Sub-tasks prevent sprint closure despite being in a final state

[Tim Snyder]

We have a workflow for sub-tasks that include TWO final states - i.e. complete, and not-doing. Not-doing was established for sub-tasks initially created but later determined to be unnecessary. Both are indeed final (aka done) states (they show as green in the workflow editor). We have this as a form of soft-delete so as to avoid hard-deletion. 

Problem is that when it comes time to close the sprint, Jira objects, claiming there are unfinished issues - those sub-tasks that are in a state of not-doing. If I hard delete them then Jira lets me close the sprint. 

Yes, I've double checked that these are indeed final (aka done) states in the workflow.

Any ideas on what might be going wrong here?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Tim - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Make sure the Not-doing status is in the far right (last) column (same for Completed). 

[Tim Snyder]

Hi John, thanks for your reply. Indeed, I found a reference to this problem - the final states need to be mapped to a column on the board - in another thread. 

I must say, I find this arbitrary and disappointing. I intentionally did not map Not Doing to a column because I didn't want them showing on the board and obscuring our view of the important stuff - i.e. the ones we are doing. Also, There can be multiple columns representing final states. I suspect there is nothing magic about the right most column. It could probably be any column, as long as it is mapped. Again, I find it disappointing the Atlassian has tied sprint-closure to something as arbitrary as a board display mapping, instead of something concrete and meaningful like a final state. 

Hopefully they will address this one day. In the mean time I will work around it by mapping Not-Doing items to a column on the board, and then getting rid of them by filtering them out with the board's filter. 

Thanks again for your quick reply. cheers,

[John Funk]

This has been in place for a very long time, and I don't see it changing anytime soon. If this is a Company-managed project, you can configure the board and add some JQL to the Sub-filter on the bottom of the General tab to exclude issues in that Status. So when an issue is moved to that status, it will disappear from the board.