# Build a board for types that never reach a backlog

Support requests, customer feedback, impediments and risks are real work with
real states: *Kestrel Logistics: claim 2026-04417 stuck after adjuster
upload*, *Brokers find the flood exclusion wording ambiguous*, *Sanctions list
refresh depends on one unmonitored scheduled job*. None of these types sit on a
backlog level, so Azure Boards has nowhere to put them and they are managed in
a query result or a spreadsheet.

This is the short version. [A board for types that never reach a
backlog](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-types-outside-the-backlog/) covers the state-model mismatches and
the service-level styling in full.

## Before you start

Pick the type whose flow the board is meant to show. That one type supplies the
columns; the others ride along and are placed by state name.

## Steps

1. Save a **Flat list of work items** query over the types you want together.
   For the demo support desk, Claims Platform with
   `[System.WorkItemType] IN ('Support Request', 'Feedback', 'Impediment')`,
   with no `ORDER BY` or sorted ascending by the order field the type
   derives: Stack Rank for Support Request in the demo, which does not carry
   Backlog Priority, the order field of its Scrum-derived process.
2. Open **Boards → AnyKanban** and select **New board**, then **Use existing
   query** in the gallery that opens.
3. Name it, pick the query under **Backing query (flat list, or a tree of work items)**, and pick **Support Request** under **Work item type**.
4. Select **Create**, then open the board from the list.
5. Optional, and usually worth it: open **Settings → Swimlanes**, put
   `System.WorkItemType` in **Lane field (single-select, empty means off)**,
   leave the named lanes above it empty, and **Save**. The board renders one row
   per type.

## What you should see

Six columns, New, Triage, In Progress, Waiting on customer, In Review and Done,
which are the Support Request type's own states in category order. *Waiting on customer*
is a column because this organization added that state; *Rejected* is not,
because it belongs to the Removed category.

A warning card says that some cards have work item types whose states do not
match the columns for Support Request, and lists the states that put them in
Unmapped. With the three types above that is *Open* alone; the demo board in the
picture also carries risks and test cases, and the test cases add Closed,
Design and Ready to the list. Most items sit in ordinary columns anyway, because
they share the vocabulary: *Adjusters ask for the damage photos before the
policy summary* is a
Feedback item in Triage and goes to Triage. The two impediments are the ones in
*Open*, so they collect in **Unmapped** at the right. Had every foreign-type item
shared the vocabulary, there would be no Unmapped column and no warning card.

![Swimlanes by type: the Feedback and Impediment lanes across the Support Request columns, below the warning card](https://anykanban.com/docs/_img/swimlanes-by-type.png)

## Notes

**Unmapped** is a diagnosis, not a workspace: you cannot drop a card onto it,
but you can drag a card out of it into a real column, which writes that state,
and the server decides whether the item's own type accepts it.

With swimlanes on, two affordances step aside: the **New item** button on the
first column is not rendered at all, and a WIP limit can no longer be edited by
clicking the column header count. Set it on the **Columns** tab of **Settings**
instead. Both come back if you clear the lane field.

## Related

- [A board for types that never reach a backlog](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-types-outside-the-backlog/): the full guide
- [Create a named board](https://anykanban.com/docs/get-a-board/create-a-named-board/)
- [Build a board across several projects](https://anykanban.com/docs/get-a-board/board-across-several-projects/)
- [Build a board for bugs when bugs are tasks](https://anykanban.com/docs/get-a-board/board-for-bugs-as-tasks/)