out

• A preview of the new agility boards in Jira Software
• Working with agility boards
• Common Jira Software boards
• Get started with agility boards

We server customers have to wait until they decide this feature is being rolled-out for server, too.

So, unfortunately, as far as I know there is currently now way to display issues of type Epic in the Scrum board backlog issue list, hence disabling the epics panel.

[Nic Easton]

@P_D_ Foerster That's what I figured. This has been very helpful. Thanks so much!