Stories added after commit not tagged with asterisk

[Scott Gillespie]

I consume data from Jira Sprint Reports to use in Confluence pages.  My understanding is that stories that are committed at sprint start have a "plain" key #, like KEY001.  Stories added after commit have a "*" suffixed to indicate this is a change, like KEY002 *.

This has been consistent across multiple teams using Jira, but lately I have seen examples where a team has added stories, but some do not have the "*" suffix.  None of the Jira users I've spoken to could explain why this would have happened.

Can someone cite examples of how this would happen, and if this is correct Jira operation or an issue with our use/setup of Jira?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Scott Gillespie 

The issue key is not changing based on adding after the sprint start.  Instead you are probably viewing a report, like the Sprint Report, which shows the changes of sprint scope.

Would you please post images of what you are seeing, including comparing the Confluence page to the Sprint Report to confirm the sprint scope actually changed?  Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bill

[Scott Gillespie]

Hi Bill--this is what we typically see with planned stories vs. added stories:

Plan (pasted from Jira Sprint Report after commit into Confluence page)

Key	Issue Type	Priority	Status	Story Points
USDLPRODKT-6243	Story	Medium	NEW	2

Changes

Key	Issue Type	Priority	Status	Story Points	Add, Change or Delete	Date of Change
USDLPRODKT-7283 *	Story	Low	PENDING	1	Add	6/15/2023

As you see above, the Key has the "*" appended as these were all added after the sprint start/commit. Now, here is an example where the "*" does not appear:

Confluence page excerpt

Key	Issue Type	Priority	Status	Story Points	Add, Change or Delete	Date of Change
USDLPRODKT-7196	Task	Low	RESOLVED	1	Add	5/30/2023
USDLPRODKT-7090 *	Story	High	RESOLVED	3	Add	5/31/2023

Jira Sprint Report excerpt

Issues Not Completed

Key	Issue Type	Priority	Status	Story Points (30 → 31)
USDLPRODKT-5739	Story	High	IN REVIEW	8
USDLPRODKT-6666	Story	Low	PENDING	3
USDLPRODKT-6986	Story	Low	PENDING	8
USDLPRODKT-7171	Story	High	IN REVIEW	8
USDLPRODKT-7187 *	Story	Low	IN REVIEW	2 → 3
USDLPRODKT-7196 *	Task	Low	NEW	1

 The one in question in this example is USDLPRODKT-7196. In Confluence, you see it doesn't have the "*", but in Jira it does.  I don't think this being a Task instead of a Story makes a difference, as there are other examples where Stories show similar behavior.

Is this enough to understand why the inconsistency with the "*" application?  It's important to us because we use Table Transformer SQL to identify changes by finding the * in the Key string.  We either need to understand how to prevent the inconsistency, change our SQL to allow for it, or use a different approach.

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for that information.  From your notes, it appears you are using this marketplace addon: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219300/sql-powered-table-transformer?hosting=server&tab=overview

I have not used that one, and could not determine from their documentation how the scope change indicator is added for the issue keys.  Please consider contacting their support team (from the marketplace page links) to ask their advice.

[Scott Gillespie]

Hi Bill...the Table Transformer macro from Stiltsoft is used in this case to compile the data within Confluence.  It doesn't influence the Jira data because that is copy/pasted from the Jira Sprint Report into a Confluence table before the macro does anything.  

All I can tell is that something has changed with our Jira setup such that some added stories don't get the "*" suffix. So far, no one I've asked in my company is aware of any changes to Jira that would cause this.

Are there any Jira settings or situations to explain?

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for clarifying, as it appears you are instead using this addon: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/27447/table-filter-and-charts-for-confluence?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

And...if you are directly copying and pasting from the sprint report then the source of the missing asterisk indicator may be before that point...

There is an open defect that the scope change only appears once on the Sprint Report and burn charts.  That is, if you added/removed an issue from a sprint once and then did it again for another sprint later, the later one(s) will not show.  Is this the case for your Jira issue?

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-20840