Want my Kanban Board Issues sorted by due date per Column

[Rich Winterstetter]

Hi all,

I have a small problem and don't want to annoy support as I feel it is probably a lack of understanding on my part, so maybe you guys can help me out.

I want to display my tasks in the Kanban Board ranked by due date (meaning, the one with the most recent due date is on top etc.) for every column.

I already tried a quick filter "ORDER BY duedate ASC" which does precisely nothing and a separate Swimlane "ORDER BY duedate ASC" which also does not rearrange the tasks.

However the quick filter "type = "all" ORDER BY duedate ASC" ranks the tasks in the desired order, but only shows tasks of a certain task-type while leaving out all other task types.

We're running a Jira Cloud version if that is important for you guys.

Anyone who can help me? I'd appreciate it a lot! Thanks in Advance

[Andy Heinzer · Accepted solution]

Jira Software boards are governed by the board filter.  This determines what issues appear and in what order.

By default Jira Software will try to always use the Rank field as a means to order these.  At the moment you can't technically rank issues by another field other than a rank type field.

BUT, you can order the issues on the board to be displayed by another field.  To do this, you would need to either edit the existing board's filter, or it might be easier to first create a new filter (such as just "Order by due date asc", then save this filter), and then create a new board based on that saved jql filter.

The major thing to note about doing this:

You won't be able to order the issues by their Rank, nor can you change the rank of issues just by dragging/dropping them on the backlog or active view.   And you won't be able to change the Due Date just by dragging and dropping the issues.

But you can still execute transitions by dragging/dropping the issues into other columns, just as you would on a board using the rank field to order the issues.

This might not be the functionality you are looking for.  If you were wanting to be able to change the Due date value just by dragging and dropping, like you would with rank on a rank ordered board, I don't think this is going to work.   With a field type like date, there are many possible values and you probably want it to be an explicit date.  Whereas the Rank field has a value, but the end user almost never needs to know what that actual value is.  Since ranking in Jira can change that value during a rebalance, it's value is really only important in relation to other issues rank values.

Is this helpful? not helpful?   Tell us more about your use case.  Maybe we can find an alternative solution here.

[Rich Winterstetter]

Thanks, that helps me out a lot. 

[Andy Heinzer]

Cool, glad to hear that helps.  Let me know if you have any follow up concerns.  If this answer solved your issue, please click the checkmark to the left of my answer to accept this answer. 

[Rhian Parker-Wicks]

Hi @Andy Heinzer , I was wondering if you would be able to confirm the JQL code for this due date filter of epics, stories and sub tasks please? Many Thanks, Rhi

[Andy Heinzer]

@Rhian Parker-Wicks I am not sure I fully understand your request here. But based on what you have provided I think it would look something like this

Project=ABC AND type in (epic, story, Sub-task) order by "Due Date" ASC

Not sure if you want to limit this to a single project or not here.  In this case, your epics would need to be in the same project, which isn't always the case.

[Rhian Parker-Wicks]

@Andy Heinzer thank you for your response, apologises if I didn't articulate myself very well I'm very much a beginner so getting use to all of the terminology. 

To answer your question I have one Jira project with a basic Kanban view of Blocked, In Progress and Done. I've started to use the due date feature and wondered if there was a filter I could use to sort issues/tasks by due date. I've just tried adding the code you suggested but it's come back with 'Not able to sort using field 'Due Date'. Any suggestions? I hope i've provided a bit more context? 

Many Thanks,

Rhian

[Andy Heinzer]

Ah, my apologies, I'm afraid I got the field name incorrect.  Which is why you likely see that error.  It should not be 'Due date', but rather just 'duedate'  For fields that do not contain spaces like this you do not need to use quotes.  Instead try this filter for the board:

Project=ABC AND type in (epic, story, Sub-task) order by duedate ASC

Andy

[Tijs Tijert]

I just tried to change my kanban board filter to be:

project = SALES AND status = Done ORDER BY "Due Date" DESC

But I get the error message: Not able to sort using field 'Due Date'.

I don't know how to get it to work.

Any ideas?

[Andy Heinzer]

Hi @Tijs Tijert,

Try using the JQL search of

project = SALES AND status = Done ORDER BY DueDate DESC

instead.  I think this is the same issue Rhian was having just above.  While the field name is listed as "Due Date" in the field configuration scheme, it seems that you can sort by this field if you simply remove the space to use 'duedate' instead in the JQL filter.

I'm not sure why this is just yet, but it seems to work.

Andy

[Tijs Tijert]

That did the trick!!! Thank you Andy!

