By default, the center pane lists work items sorted by priority in descending order for a specific release or sprint.

If you have the proper access rights, you can manually change this default ordering and rearrange work items using the drag-and-drop operation. However, it is important to note that if you alter the ordering this way, the new manual item order will be attached to the containing release, and you cannot return to the automatic priority-based method.

In addition, you can use the work item context menu.

Use Send to top and Send to bottom, to move the work item to the beginning or the end of its list, respectively. The work item context menu also includes other similar options.

With Send to top and Send to bottom, you are not changing the target (sub)release but move the work item to the beginning or to the end of its list, respectively. There are a few similar options, which offer different amount of movement in these directions.

If you have a filtered set of work items listed and you try to reorder them, each item will remember the item you drop it after. For example, if you have an unfiltered list of items A, B, C, D . Now if you some way filter them down to A, B, D, then drop D after A, then drop it back after B, you will get the illusion that you maintained the original order. That is not true, if you remove the filtering to see all the items, the new order will be A, B, D, C.