Unpredictable RANK in Structure

[petter_selin]

Hi!

We are trying to get a grip on some problems that we have found with Structure. We  are using Structure a lot, both for following up current status on features, but also sorting and prioriting things that are in the Funnel/Analyse/Review/Backlog. It´s really good to get the overview and it´s easy for erveyone to follow..

However, what we have struggled with since we started using Structure is that it re-arrange the order ( sorted on Ranked ) on some occations which causes a lot of extra job and frustration from everyone involved, so we are now even thinking about abandon Structure.

What we have seen is one use case when we for example cancel or delete a feature. Then the whole ranked list is being re-organized. As an example:

List of features:

Feature 1

Feature 2

Feature 3

Feature 4

Feature 5

If we cancel or delete Feature 3 we can get a list looking completly random:

List of features:

Feature4

Feature5

Feature1

Feature2

This makes it impossible for us to work with prioritization of the feature. At the same time the features get marked with a little hand in the beginning of the line in Structure ( which indicates that they have been changed". Is there a way to set a parameter or something that does not creates this kind of behaviour?

The automation is set to sort on rank: project in ("xxxx) AND "Program Increment" in (23Q2) ORDER BY Rank ASC

br

- Petter

[David Niro]

Hello @petter_selin ,

Welcome to the Community!

Sorry to hear about the challenge you are facing.

That little hand in the beginning of the line in Structure means that you have Manual Adjustments enabled.  In most cases, it is best to leave this feature turned off, as it can lead to some unexpected behavior.  There are some very strong use cases for it though.

From the description of your set up, it's not immediately clear how the issues have been manually adjusted.  

I would recommend continuing the conversation directly with our support team.  We will be happy to review your set up in more detail and provide guidance on how to correct the issue you are experiencing.  Please reach out via support@almworks.com or through our customer portal support.almworks.com.

Best,
David