Sort Stories by Epic Due Date in backlog

[Caspar Tijssen]

I have tried to find the answer in already asked questions and tried the query functionality, but cannot seem to find it to this one: 

(How) Can I sort the stories in my backlog based on the due date of the Epic to which the story is linked? 

Thanks in advance

[Troy Spetz]

We use JIRA Server 7.10 version.

1. If you are asking how to sort issues, using JQL, within a single Epic, then try:

"Epic Link" = <JIRA Epic Issue Nbr> order by duedate

2. If you are asking how to do this in a JIRA Planning Board, then you cannot. The Board sort order is done manually via drag-and-drop. At best, you could filter on the JIRA Epic within the Board, then manually change the order via drag-and-drop (i.e. according to each issue's Due Date).

[Caspar Tijssen]

The second is indeed what I'm looking for, but I'll keep looking ;) Thanks anyway

[Troy Spetz]

You could try adding Quick Filters to your Planning Board which 'time-slice' the backlog based on due date (e.g. issues 'where duedate <= 1w', etc).

Doing this, you could see which issues in the backlog are not ordered, according to a duedate range (e.g. due in the next 7 days, in the next 14 days, etc).

Note: We don't use due dates on individual issues. As we are a Scrum team with 2-week sprints (so the team decides when to do what within the sprint), we use the text of the Sprint Number (max. 30 chars) to capture 3 important pieces of information:

Calendar Year-Sprint Number (FixVersion, End of Sprint Date)

Using this format, brings a lot of benefits including:

1. I can easily see how many sprints it will take to complete the planned work for the release

2. I can run daily JQL subscriptions to ensure issues are correctly assigned to sprints which are within the FixVersion. 

3. I can see when the currently planned 2-weeks of work will be done.

See attached screenshot of our current sprint's Sprint Number text.

[Caspar Tijssen]

That's quite a good idea @Troy S, thanks. I'll experiment with that a little.