Documentation for GreenHopper 6.2.x. Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
GreenHopper is now called JIRA Agile. Learn more.
A swimlane is a horizontal categorisation of issues in Work mode on a board.
You can choose to set up your swimlanes in a variety of ways, as shown in the following table.
Note that only the owner of a board (or a person with the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission) can configure a board's swimlanes.
On this page:
Base your swimlanes on... | Explanation |
---|---|
Queries | One JQL query per swimlane (see below). By default, two swimlanes will be created:
You may want to create additional swimlanes which map to other values of your JIRA 'Priority' field, or use a different field to categorise your swimlanes (see examples below). |
Stories | One parent issue per swimlane (i.e. each swimlane contains all of the parent's sub-tasks), with issues that have no sub-tasks appearing below. Example (click to enlarge): |
Assignees | One assignee per swimlane, with unassigned issues appearing either above or below the swimlanes (your choice). |
Epics (in GreenHopper 6.2.1 and later versions) | (Scrum boards only) One epic per swimlane, with issues that don't belong any to epics appearing below the swimlanes. |
No Swimlanes |
To choose whether to base your swimlanes on JQL queries, stories or assignees (or to have no swimlanes),
In the 'Base Swimlanes on' drop-down, select either Queries, Stories, Assignees or No Swimlanes, as described above.
Screenshot 1: the 'Board Configuration' screen — 'Swimlanes' tab.
If your swimlanes are based on JQL queries (rather than on stories or assignees), you can create/delete/change them as follows:
Click the Swimlanes tab.
If your swimlanes are based on Queries, you can edit your swimlanes as described in the following table and Screenshot 1 (above).
To do the following: | Do this: |
---|---|
Add a new swimlane | In the blue area, type the 'Name', 'JQL', and optional a 'Description', then click the 'Add' button. Your new swimlane is added in the top swimlane position. |
Change the name of a swimlane | Click in the 'Name' area of the swimlane, modify the existing name and click the 'Update' button. |
Change the JQL of a swimlane | Click in the 'JQL' area of the swimlane, modify the existing JQL and click the 'Update' button. (See the examples below for some suggestions.) For syntax, see the JIRA JQL documentation. |
Delete a swimlane | Click the 'Delete' button at the right of the swimlane. |
Move a swimlane | Hover over the vertical 'grid' icon, then drag and drop the swimlane up or down to its new position. |
Some example JQL you might wish to use for your swimlanes:
Show all issues which belong to a particular component (e.g. 'User Interface'):
project = "Angry Nerds" AND component = "User Interface"
Show all issues which are due in the next 24 hours:
due <= "24h"
Show all issues that have a particular priority e.g.:
priority = "Minor"
and
priority = "Major"
For more details, see the JQL documentation.