Can global rank be removed once an issue is resolved?

Question

It stands to reason that the no1 issue for our business should be ranked no1 - however, it's currently ranked 1059, due to all completed issues still retinaing a 'rank'.

I don't understand the logic of a completed issue still having a rank - it's like Bjorn Borg still being the no1 ranked tennis player in the world, even though he retired 20 years ago..!

Is there a way the ranking can be removed as issues are resolved?  Cheers.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

No, sorry, that's me thinking through the implications.  "Closed issues should not be ranked" is not quite the same as "I don't want to rank a closed issue".  However, it ends up the same when you go through the process.  The fact you want to strip rank off the issues means the same thing whenever you look at the data - a load of issues with ranks, and a load you don't want to rank (because they're closed)

There is a point here - the rank is not really for humans, but some want to see it.  It's useful to be able to drop it on to the issue navigator so that you can click-to-sort.   It might be needed in export data.  So you want it available.  With two points though

1) it's not displayed anywhere by default - you have to choose to add it

2) It's well worth having this conversation with your users, so they understand that the number is valueless, other than for placing an issue between the one above and the one below it!

unknown · Answer

perhaps we see rank as a number because it is a number and is displayed by default.  again, understand what you're saying and can also see how deep into these systems you are.  so, i respect that.

However, not sure where I've written "I don't want to rank a closed issue" - it's actually the opposite of my question. I've said - "closed issues should not be ranked".

I think I'd still stand by this statement, point being, if rank is not for humans (i.e. an algorithm of sorts), why display it?

Thanks again, Nic - just trying to clarify my understanding and use Jira effectively.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Well, sort of - you're still seeing rank as a number, rather than a relation.  That's not what it's for, it's really not supposed to be a number.  The numeric values should generally be ignored because they're not for humans.

Even if you forced Jira to clear the value, it still wouldn't have a simple 1/2/3 counter value for open ones, because it's information that "this issue is above this one and below that one when you list them together".  The physical number itself is not really of any use to the users because it's a way of representing relationships and not information in its own right - the value has a context.

The point about closed/resolved ones is just the way you want to work, but the "I don't want to rank a closed issue" is pretty pointless - you'd need to do a load of work to un-rank it, you lose potentially useful information about it's relative importance, and you gain absolutely no benefit from removing the rank because the number alone is not useful.