How do you sanity-check a Jira board before changing its filter?

Julien Morel_fbmylg

When I touch a Jira board filter, I try to slow down for a few minutes first because a small JQL change can make work disappear from a team's daily view.

 

My usual checks are:

 

1. Save the current filter JQL somewhere before changing it.

2. Run the proposed JQL in issue search and compare the issue count.

3. Check whether the board has quick filters, swimlanes, or sub-filter behavior that might hide work.

4. Confirm the statuses still map cleanly to columns.

5. Ask one person who uses the board every day what they expect to see before saving.

 

Curious how others do this. Do you have a small pre-change checklist for board filters, or do you rely on testing in issue search?

Josh McManus_p3gb83

When doing filter comparisons, I find that running a "diff filter" can be very valuable, especially when you're dealing with mission-critical visibility.

JQL: filter = "original filter name" AND filter != "new filter name"

This will show you any issues that you will be removing with your new filter, and you can flip the operators to see what issues will be showing up in your new filter that weren't in your original filter!