Sample Kanban Project Swimlanes do not Display

[Bill Hazard]

The sample kanban project includes swimlane definitions for "Expedite" (priority = Highest) and "Everything Else".  The project (as is) will not show separate swimlanes on the sample board, regardless of Issue Priority.  If we add a new swimlane with "Regular" (priority != Highest), then we see 2 swimlanes.  The original "Everything Else" is not editable or deletable (as far as we can tell), and has no JQL set.

We are new to Jira, but this seems odd.
Is this the way it is supposed to work?  Or is there maybe some bad data in an updated swimlane definition for the sample?  

Thx!

[Sam Hall · Accepted solution]

Hi Bill,

The  'Everything Else' swimlane is there a catch-all for any issue that does not match the JQL queries you've set for your various swimlanes.

If you you just leave it with the one swimlane defined - 'Expedite' (priority = Highest) - then 'Everything Else' should pick up eveything where priority != Highest.

Are you saying that, even when you have issues at 'Highest' priority, nothing ever shows up in your 'Expedite' lane?

[Bill Hazard]

Hi Sam -
Thx for the reply.  Yeah, I understand that Everything Else is a catchall.  The issue is that in the sample kanban project, with open "Highest" and (not-so-high), only one swimlane is displayed in the sample board.  I later found that if I added a THIRD lane that explicitly picks up priority != Highest, then I saw two lanes.  But not the "Everything Else" lane.  Finally, after I deleted this new lane, I saw two lanes.  It was quite strange.  I am believing that the original board / migration had something funky.  I can't reproduce as I can't find the "create kanban project with sample data" path anymore.

Bill

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It sounds like your priorities available to the project don't match the swimlane definitions.

[Bill Hazard]

I figured out the issue a little more clearly, I think.  When you create a new Kanban project, there are two swimlanes defined on the default board.  The FIRST one is "Everything Else" and the SECOND ONE is Priority = Highest.  The order seems to matter, and this order is backwards.  I could not move the second one up.  So to workaround, I created a new item.  The new item appeared ABOVE "Everything Else" and I could THEN move the Expedite above Everything Else and finally delete my "new" item.

So there are probably 2 issues:
1. the sample kanban board has the swimlane queries in the wrong order
2. one cannot change the order in this case

Does that make sense?

[Sam Hall]

Thanks Bill. Yep that makes sense. And the order of the queries is reversed on every new board you create?

I couldn't recreate that in my Jira Cloud instance. Here's what I see on a new project/board:

For me, 'Everything Else' is at the bottom and all is good 👍

But - I did a quick search on jira.atlassian.com (Atlassian's public issue tracker) and found a bug which seems cover what you are experiencing:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-16543

Please take a look and, if you are feeling community-minded, add some comments there to help others understand the problem, when it happens, and your workaround.

You can also watch or vote on the issue.

If you want to raise your own support ticket with Atlassian on this: https://support.atlassian.com/contact

[Bill Hazard]

Awesome, thanks for confirmation Sam!  And thanks for the pointer to the other issue.  Interesting ... looks like template got busted somewhere along the way and you have an "older" template that is correct?  Not sure if that is how things work in Jira Cloud but ...

[Sam Hall]

No worries, Bill. Glad to help.

Not sure if I have an 'older' template in my Cloud instance.

Maybe I have a newer one where Atlassian have fixed the bug, maybe it depends on conditions or timing when the board is created, maybe there is some subtle difference that only Atlassian can know. Such mystery makes the world an interesting place! :) 

[Tom Lister]

Hi @Bill Hazard

Did you resolve this? We have same issue in three boards.

The common factor is that the order of the swim lane queries has been reversed with Everything as the first criteria.

[Jason Mobarak]

I was able to resolve this by deleting the "expedite" swim lane then re-adding it as a new swim lane.  Adding a new swim lane put it above "Everything Else".  @Bill Hazard described the workaround in more detail here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Sample-Kanban-Project-Swimlanes-do-not-Display/qaq-p/765671#M248756

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It suggests you may have customised your priorities, so that highest is not in your project. 

Try creating a new issue (no need to complete it), and check what priorities are on offer.  Then edit the existing "priority = highest" to match the highest one in there, and think about adding more for other priorities.

Everything else does not need to be editable or deletable, it does what it says.  "Everything else" could be a bit more verbose, as in "All issues the board selects that are not in any of the swimlanes above me"

[Bill Hazard]

Hi Nic - thx for the reply, but the issue seems to be that the sample kanban board has the jql for the swimlanes in the wrong order with "all else" above "expedite."  And I don't seem to be able to move one above the other without creating a new swimlane.   The new lane goes automatically above "all else", and then I can move expedite up and delete the no-longer-needed new lane.

So I think ...
- bug in data for default kanban swimlanes (expedite needs to be above "all else")

- bug in software that prevents me from moving expedite up above "all else"

What do you think?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That simply does not sound like the way Jira works.  The "everything else" lane is always at the bottom of the list of swimlanes and cannot be moved.  Moving swimlanes up and down in the config list is a simple click and drag, it won't create new lanes.

My best guess is you've defined your own "all else" swimlane which is confusing you.  Delete that and start again?

[Bill Hazard]

Well, perhaps that is the way it *should* work.  But that is not what is happening right now.  Hence why I say bug. 
This is easy to repro: Create a bran-spakin' new kanban project.  Go to swimlanes.  See below.
And same happened when I created my first Kanban project, populated with sample data.  The kanban template appears to be "malformed" and has the catch-all at the top.