Boards & backlogs

This video explains how work items, or "cards," are organised into backlogs in project management tools like Jira and Azure Boards. A backlog is essentially a prioritized to-do list. 

The video recaps the hierarchy of work: large customer-value items (Epics in Jira, Features in Azure Boards) are broken down into smaller, deliverable Stories, which are then composed of individual Tasks. 

These items are arranged in lists, with the highest priority work at the top, creating a clear order of execution for teams and individuals.

In larger, scaled organisations with multiple teams, the concept expands to a hierarchy of several backlogs. This includes high-level Project and Release backlogs for executives and program managers, a crucial Customer Value backlog for product owners, and separate Team and Task backlogs for the delivery teams and their members. For any backlog to be effective, it must follow three key principles:

1. It must be ordered, with the highest priority items at the top.

2. Every item must have a clear owner.

3. Each item should be sized to estimate its effort and complexity.

While the core principles are identical, Jira and Azure Boards present these backlogs differently. In Jira, the Epic backlog is often shown in a side panel, with the corresponding Stories and Tasks nested within the main view. In Azure Boards, all levels of the backlog are typically shown in a single, expandable view, making it easier to navigate the hierarchy. We recognise that Azure Boards is more natively designed for scaled environments, allowing users to view even higher-level backlogs (like enterprise-level Epics and Projects) that are not a standard feature in Jira's default setup.