Collection Flow: How to Manage Work Hand-offs Across Teams, Programs and Portfolios

Collection Flow helps teams, programs and portfolios coordinate work that crosses organizational boundaries.

One team, program or portfolio can send an item to another as a visible request. In Kendis, these organizational areas are represented by Collections. The receiving group can review the request, accept or decline it, and both sides can then follow the hand-off through a shared set of stages.

The item itself is never copied. It remains the same Jira issue, Azure DevOps work item, or Kendis item. Collection Flow tracks the relationship between the groups involved, the current stage, and the actions taken during the hand-off.

Collection Flow is designed for situations where work needs to move between teams, programs, portfolio areas or other parts of the organization.

For example, imagine the Payments program needs the Data Platform team to build an export.

The provider keeps the item in its own Backlog throughout the process. The receiver only gets the item in its Backlog after the hand-off reaches the acceptance stage.

Collection Flow is part of the Backlog, so all work starts from a collection's Backlog page.

A few rules apply:

Every company has a default flow called Standard Handoff.

If two collections do not have a specific relationship configured, Kendis uses this default flow.

Company admins can create additional flows and assign them to specific collection pairs.

Open a collection's Backlog and click Flow in the toolbar. The number on the Flow button shows how many items in the collection are currently involved in incoming or outgoing hand-offs. When Flow mode is on:

To include items with no hand-offs, enable Internal in the Flow filters.

Click Flow again to return to the normal Backlog view. Flow is not available while viewing archived items.

The Flow toolbar gives you access to incoming requests, grouping, filters, and flow settings.

Incoming opens the inbox for requests other collections have sent to this collection. The count shows how many pending requests are waiting for a decision.

You can group Flow items by:

You can also add a second grouping level, such as By stage, then by collection.

Use the Flow filters to show:

Normal Backlog search and filtering continue to work together with Flow filters.

Manage flows opens the company flow configuration. Everyone can view the configuration. Only company admins can change flows or relationships.

Flow information appears directly in the Backlog when Flow mode is active.

The Flow column shows how many hand-offs are incoming and outgoing for each item. For example:

Click either count to open the item's hand-off details.

Items involved in a hand-off show a small incoming or outgoing indicator next to the item key. Click the indicator to open or close the hand-off details.

Opening an item shows its hand-offs beneath the row. The details are separated into:

Each hand-off shows:

Depending on the hand-off, you may see Accept, Decline, Retract, or a stage selector.

You can also add the following columns from Columns:

These are useful when you want Flow information visible without opening each row.

You can feed one item or several items at once.

You can also use the Flow control in the optional Flow column.

Kendis only offers target Collections that:

If the item is already involved with a target Collection, Kendis shows whether it is already fed or already a member.

After feeding an item:

Only the selected item is fed. Its children are not sent as separate requests. If the receiver later accepts the item, its child items appear beneath it in the receiver's backlog.

Open Incoming from the Flow toolbar. The inbox lists requests waiting for this collection to respond.

Each request shows:

You can accept or decline individual requests, or use Accept all when several requests are pending.

When you accept:

If the item had previously been removed or excluded from the collection, accepting restores it.

When you decline:

A declined hand-off cannot move to another stage, but the provider can feed the item again later as a new request. Once a hand-off has been accepted, it can no longer be declined.

Open the hand-off details and use the stage selector. Each stage is controlled by:

You can only select stages your side controls. Stages controlled by the other side remain visible, but are not selectable. A hand-off can move forward or backward between stages your side owns, with one important restriction: once the hand-off has reached the acceptance stage, it cannot move back to a stage before acceptance. Every stage change records who made the change and when. If someone else updates the hand-off at the same time, Kendis asks you to refresh before trying again.

The sending team, program or portfolio area can retract a request before it has been accepted.

The request disappears from the receiver's inbox, while the item remains in the provider's backlog. An accepted hand-off cannot be retracted.

Flow grouping replaces normal Backlog grouping while Flow mode is active. You can group by:

You can add a second grouping level, for example:

By stage, then by collection

If one item has several hand-offs, it can appear in more than one group. This ensures that every relationship remains visible. Flow filters can be combined with normal Backlog search and filters.

Company admins can create and manage reusable flows from Manage flows.

The Flow library lists every configured flow and its stages. Each stage has:

Exactly one stage in each flow must be the acceptance stage.

Flows that are already in use have safeguards. You can safely rename stages or change their colours. Kendis prevents changes that would invalidate active hand-offs, such as removing a stage that is currently in use or moving the acceptance stage in a way that would change the meaning of existing requests. A flow cannot be deleted while it is being used by an active hand-off or assigned to a relationship.

Relationships define which flow is used between two Kendis Collections. Those Collections may represent teams, programs, portfolio areas or other organizational units. For example:

Payments → Data Platform → Service Request

Relationships are directional. Payments to Data Platform and Data Platform to Payments can use different flows. If no relationship is configured, Kendis uses the default flow. Changing a relationship only affects new hand-offs. Existing hand-offs continue with the flow they started with.

Accepted and declined hand-offs otherwise remain on record.

: Flow only works between collections that use the same item hierarchy and the same ALM. If no compatible collection exists, there is nowhere to feed the item.

Possible reasons include:

The stage is controlled by the other side.

You can see the stage, but only the collection that owns it can select it.

An accepted hand-off cannot be declined or moved back before the acceptance stage. If the item should no longer be in the receiver's backlog, remove it from the collection. The hand-off remains on record as accepted.

Flow is disabled while you are viewing archived items. Return to the normal Backlog view and try again.

No. Collection Flow tracks the hand-off in Kendis. It does not write hand-off information back to Jira or Azure DevOps.

The item has more than one hand-off. Kendis shows it in each matching group so that every hand-off remains visible.