My Done Tasks always appear again in the backog after spring has ended

[Sandor Farkas]

Hey Community, 

Since I started using Jira Sprints, my done tasks appear again in the backlog with status done. I would expect that they got archived and I don't have to see them again in my backlog. But for some reason they appear again and again in the backlog.

I have not changed anything in the workflow or columns settings.

But I also cannot find any option to decide what should happen with the done tasks after a sprint.

Thank you for your help.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Sandor,

I suspect a couple of things. One, your Done status is blue which indicates that it has a category of In progress and not a status category of Done. You should change that. 

The other thing, most likely, is that you are not setting the Resolution field when the work item is moved to Done. Edit your work flow to add a Rule for Perform Actions. Then choose Update a work item field. Click Select.

Choose the Resolution field and then select Done for the Resolution field dropdown. 

[John Funk]

This will only affect future work items that are moved to Done. After you update the workflow and save it. You could move the work item back a step and then back into the Done column/status. That should set the Resolution, but it will most likely update the Resolved Date field to be the date when you do that and not the original date. If that is okay, then you are good to go for each of them. If you need the date to remain, that's more complicated. 

[Sandor Farkas]

Hey John, that was helpful. At least for the Done color.

I cannot even add the field called Resolution inside my settings.

[John Funk]

It is probably not under Fields as it is a System field. To populate it, you need to follow my guidance above by editing the workflow. 

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hi @Sandor Farkas ,

Can you share your board configuration/status mapping to columns?

As stated in that dialog window to complete the sprint, even if the work item is resolved and has a resolution set, Jira only hides items in statuses that are mapped to the last (rightmost) column. If your "Done" status is mapped to any other column, those items will always show up in the backlog view. 👈

Here are a couple of articles that might help:

• Troubleshoot: Resolved Issues in Jira Scrum Board Backlog 
• Done or resolved work items are shown as incomplete when closing sprints 

Side question - why is "Done" blue; meaning, why is it in the "In progress" category?

Cheers,
Tobi

[Sandor Farkas]

Here, this is How I have left it from the beginning.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Thanks for sharing the screenshot @Sandor Farkas !

One more question - we're here talking about team-managed space, correct?

So, I did create the same setup as you have (assuming it's a team-managed space), and then I tried to close the sprint to see what would happen:

And yes - you're correct. These in "Done" status will appear in the backlog after completing a sprint:

To follow up on that, I did an additional check and here's the conclusion:

• If a work item has a Resolution set and is still in "Done" status (blue), it will not re-appear in the backlog 👈

I'd recommend checking these articles:

• Best practices on using the "Resolution" field in Jira Cloud 
• Workflows and statuses for boards (first part of the article)

Now, team-managed spaces work a bit differently in a way that you cannot 'set' Resolution via workflow (only via automation), and this field value is set as soon as the work item reaches green status. It will always be set to "Done" (the green checkmark and the text in the image below).

The simplest solution here would be to change the status category in the workflow to "Done" and that will resolve things for current and future items.

As for past items, as John said, you can go with a manual transition from and back to "Done" status (once you convert it to green), or you could build automation that would set Resolution value on those items in case it is empty. 💡

[Sandor Farkas]

it was enough to mark the done status to done category. No idea why this was not the case in my project. It should be the case by default I guess. 

Thank you everyone! 

[Hartik]

This happens when Jira doesn’t consider the issue truly finished.

On a Scrum board, items only disappear from the backlog if their status is mapped to the last column on the board and that status is in the Done category. If your “Done” status is mapped to any earlier column, Jira will keep showing it in the backlog even after the sprint ends.

Also check the Resolution field. When an issue moves to Done, the Resolution must be set. If it stays empty, Jira treats the issue as incomplete and brings it back.

Open Board settings → Columns, make sure Done is the rightmost column, and confirm your workflow sets a Resolution when moving to Done.

[Calvin]

What is your "Resolution" field when it goes into that last status? Is it being set to a value or is it empty?

[Sandor Farkas]

[Sandor Farkas]

It seems like my project has no resolution field? :o