Why are some completed sprints still appearing in our backlog view?

[Marc Tardif]

We have 3 completed sprints appearing in our backlog view.  I have made every effort to confirm all stories have been removed from the sprint (returned to backlog or assigned to the active sprint) or their statuses set to closed.  This was done by going to the sprint reports and examining each bug or story listed as "in progress" in the report.  If need be, the bug or story was updated with the current sprint or status (closed), and none of them possess subtasks.

The sprints were also edited to have the correct start and end dates.  While the these dates are shown in the sprint report, they were blank in the backlog view until they were edited to have them.

What else could possibly be causing these sprints to continue to linger in the backlog view?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Marc Tardif 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Can you provide screen images of the Backlog view and the Sprint reports showing these sprints?

You said that these are "completed" sprints. Did you actually click on the Complete Sprint button, or are you saying that they are completed because the End Date is in the past?

[Marc Tardif]

Below is our backlog view of the 3 sprints in question.  The Sprint Report view shows all 3 as COMPLETED.  I know there has to be a loose end somewhere in the stories and tasks of the sprint, but it is like finding a needle in a haystack.  Is there an easy way to find what is causing this sprint to continue to linger in the backlog view?

[Marc Tardif]

I just noticed something.  Our sprints are used by multiple teams, each with their own JIRA board.  These sprints are only showing on my team's board's backlog view, not on several others.  I don't see any difference of consequence between the different board configurations.

[Trudy Claspill]

There are several things to unpack here.

1. These appear to be sprints that were never started rather than sprints that were previously completed. I say this because of the presence of the "Start Sprint" buttons. The buttons are disabled because the sprints are empty. If you added an issue to the sprint I bet the buttons would become enabled.

2. The sprints appear in only the one board because a sprint will display in the board where it was created and in any board where the board's filter scope encompasses an issue that is in the sprint. When the sprint is empty it will show only on the board where it was created 

3. Can you provide screen images of the Sprint Reports showing that the sprints are completed?

4. Jira doesn't require sprint names to be unique. What you may be experiencing is multiple sprints with identical names. You can attempt to determine this by searching for issues in the Filters >View All Issues screen using the "sprint=" criteria. Start typing in the name of your sprint and potential matches will be shown. If there are multiple sprints with the same name, that should be revealed at that time.

[Marc Tardif]

Finally back to looking at this.

You are correct, the issue does have to do with multiple sprints using the same name.  I've now found that the backlog view and the sprint report for the same board are actually referencing two different sprints with the same name.  The sprint report is showing sprint 10562, but the backlog view is showing sprint 10572.  (I only just learned how to see the sprint unique ID from the status bar while hovering over the "..." button for the sprint.)  When I do a search of "sprint = 10562", all manner of stories, bugs, and tasks appear.  When I do it with "sprint = 10572", no issues are found.

All this is true for the other 2 sprints in the backlog view as well.  This all supports your conjecture that these sprints were never started.  It seems to me I can simply delete these not-started sprints with no ill effects.  Would you agree?

[Trudy Claspill]

If you have used the View all issues screen to search for issues in the sprint and none are found, then yes it is safe to delete the sprint.

[Marc Tardif]

Yes, as you can see here.  ;)  Thank you very much for your assistance.  I've learned more about JIRA sprints during this exercise than I ever thought I needed to know.  It's just unfortunate that many important JIRA details are revealed in such unassuming ways and not more explicitly.  Thanks again and enjoy the holidays!

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm glad I could help you.

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