Include issues outside sprint on Scrum board

[Markus Pilenvik]

In my team, some team members occasionally get assigned to urgent tasks outside of the team, which aren't always known in advance and therefore they can't be planned for in a sprint. However we still want such issues to be shown on the Scrum board, ultimately as an Expedite swimlane or so. But, how do I achieve this? I have changed the filter query for the board to "project = MyTeamsProject OR (project = ExternalProject AND labels = "my-team")" but no new issues appear in the Scrum board. Help?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Markus Pilenvik 

The only issues that will display on a Scrum board (on the board view) are issues that are assigned to an Active Sprint and within the scope of the board's filter.

If those issues don't match both of those conditions, then you cannot display them in a Scrum board.

You must assign those unplanned issues to your Active Sprint to get them to show on the board view.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Markus Pilenvik 

Yes, and...to Trudy's answer:

What you describe is fairly common for Scrum teams who also have production support responsibilities.  Visibility is key for the added items.

As Trudy describes, consider adding these issues to the sprint, including a label or priority value to reflect their urgency.  And then use swim lanes or card colors (on JQL) to make them visible to all on the Jira board.  This will help during the Daily Scrum (i.e., standup) and when the sprint is completing for the team to describe / analyze those added-scope items at the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective discussions.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Markus Pilenvik]

Thank you both for good answers! Including these issues to the sprint sounds like the most pragmatic way forward. Of course it's not by the book (where the book would be the Scrum guide) but we're obviously not strictly following Scrum anyway :)