Cannot close sprint due to unresolved sub-tasks that are resolved.

Davin Hoekstra May 27, 2014

I try to close my sprint and am told a list of issues have unresolved sub-tasks but when I check, the subtask is in a resolved status. It's fix but not "closed" as I use other steps for Test Case automation. I had another task that was in Resolved step and resolved but JIRA said it wasn't resolved enough. Once I moved it to the Closed step (and still resolved) it stopped listing the Parent as an issue with unresolved subtasks. Can you ONLY close a sprint if the issues in the done columns are all only in the Closed step?

7 answers

1 accepted

17 votes
Answer accepted
Jorge Suarez February 8, 2019

For posterity, to save others time here is what I have gathered...

For sprints only the statuses mapped to the right-most (last) column count (notwithstanding the existence of the un-mapped column when configuing).  Resolution field in issues is not relevant (I'm on JIRA 7.12.3 and seems it has been this way for a while now).

If you want an issue marked as "DONE," that issue and ALL its sub-tasks must be in status mapped to the last column.

If you have an issue in a 'done' status, but any of its children are not, then you cannot close the sprint, a pop-up will block you and tell you which issue is a contradiction (ie, done but with outstanding sub-tasks).  You can, however, move that parent issue to a status not in the final column, and when you try to close the sprint it will prompt you to move the issue to backlog or another sprint.  Or you can remove the sub-task by moving it to another issue.

This makes sense, because if the issue were marked as DONE it would disappear from the backlog and future sprints, which means that sub-task would also disappear and not get worked on.  

helen.fulkes November 5, 2019

Jorge - you just saved me hours. Its the last column that is the issue. 

I had a story marked as Ready for Live. All its subtasks were marked as done except ONE. This one was a rejected subtask and that was not in the last column. As soon as I mapped Rejected to the last column it all worked perfectly. 

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Darren Chun November 15, 2019

Jorge - Many thanks.  Saved a bunch of time with that solution!  We encountered that issue when converting to a new Jira Schema and the status got renamed from Complete to Completed.

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Mark Ahnell April 1, 2020

Holy cow, this could have taken me days to find, you saved me a bunch of time!

One additional issue I had, the Filter for the Board didn't include the "sub-task" Issue Type) that had a different "Done" type status then all the other Issue Types.  Once I added the Issue Type to the Board's Filter, I went back and there was a list of all the unique Statuses attached to that new Issue Type.  But I wouldn't have gotten there until I focused on Unmapped Statuses.  Thanks again!

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James Campbell June 1, 2020

Saved me a ton of time. Thanks!

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Robert Stumpe June 17, 2020

thanks - exactly what i needed!

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Anna August 4, 2020

Thank you very much it saved us hours ! 

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Yana Stoliarova May 24, 2021

Thank you so much! It is a highly important information! 

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Medhat Ahmed June 2, 2021

Excellent

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2 votes
Jeana Montesdeoca February 2, 2021

I have a question - can anyone share a filter (i.e. quick filter for backlog view) to show me stories that have open subtasks (i.e. unresolved subtasks)? 

0 votes
Davin Hoekstra March 28, 2018

Yes, you're correct. You will need to have different statuses for your sub-task and put them in the done column. You can request an enhancement that may make this a warning pop up rather than a message blocking you from proceeding.

0 votes
PTorrSmithMSD March 27, 2018

Not sure I agree with this Jira functionality.

We manage common sprints across over 40 teams.  So we have a special board we use to stop and start sprints.  

The lifecycle of a Story for example will go through pre-sprint, sprint, and post-sprint to get into production.  E.g. from an idea, to getting ready, to being ready (for sprint), in progress, Ready for UAT (let's say this is Sprint Done), and then some post-sprint steps before going into Prod.

There can be sub-tasks for some pre-sprint work, such as analysis/design, then some sub-tasks for sprint work (dev type sub-tasks, test type sub-tasks), and then a number of post-sprint sub-tasks.  

So I should be able to close the sprint, with some Stories in "Ready for UAT" (last column, a sprint done status), and for it to still have some sub-tasks to be done after the sprint.

But if my sub-tasks have a "todo", "in progress", "done" status for example, and the Stories also use the "in progress" status, then I can't map that status to the last column, or else these stories will be considered done and won't get carried over to the next sprint. But as I understand it, the only way Jira will let me close the sprint is if all the statuses of sub-tasks are mapped to the last column (or at least the statuses any of the "Done-status" stories's sub-tasks).

The only "hack" around this I can see is to have a special set of sub-tasks statuses (e.g. sub-task-todo, sub-task-in-progress, sub-task-done) and, on our special sprint-stop-start board, have all those statuses mapped to the last column.

This will be a pain to implement as currently our sub-tasks have common statuses as several of our issue types.

I'd just prefer it let us close a sprint regardless of the sub-tasks' statuses (as some of the sub-tasks are often about post-sprint activities).

That make sense?

Anyone agree?

Russell Bailey December 5, 2018

 I agree with you completely.

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0 votes
Davin Hoekstra October 12, 2016

This was from a long time ago. You can't close a sprint when a parent has open sub-tasks. It makes sense. All I needed to do was ensure the statuses for the sub-task were in the done column as well and that solves the issue. So with custom workflows for Test Case Authoring, I just ensured the Passed, Ready for Regression Testing, Ready for Automation statuses are all in the done column.

 

Works as intended.

 

0 votes
Gerard Cattin October 12, 2016

I have the same issue. I use a custom workflow for the parent card, while the children card just use the standard, default workflow of To Do, In Progress and Done. All the subtasks in the parent cards are Resolution Done and Status Done, while the parent cards are Resolution Done but Status Closed. Not sure why the sprint won't close, as if you cannot have a sprint with different workflows for parent and children issues.

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