How do I make issues visible on a Kanban board?

Bridgette Wilson March 31, 2014

I have one Project set up. In this one project, I have two boards (one board for each team). One team does development work and will use a scrum board and one team does maintenance and that will use a Kanban board. How do I make issues for the maintenance team visible on the Kanban board? Right now, when I create an issue, it shows up in the backlog of scrum board for the development team.

4 answers

30 votes
Svante Gustafsson Björkegren
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April 2, 2014

Hi Bridgette,

If your issues show up in the issue navigator when using the same filter there are three things that could potentially hide them in the board:

  • Quick filter - make sure you have no enabled quick filters in the board
  • Column configuration - If there are unmapped workflow steps in your board. This does not seem to be the problem in your case, so ...
  • The Board Sub-filter is hiding the issues. The subfilter (found at the bottom of the Board/Configuration) is an extra filter that you can apply within the board. It is normally used to hide issues that are released to a FixVersion. It looks something like "fixversion in unreleasedversion() OR fixversion is EMPTY" If you have issues beloning to a released fixversion they will be eclipsed by this default sub-filter. Try to remove the sub-filter and see if your issues re-appear.

If that is the case and you don't work with the release functionality in JIRA you can leave the sub-filter empty. You can read more about this here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/x/jYRPFw

Cheers,

// Svante

rossmcf July 28, 2014

Oof.

I had the same issue. The subfilter solved it, but that is a sneaky one!

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Joshua Wold January 5, 2015

Thanks this helped me.

Jason Schmitt February 9, 2016

subfilter got me too. cool feature but very sneaky.

Like Zack Walsh likes this
Pim van der Zwet June 5, 2016

I found another configuration that hides issues. My query searches for all epics in the project. When the swimlanes are set to epic also, nothing is shown. Setting the swimlanes to "no swimlanes" showed all the epics.

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BillyP
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May 3, 2017

Yeah, this got me too!  I just checked, rechecked and double checked everything.  My problem was the swim lanes.  Sorting by a different level hid the ticket I was looking for.  Once that was aligned, it all worked out!

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marienke August 7, 2017

SUB FILTER ..... Very sneaky JIRA! Thanks for this answer, though. Saved me!

Like Heather R likes this
Christophe HOAREAU January 28, 2018

The sub-filter got me too. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Like Shantanu Santra likes this
Deepali Bagul March 22, 2018

I removed the sub-filter and it worked. Thankyou so much!

Laura Ramos Rodriguez May 8, 2018

Same issue with the sub-filter . Thanks

Tom Utterback September 13, 2018

Like everyone else, your answer saved me, thanks.

Liam Maeder October 10, 2018

Is there by any chance a way to create an issue that is not in fixedversion?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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October 11, 2018

Yes, do not give it a version when you create it.

You might have an admin who has set the field mandatory though - you will need to get that removed if you can't leave the field blank on creation.  Also, if it's getting a version without you setting one, that would be an automation or script your Admins would need to remove or reconfigure.

Rachel Neath November 12, 2018

Thanks so much for this!!

alxrlja November 12, 2018

Good answer. I was having the same issue. :-)

Roger Jefferies November 16, 2018

Was having the same issue, and this fixed it. Thanks a ton!

1 vote
Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]
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April 1, 2014

You can configure the filters of both the boards to show only the appropriate issues in each board. In your case, check the filter query of the Kanban board to see if it filters out that issue.

0 votes
d4vidi November 23, 2017

Here's a nasty end-case I've recently solved:

I have a Kanban board attached to a filter whose query includes specific labels.

I've set my board's swimlanes to be based on Epic, and wound up with nothing but the default "Issues without epics" swimlane.

As it had turned out, issues having suitable labels didn't show in case their associated Epics didn't have the labels as well. I added the proper label to Epics - expected issues started showing on the board.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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November 24, 2017

That's not a "nasty" end-case.  You just got your filter wrong.

d4vidi November 26, 2017

I beg to differ! The filter worked perfectly - all issues were available as part of the query result as expected; Nevertheless, they just didn't show on the board simply because the epics didn't have the label. This coupling isn't trivial.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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November 26, 2017

That's simply not how it works.  What you have described is an incorrect filter hiding things.

d4vidi November 26, 2017

Could be version-dependent.

In any case, It doesn't matter as long as this helps others who "would not" stumble upon the same use case in the future - and it will.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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November 26, 2017

No, it won't help anyone, because it's wrong.

