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Multiple backlogs to file against


Caroline Smith (4611923) | asked Feb 22 '13, 10:51 a.m.
 Hi, 

I am trying to tidy up our project in RTC and I want to create a new backlog to move pre 2013 stories into.  The reason for this that in January we moved to using Kanban and we want to move all our old stories and tasks into a new backlog so that we can have a properly ranked backlog for our current work.  We have thousands of work items and this is really slowing down opening the backlog.

I have created a new category called Pre 2013 and when I click on work items and select "Change Filed Against" I can change this but I cannot find how to navigate to this category or how to map it to a backlog plan.

If anybody could point me in the right direction of instructions of how to do this it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks
Caroline

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Caroline Smith commented Feb 22 '13, 10:55 a.m.

Just to clarity, what I am trying to do is to move a couple of hundred work items from one backlog plan to another.


I am also looking for an easy way to do this in the future on an ad hoc basis.   I thought the "filed against" filed specified the backlog that the work item resided in but maybe I am wrong.

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sam detweiler (12.5k6195201) | answered Feb 25 '13, 8:49 a.m.
edited Feb 25 '13, 8:52 a.m.
so you have iterations like this
Timeline
Product  (not in any year cycle)
Year 1
quarter 1
sprint q1-s1
sprint q1-s2
sprint q1-s3
quarter 2
sprint q2-s1
sprint q2-s2
sprint q2-s3
Year 2

and then you have Plans for each
for Product - Product backlog
for year 1 - Release backlog
for quarter 1 plan  - Release Backlog
for q1-s1 you have a sprint backlog (execution items selected)
for q1-s2 the same
for q1-s3 the same
for quarter 2 plan  - Release Backlog
for q2-s1 you have a sprint backlog (execution items selected)
for q2-s2 the same
for q2-s3 the same

so to move workitems from one iteration to another  you change their Iteration Planned
move from q1-s2 to q2-s1, change the iteration planned. as there is a plan over each,  this should move them
as appropriate q1 is a release backlog plan
etc.

so you have plans that cover each iteration.

now, the easiest way is to use eclipse, cause you can do a couple hundred at once.
create a query that shows workitems by iteration, and pick just the iteration of concern. (note that if you have multiple 'plans' covering the same iteration this gets harder. )
edit the query results to show the workitem Iteration Planned attribute

then select all the workitems you want to move,  right click on the Iteration planned column of the query results panel, and select change Planned Iteration, then select the new iteration from the list presented..
if you have multiple plans per iteration time period, this is ok, I think as you said 'backlog', which is outside those..

but if you  meant to one of the overlapping plans in the same iteration by team, then you will have to use drag/drop in eclipse to make that work, OR once the iteration is changed, also change the category/filed against, which is the TEAM (people) owner.  (which matches your plan definitions, work(items), over time(iteration) by people (team))
Caroline Smith selected this answer as the correct answer

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Kevin Ramer (4.5k8183200) | answered Feb 22 '13, 4:49 p.m.
I think you'd need to changed Planned For attribute.   Using the RTC client it is possible to do bulk changes on work item attributes (if you have the authority )



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Caroline Smith commented Feb 25 '13, 5:51 a.m.

When I change planned for it doesn't allow me to move items to a different backlog, this only allows me to change the iteration that they are planned for.  I want a way to move items from one backlog to another inside the same project. 


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sam detweiler (12.5k6195201) | answered Feb 25 '13, 8:18 a.m.
Hm.. I posted an answer here but it doesn't show.

You need an iteration labeled as  the appropriate backlog,
then run a query that shows the Iteration planned column (I am using Eclipse for this).

select the workitems to move, right click on the iteration planned column, and select Change Iteration Planned,
pick the iteration with the backlog as its container.

Comments
Caroline Smith commented Feb 25 '13, 8:26 a.m.

Thanks for the reply.  I apologies in advance if I need this explained in baby language but I have tried everyting I can think of and I cannot seem to get these work items to actually move out of this backlog.

So if I create a new plan under the same project, create a backlog in there and an iteration under it then what should I do. I have a large feature with a couple of hundred use cases, stories and tasks under it and they all need to be moved as it to another backlog.  It takes so long for our backlog to open with all of this old stuff.

I really dont understand how the categories fit into the bigger picture. 


Ralph Schoon commented Feb 25 '13, 10:56 a.m. | edited Feb 25 '13, 10:57 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

Hi Caroline, I tried to describe the fundamentals here: https://jazz.net/library/article/589 maybe it helps you to better understand how things work together.


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Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035) | answered Feb 25 '13, 10:16 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
You will want to model a "backlog" as an iteration, not as a category.   So if you want an extra backlog, create a new iteration.   Then to assign a work item to a different backlog, change the "planned for" field of the work item to the iteration for that backlog.  

To bulk move a set of work items from one backlog to another, one approach is to open up a plan for the old backlog (a plan whose iteration is set to be the iteration of the old backlog), multi-select the work items you want to move to the new backlog, and change their planned-for property to be the iteration of the new backlog.

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