Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues

[unnikrishnan]

Hi,

I have  have all the sub task moved to done and the resolution also set to done , however I am getting the following message. Iroder to check that I have executed the following query and returner nothing . What is the other reason of this message?

Issue Type in (subtask) Project = xxxxxxxx AND Sprint = nn and resolution is EMPTY

Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues

And all the stories which are in my sprint are showing in the issue. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Could you try this?

Go to your board and look at the last column.  Ideally, open up the config of the board to do this, but what we need to do is find out what status are in that column.  Just the very last column.  Often, it's only one status, but we need to check all that might be in it.

Now run the search

Project = xxxxxxxxx and status not in ("status in the last column")

The result of this search will be the issues (of any type) blocking sprint completion.

[unnikrishnan]

Thanks Nic.  The error message was saying '

Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues'

and there was no sub task without completing status and the resolution empty.. It was due to one green status(cancelled) was in left side and there was no story or task under that status.. Still it was showing a incorrect error message. Once I remove that  cancelled status  from the left side of the board , it resolved. This error message mislead the actual problem .

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not really "misleading", it's telling you the truth.  You have incomplete issues because they're not in the last column.  It's just not pointing out that it is your config causing the problem rather than the data.

[unnikrishnan]

I did not have any incomplete issues under that status not only for the sprint but also for the entire back log.. However it was saying the misleading message 

Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues.

It was just one green status was not in the right most column  and that green status was not having any issues, including sub tasks.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, you did have incomplete subtasks, because you had put them in a not-done column (not the last one on the board)

[David Brown]

That's a problem, because the only way that I know of to get those statuses to not show in the backlog (who wants an ever-growing list of "WONT FIX" issues in their backlog?) is to remove them from any board columns.

If a status is a done status it should count toward the complete subtasks regardless of what column in the board it falls.

(I mention this in the hopes that I'm missing something...)

I suppose as long as we put these tickets in a sprint they will disappear out of the backlog when that sprint concludes. It just feels off that something we decide we won't fix, is canceled, etc., has to go through a sprint to disappear.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's not a problem with the way it works, the issue is with focussing on the status rather than how you look at whether an issue is "done".

"Done" does not mean "we did it".  It means "we've looked at it and dealt with it".  It doesn't actually care if you've delivered the story, or just said "nope" for whatever reason.

I'd argue that the best way to do it in Jira is have a transition that says "nope, not doing this", that goes into a more generic "done" type status (like just "closed", agnostic of why you closed it), and sets a "won't fix" resolution to tell people why you closed it.  And, of course, that "done" status should be in the last column of your board.  But, there's good reasons to have "won't do" as a status, that's just a suggestion that might break your reporting.

When looking at issues to "won't do" during backlog refinement, before the sprint, when you make that decision, I would set the estimate to 0 or maybe 1/2 to represent some time looking at it, and then transition it to the done status before it even sees a sprint.  If you do it during an active sprint, then your decision to bin it counts the same as "delivered" - you've delivered something that addresses it, hopefully, an explanation as to why you're not going to do it!

If you map your "won't fix" into the "done" column, all the problems you're having will go away.

If you find your "done" column gets a bit full with "won't fix" issues, then I'd use a quick-filter to hide them (they don't affect the way a board works or counts issues, it just hides stuff in the current view)

I think an important point in your question is "If a status is a done status it should count toward the complete subtasks regardless of what column in the board it falls."

Whilst this does make sense instinctively, it creates massive problems for any organisation that does not have a very simple "every project uses the same single workflow for their Agile process and issues never move between teams" approach..  It also breaks it for non-Agile teams trying to use boards.

[Roberto Miasack]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- in my configuration, I have sub-tasks in the items, but they are tracked in another board. So the subtasks don't show up in the scrum board as they are not in the filter. Yet the same error occurs. The way I found to solve it was to release subtasks to the board, add the completion statuses to the last column and remove the subtasks in the filter then, keeping the "useless" status on the board. Maybe a bug or am I missing something?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

> I have sub-tasks in the items, but they are tracked in another board. So the subtasks don't show up in the scrum board 

No, that's not a bug.  Sub-tasks are not separate sprint items, they are a part of a story which is the sprint item.  If you exclude sub-tasks from a board, you logically can't complete their parent, because bits of it never get done.

[Roberto Miasack]

That's why I believe it's a bug. (or not) All sub-tasks are done. The only setting that was changed was the addition of the status (which is not part of this frame) in this frame.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not a bug.  It's a not-obvious consequence of using sub-tasks in Scrum and choosing to drop them from the board, and something I would like tweaked.

Technically, the behaviour is correct.  For an issue (of any type) to be "done", it should be in the last column of the board.

Atlassian should either

1) Change the error message from "has incomplete sub-tasks" to "has sub-tasks that are not in the last column on the board, and are hence not seen as complete"

2) Adapt to the intuitive way of seeing it - the check is "in the last column", it should change to "is sub-task and in a status mapped into the last column"

3) Take away the need for intuition.  If an issue is visible on a board, then it's sub-tasks always are as well, irrespective of what the board filter and column mappings say

(I think 2 is the best option, but there may be other ways to do it.  1 is a cheap fix which will only help some people, 3 is clunky and forced, and removes flexibility and power from the boards)

[Cinthia Catalani]

Thank you!

The sub-tasks were filtered from the board query and kept as a checklist. I added them back to the query and their done status to the last column in the board. 

Curious... Another team is doing the same thing, and they already completed two sprints with no errors.

[Monika Rani · Accepted solution]

Hi @unnikrishnan  can you try this one may be your resolution part is not working well check the status too.

Issue Type in (subtask) Project = xxxxxxxx AND Sprint = nn and status=! done and resolution is EMPTY

[unnikrishnan]

Thanks for the response .

As per my query , if the resolution is empty  irrespective of the task status ,it should pick rt..

Issue Type in (subtask) Project = xxxxxxxx AND Sprint = nn and resolution is EMPTY

I tried with your query as well and no result. Entire set of stories in the sprints shows under this error message. not just one or 2. 

[Rajesh Ramankutty]

i have tryed all this but still error.

i made all the issue in a sprint to closed.

and resolution to done.

then also same error can any one help me

[Jose Manuel Acosta]

Hello, team.

This case is related to "Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues". There are some answers that may be useful.

I think, that problem occurs when the sub-tasks are not visible on the board, but especially when the parent task is finished but one of the sub-tasks is not.

Greetings,