Is there a way to sort on ascending order on sprint board based on summary?

[Rita Arellano]

Hi Jira Community, 

How can I sort on ascending order on sprint board based on summary? I have updated my filter and it works fine when I query it, but for some reason it does not work or have no effect when I use this query on my filter. Anyone found a way to sort on ascending order on sprint board?

This is the query that works on search, but not on sprint board:

project = "ABC" AND component = xyz ORDER BY summary ASC

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Rita Arellano 

Issues on a sprint board need to be ordered by Rank to enable you to use the drag-and-drop feature to prioritize the work in the backlog. If you change the board's filter to use any other ordering, you lose the ability to prioritize the issues in the Backlog and on the board.

It also is not possible to use quick filters on a board to temporarily change the ordering of issues. The ordering will be set and locked by the ORDER BY clause of the board's filter.

[Rita Arellano]

By ranking on the backlog you mean by selecting the priority of an issue? 

[Trudy Claspill]

No, Rank and Priority are different fields in Jira issues.

Priority is a field that you can set through the UI. It has a limited number of possible values in a selection list, such as High, Medium, and Low. Multiple issues can have the same Priority value.

Rank is set automatically and the Rank of one issue is relative to other issues. This is not a value you set directly by editing a field. The Rank of an issue is set through Backlog and Board screens by grabbing an issue and dragging it to a different position with a list of issues. The issues higher on the list have a higher "Rank" and should be handled before issues lower on the list.

[Rita Arellano]

So you are saying issues higher on the list have a higher rank.... so the top issues rank higher than the ones below it? Is there a way to see the rank or is this happening behind the scenes? 

[Trudy Claspill]

Correct; issues higher on the list rank higher than the ones below it.

Rank tracking is happening behind the scenes. Rank is a global setting so it has to take into consideration all the issues. The actually value stored for Rank has no meaning for a person viewing it; it is not a simple number. If you want to see the ranking of issues I would advise you to use the Advanced Issue Search screen to filter for the issues you care about and use an ORDER BY Rank DESC clause.

More information about Ranking can be found here:

https://www.jirastrategy.com/questions/how-does-jira-issue-ranking-work

https://tmcalm.nl/blog/lexorank-jira-ranking-system-explained/