Unable to clear done items in kanban software project even as an admin

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

I am an administrator on Jira Software project, however I do not have the option to manually clear items in the done column of a kandban. I only get "set column limit" and "delete". I need to be able to clear these items, how do I do this?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Eléonore Dixon-Roche 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

What type of project are you using? Get that information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu. Look at the Type column.

Can you provide a screen image that shows us what you see for options?

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

Hiya, 

I'm using a team-managed software, and a then the Kanban board in the Board section. I have other boards where I can clear the column but this is the only board where I cannot.

Thanks! 

Project type from the view all projects menu

Options on the done column

[Trudy Claspill]

I've been trying to recreate your issue.

I saw only those options when I had a scrum board instead of a kanban board, but I haven't been able to recreate that on a Kanban board yet.

Can you double check that there is not a Complete Sprint button in the upper right corner of the board (indicating it is a scrum board)?

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

Oh my gosh there is... and it's not on other boards I have. Is this a setting that I can change and/or if select "Complete Sprint" does that just clear the Done items? Thanks so much for helping! 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Eleonore,

Are you familiar with Scrum vs. Kanban agile methodologies? 

With Kanban you are working against a steady stream of prioritized incoming work. With the Kanban boards you can use the Clear Done Issues option to clear the done column.

With Scrum you create a time-boxed Sprint and add to the sprint only the work that you are committing to completing within that time period. At the end of the time-box you specified, you use the "Complete sprint" button to tell Jira you are officially ending the sprint. Jira will pop up a message telling you how many issues were completed and how many were not. It will ask you what you want to do with the incomplete issues - put them back into the backlog or add them to another sprint.

With the Scrum methodology you keep making time-boxed sprints, adding work to them, completing the work and closing the sprints.

So, the question you need to first answer is do you want to be using the Kanban methodology or the Scrum methodology for this project?

For a Team Managed project you can switch between them by disabling or enabling the Sprints option under Project Settings / Features. When the option is disabled the board works in the Kanban manner. When the option is enabled the board works in the Scrum manner.

If you want to change to Kanban for this board, change the Sprints option. Then you will get the Clear Issues option in the Done column.

If you want to keep working in the Scrum manner, then you will need to use the Complete Sprint button to end the sprint and clear the Done column. Then you will need to keep making new sprints, adding work to them, starting the sprints to show the cards on the board, and completing the sprints to clear the Done column.

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

Hi Trudy,

This is incredibly helpful. Familiar with both methodologies, just inherited this board yesterday and didn't know how to flip between the two.

Good to go now, thanks again!

Eléonore

[Trudy Claspill]

That flipping is possible only in Team Managed projects. For Company Managed projects you simply have to create another board.

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

Oh my gosh there is... and it's not on other boards I have. Is this a setting that I can change and/or if select "Complete Sprint" does that just clear the Done items? Thanks so much for helping! 

[Dick]

I'm guessing you're using a Kanban board. Try doing a release. 

The Kanban board sub-filter (go to Board Configuration - General to see it)  filters-out the released jira issues: 

Kanban board sub-filter:    fixVersion in unreleasedVersions() OR fixVersion is EMPTY

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

I tried this and this is not quite what I was looking for. Trudy below found the issue, there's a "Complete Sprint" button which I don't have on my other boards.

[Dick]

Ah ,so you were secretly doing scrum on a Kanban board. :D
The two really differ in their approach. And although Jira can let you mix and match these two, Atlassian really has put some thought into them. 

[Eléonore Dixon-Roche]

I inherited the board the day before posting this and honestly had no idea how to flip between the two. Such a simple answer and good to know going forward.