Boards and Backlogs

Boards and backlogs are the two everyday views for managing the flow of work from idea to completion.

Backlogs

The backlog holds work that is not yet scheduled into an iteration. It is where you collect, refine, prioritise, and prepare upcoming work.

A healthy backlog is:

  • Ordered by importance
  • Regularly reviewed
  • Detailed enough that the next item can be pulled without a long meeting
  • Not treated as a permanent dumping ground

You can reorder items by dragging, and Windshift keeps positions stable even with many concurrent edits (fractional indexing, no full re-sort on every change).

A backlog with a work item ready for planning

Boards

The board shows active work as cards grouped into columns. Each column maps to a status in your workflow, for example To Do, In Progress, Review, or Done. Drag a card between columns to change its status.

Boards are useful for:

  • Seeing what is currently in progress
  • Spotting blocked or stale work
  • Running standups and check-ins
  • Reviewing what changed since the last check-in

Board view with work item cards

Moving work between backlog and board

There are two common patterns:

  1. Iteration-based: assign backlog items to an iteration (sprint, release, or your own iteration type). The board for that iteration shows those items grouped by status.
  2. Flow-based: pull from the top of the backlog and change the item's status as work progresses. The board shows everything that is not in a backlog status.

Both work in Windshift. Pick whichever matches how your team plans.

Practical workflow

A simple team workflow often looks like this:

  1. Add new ideas, bugs, and requests to the backlog.
  2. Review and order the backlog regularly.
  3. Pull the next ready items into the active board (or into the current iteration).
  4. Move cards as work progresses.
  5. Review Done work before closing the iteration.

Practical tips

  • Keep active work small. Long boards hide trouble.
  • Review stale items regularly. If a card has not moved in a week, ask why.
  • Move blocked items visibly (a Blocked column, a label, or a link to the blocker) instead of hiding them.
  • Use the backlog for prioritisation, not status reporting.
  • Use the board for active delivery, not long-term storage.