What is the criteria that dictates / reflects the order of Epics in the backlog?

[Lewis Kite]

I am trying to create a Gadget on a Dashboard that echos out the Epics as they appear in the backlog, i.e. this

follows this

I can create a filter to use in the gadget e.g.

`type = Epic ORDER BY rank asc`

But the order is not the same.

Is there a value that represents the priority order of those Epics that I can order by in my jql?

Or is there another way of having the gadget reflect the order of the Epics in the backlog? Obviously it should track as we drag Epics about to reprioritise.

Many thanks for any pointers.

Lewis Kite

[Sunny Ape]

Hello @Lewis Kite 

Essentially speaking, you can't replicate the ranking of Issues (in your case, Epics) in the backlog in a gadget. Well, I'm fibbing a bit; you could, but it's so extraordinarily hard as to be pointless!!

This is because the rank of any particular issue in the backlog in relation to any other issue is stored in a relative alphanumeric value. This alphanumeric is re-indexed for every single issue every single time someone moves an issue up or down in the backlog. That constantly changing rank value is not 'just available' elsewhere for things like gadgets to reference, you'd have to constantly look it up via the REST API, then re-apply it through the gadget... which is so convoluted as to be pointless.

Refer to this thread for more history on this very ancient topic, or just Google "jira cloud rest api backlog rank" to see just how far back the topic stretches.

[Lewis Kite]

Thanks David, that's very helpful.

Can you think of another way of showing the prioritised Epics in a dashboard or something else? What I'm trying to do is give ppl visibility of how Epics are being prioritised without giving ppl access to the backlog, I just want the simplified list of Epics.

Thanks bud, appreciate your help.

L.

[Sunny Ape]

Hello @Lewis Kite 

Since I posted that response, I thought about it some more and realised that the Rank field does work with a JQL filter, so then a Filter Gadget should be able to show the Epics, ordered by the same Rank as they appear on the Backlog.

I did a quick test to confirm, and it works fine:

If I change the ranking of the Epics in the Backlog then refresh the Dashboard Gadget, the ranking of the Epics in the Gadget perfectly matches the Backlog view.

So, there must be some other factor at play why the JQL in your Filter Gadget isn't properly sorting the Epics by Rank. Maybe the Gadget was not set to refresh every 15 mins or you didn't do a manual refresh?

[Lewis Kite]

Hmm, interesting. There definitely seems to be something else going on because it doesn't even work at a jql level for me

There is some correlation but, you can see 
* getresponse: core

* getresponse: basket

* reconcilliation

* gdpr

but why are

* portfolio homepage

* infrastructure migration

* azure SSO

injected in positions 1, 2 & 3

This patterns continues down the 40 epics, 2 or 3 correct and then some random ones injected.

This doesn't change with refreshing or dragging them about to force it to adjust etc. Very odd.

[Sunny Ape]

but why are <snip> injected in positions 1, 2 & 3?

Well, that's an easy one. The Epics visible in the Backlog are the ones that are not Done,

Your Issue filter is showing all the Done ones too, so your JQL will need to exclude them with "status != Done" or "status not in (Done, <whatever_else>)"

[Lewis Kite]

aha! amazing, thanks David!