TL;DR
Custom fields, statuses, and dependencies allow you to tailor Craft.io to your workflow. Together, they help you capture the right context, reflect how work moves from idea to delivery, and understand how items relate to one another, without changing your core backlog structure.
Why customization matters
No two teams work in exactly the same way. While Craft.io provides a strong default structure, most teams need to adapt it to match their workflow. Once your backlog is structured and easy to organize, the next step is making it operational.
Custom fields capture the information you need to evaluate and prioritize work
Statuses show where work is in its lifecycle
Dependencies highlight sequencing, risk, and coordination needs
Used together, these tools allow Craft.io to reflect not just what work exists, but how it moves through your organization.
Using custom fields to add planning context
Custom fields let you capture information that matters for planning, prioritization, and reporting, beyond Craft.io’s default fields.
Teams commonly use custom fields to:
Capture Priority, Value, Risk, or Confidence
Indicate ownership or accountability
Categorize work by Theme, Segment, or Region
Support scoring or prioritization frameworks
Define custom timeframes outside of the default Release and Sprint field
💡 Tip: Use a range of field types, including numeric, selection, and formula fields rather than relying on a single generic priority field.
Custom fields work best when they are intentionally aligned to how you operate your backlog. They're designed to support decisions, not to capture everything.
For example, apply high-level criteria such as Value or Risk only to Epics, and align planning or delivery fields to only Features and/or Stories. This keeps backlog refinement fast while still providing structure where it is most valuable and relevant.
💡Tip: When working with a Portfolio, use Portfolio-level fields for information that needs to be comparable across product areas, and Workspace-level fields for team-specific context. This helps balance governance with team flexibility.
Customizing statuses to reflect your workflow
Statuses represent how work moves through its lifecycle in Craft.io, from early planning through delivery and completion.
The Status field in Craft.io is workspace-wide and item-based, meaning all Epics, Features, and Stories follow the same core workflow. This provides consistent, cross-team visibility into progress.
Defining your workflow
Craft.io provides a default status workflow, but most teams customize it to reflect how work actually progresses in their organization. You can:
Rename statuses to match your internal language
Reorder statuses to reflect your workflow
Adjust colors for visual clarity
Statuses are grouped into status categories, which represent broader phases of work. By default, Craft.io uses:
Open
In Progress
Done
💡 Tip: Statuses are defined per Workspace, and managed via your Settings. You can define multiple statuses within each category. For example, In Design and Development in Progress may both sit under the In Progress category.
Using statuses day to day
Statuses are visible and editable across all Craft.io views, including Table, Kanban, Swimlanes, and Timeline. By default, completed items are hidden from most views to keep the focus on active work, but you can include them at any time by amending your Status filter.
Statuses are also used to calculate progress automatically:
An item’s progress is based on the completion of its child items, whether they live in only Craft.io or are linked to a development tool
Grouped progress, such as by Quarter or Timeframe, is calculated based on completed items
This enables consistent progress tracking without manual reporting.
💡Tip: Status automations from a development tool such as Jira or Azure DevOps can also be configured to ensure that progress is effectively reflected in Craft.io. For example, when a Jira issue moves to Done, the corresponding Craft.io item can automatically move to a status such as Development Complete.
Modeling dependencies between items
Dependencies describe how work items relate to one another. They are commonly used to:
Indicate that one item cannot start until another is completed
Highlight sequencing or delivery risk
Support cross-team coordination
Dependencies are most effective when used intentionally. Focus on dependencies that affect planning, delivery, or prioritization decisions, rather than capturing every possible relationship.
In Craft.io, dependencies help teams understand the impact of changes or delays without duplicating work or maintaining separate tracking systems.