The problem was that your filters were wrong, or at least that you did not understand them.

d4vidi November 26, 2017

I have nothing to add in regards, besides the fact that I find the way you handle submissions unprofessional and inappropriate.

A pro would have asked me for filter details, JIRA version, etc. - and, in the very least, a description of how it does work (response to "that's simply not how it works"); This isn't the case here, just a shallow "you are wrong". Quite disappointed.

I sure hope things improve around here, or this community would be rendered scarce.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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November 26, 2017

I'm not "handling a submission", I'm an end user pointing out that a new answer on an old question is wrong.

I apologise for my initial response seeming terse, it was intended to be short and simple, but I did not make the effort to explain that better.  I wanted to quickly and cleanly make the point that what you had written was based on a misunderstanding, and was the wrong answer.

There was no need to follow it up with any questions, because I didn't need any more information to understand that you did not understand how it works.  I should also have explicitly pointed out that the previous answers here explain how it works correctly, and that you should have read them, rather than expect me to repeat the explanation.

Susan S. May 16, 2018

I am having an issue visibility, which is a very odd one. The issues load for a second, then hide on the active sprint board.

Any ideas?

Jack Brickey
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May 17, 2018

@Susan S., i would recommend you ask this on a new thread. This is a rather old thread and your issue seems rather unique and deserves fresh attention.

Susan S. May 17, 2018

@Jack BrickeyDuly noted! I didn't even look at the date on this thread.

0 votes
Svante Gustafsson Björkegren
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April 1, 2014

Hi Bridgette,

It is all about the filters you apply to the two boards.

E.g. if the teams are using different issue types you can create the filters to catch the correct issue types for each board.

If they are using the same issue type you will need some other way to distinguish the tickets. maybe a custom field showing if it is a maintenance ticket or a development ticket.

This page describes how filters work: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Using+FiltersThe filter used by each board is found under the board config.

Also check out this page: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Configuring+a+BoardIt describes well how to configure your boards.

Cheers,

// Svante

Bridgette Wilson April 1, 2014

Each team will use the same issue type, so I thought I would use labels to distinguish the tickets. But, when I click on the Quick Filter that I set up, the query is not picking up on the label. Is there a better way?

Ted Tencza April 1, 2014

Labels are case-sensitive. Double check that your filter query and labels match case.

Bridgette Wilson April 1, 2014

Hi Ted! Thanks! I checked the case. It matches. Unfortunately, my issues are still hidden on my kanban board. I can see that I have two issues when I configure my board, but when I view my board the issues are hidden. Do you have any other suggestions of what I can check to see why my issues are hidden?

Ted Tencza April 1, 2014

On the board configuration screen, click on the "columns" link. Check to see if the issue status is mapped to a column. It will show youi if there are any unmapped statuses.

Bridgette Wilson April 1, 2014

My two issues are mapped to my BACKLOG column. Please see screenshot.

Ted Tencza April 1, 2014

The only other option I can think of is to go to the issue filter, and run it from the filter page. If no issues show up, it is because the filter has a mistake somewhere (include the quick filter params in the test). If they show up in filter, I have no ideas.

Bridgette Wilson April 1, 2014

Ted I really appreciate your help. When I run it from the filter page, the filter shows up. My core problem is that I have one project and I need two different boards to represent my dev team and the other board will be for my operations team. My dev team has a scrum board and my operations team has a kanban board. When I add an issue (task) that is intended for my kanban board it shows up on the scrum board once the sprint is active however it stays hidden on the kanban board. If you could offer any suggestions on the proper way to get these two boards set up, that would be a HUGE help. I just want to start over and recreate my boards. Any thoughts?

Ted Tencza April 2, 2014

Hi Bridgette. I have the same set up on my boards, and they work with no issues. Without being able to see the exact set up, I don't know what it wrong, since the Kanban filter returns issues, and they statuses are mapped to columns. I would suggest filing a support ticket and having one of Atlassian's support engineers take a look, they will be able to solve the issue quickly.

Tim Massey October 14, 2014

I am experiencing the same issue with a new board I've created. There are 2 items supposed to be showing (as indicated in the status mapping page) but they do now appear when viewing the board. What was the fix for this? I'm sure its something small.

cdurieux December 30, 2014

Same issue there.

Dan Knapton January 29, 2015

Same issue for me. I created a Kanban board and it shows an issue count in each of the columns but with a message at the bottom "No Issues are currently visible." So the filter is correct, just not showing the issues

Srinath_Arava March 13, 2019

It helped for me as well. The only thing was to find the sub-filter which was in the General section within in the Board settings.

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