[Beakon Support]

I have tried the same JQL search as I also want a quick filter to sort my KANBAN by due date.  I keep getting the following message.   I clear all filters, no luck

[Andy Heinzer]

@Beakon Support This won't work as a quick filter.  Instead the suggestion so far has been to create a new saved filter that orders by Due Date, and then create a new board and use that filter.  This will let those issues be sorted by the Due Date instead of the default Rank.  The thing to note about this is that you cannot reorder the issues on the board by drag and drop though like you can on a board where the filter is sorted by rank.

[Steve Smith]

I don't think this is "nonsense" either. I need this for the same reasons as stated by others.  Backlog by priority, completed by date.  What JIRA needs is Kanban templates instead of having to write complex queries.  Data goes into the table, first it is sorted by column, then objects in each column are sorted by the user selected field.  This is how it should work, and how most other software works when tables are created.  Just because it wasn't built this way doesn't make the request stupid, it's means the software wasn't design to meet these user needs that's all.  By the way, please address this, it's the natural way of working for teams.

[Tijs Tijert]

Why nonsense?

I am giving my team tasks. The tasks have a duedate and a priority.
When the tasks are "In Progress" or "Not started yet" I want them to be ordered based on priority in my kanban board. But when the task is "Done" and subsequently moves to the last column in my Kanban board I want them there to be sorted based on Date of completion.
That way mt team will likely start higher priorit tasks first and I can check completed tasks based on the order in the last column.

Not possible?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Why nonsense?  Because it does not make any sense in the real world.  Again, could you show me a list of the first five numbers from 0 that is in both alphabetic and numeric order?  Please tell me how to do that and make sense?

If you want to look at a list in two different orders, that's not a problem, but you will need two separate views - the same question, but with two different "order by" rules in the two saved searches.

A board works off one single search (it's supposed to be consistent), so you will need two boards to support the different views you want.

[Markus_COGNITIFF]

This issue has existed for years. Take a look this plugin - I think it should do what you need - https://marketplace.atlassian.com/1221621

Full disclaimer, I represent the company behind the plugin. 

[Andy Heinzer]

Hi @Markus_COGNITIFF 

Thanks for your answer here. 

However please review our Community guidelines for Marketplace vendors. While all the points of that guide are important to follow, your previous answer here specifically does not identify yourself as having a relationship with the vendor of the plugin you are recommending here.  We request that you identify yourself as a partner, particularly when you are recommending your own product as a potential solution. 

Cheers,

Andy

[Connor Gamble]

Hi @Andy Heinzer

I've changed my board to be ordered by due date as per the above, how do I then go about changing the filter to have the columns sorted by priority as a secondary step?

At the moment they're ordered like this:

1. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: Medium
2. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: Low
3. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: High

I would like them like this:

1. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: High
2. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: Medium
3. Due Date: 25th October, Priority: Low

Cheers,

Connor

[Andy Heinzer]

Hi Connor,

I think I understand what you are looking for here.  In the previous examples the JQL filter is setup to use something like this:

project = XYZ AND status = Done ORDER BY DueDate DESC

But in your case, I believe that you would need to add an additional order by element, like this:

project = XYZ AND status = Done ORDER BY DueDate DESC, priority ASC

This should first sort the issues by duedate first, and then by priority in the manner you have described here.

I hope this helps.

Andy

[Connor Gamble]

Hi Andy, 

That's exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

Connor

[Tijs Tijert]

Ok... we're slowly getting to some nifty sorting schemes. Now I would like to know if it is also possible to sort two status columns in different ways. So... status column done to be sorted based on date of completion but the column status = In Progress based on Priority. Can I do this in one filter or would I need to write a new filter for every status?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, you can't do that, columns follow the sort order of the board.

[Tijs Tijert]

Ok, so how do I write two sort orderings into one filter?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You can't, because it's nonsense.  For example, can you show me a list of the first 5 numbers from 0 ordered by their value and their name at the same time?

[Kim Letkeman]

It's actually not nonsense ... the question makes sense if filters could be written like this, but I'm betting that they cannot:

project = XYZ AND ((status = Done ORDERBY CompletionDate) OR (status != Done ORDERBY DueDate))

Does this work?

Update: Nope ... order by cannot be used as part of the query parameters ... bummer

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

They can't be written like this because you are not telling Jira what to order by.  Imagine you have 12 issues, six Done and six in other status.  You've told Jira to order half of them one way and half another, but you have not defined an order for the list itself. 

A list can only have one sort order.

There is actually a way to get close to that query though, if you have one of the automation or scripting apps.  You make the order by done on a single thing.  A derived/calculated/scripted field could easily be made to be a copy of the relevant field ("if status is done, copy completion date, else copy due-date").  Then your query can be done - project = xyz order by calculated-date