Summary

When reviewing Program Room > Backlog > Story Backlog (or for Old Navigation Team > Backlog > Story Backlog) in Jira Align, some Jira integrated stories are incorrectly placed in the placeholder sprint called “Unassigned Backlog” and not matched to a Jira Align sprint that is mapped to their Jira Sprint. Affected Jira Align stories do show the correct Tags for the Jira sprints, but they do NOT get associated with the correct Jira Align sprint.

If an attempt is made to link the story to the correct sprint in Jira Align, the connector will return the story to the “Unassigned Backlog” sprint during the next refresh of the connector.

Environment

Jira Align

Diagnosis

No specific error is captured in the sprint audit trail. To troubleshoot and confirm the issue, check that:

• in Jira, the originBoardID field exists for every sprint associated with the board. Also, check that the originBoardID does match the Jira Board ID. The Jira REST API can be used to confirm this using a command with the syntax
  https://{Jira Instance URL}/rest/agile/1.0/board/{Jira Board ID}/sprint
  Should any sprint not have an originBoardID value, such as shown below, then this confirms the issue.

        {"id":290,"self":"https://{instance.url}/rest/agile/1.0/sprint/290","state":"active","name":"Sprint 7"}

         for comparison the API call for a valid sprint should display something similar to the following:

        {"id":290,"self":"https://{instance.url}/rest/agile/1.0/sprint/290","state":"active","name":"Sprint 7",
        "startDate":"2021-12-14T12:35:29.361Z","endDate":"2021-12-17T18:26:00.000Z","originBoardId":127,"goal":"Sprint Goal"}

Cause

The problem where no originBoardID has been set for a sprint can occur due to how the sprint was created in Jira. The Jira Align Support Team are aware of at least 2 causes

1. The sprint was created in Jira using a REST API call which did not set the originBoardID.

2. The sprint was imported via Jira’s “Import Project” option (which is a common step when companies using Jira migrate between instances). In this case, the imported Sprint no longer has the originBoardID populated due to Jira bug → JRASERVER-74729 - RAPID_VIEW_ID set Null after importing project using Project Import feature GATHERING IMPACT

Jira Align uses the originBoardID to avoid potential issues caused by sharing sprints in Jira. The originBoardID MUST exist, in Jira, AND should match the Jira Board ID configured in the Jira Management section of Jira Align.

• If originBoardID exists AND matches the Jira Board ID, then the stories should be linked to the correct sprint in Jira Align

• If originBoardID does NOT exist, then no error will be captured, but the stories will end up in the Unassigned Backlog sprint in Jira Align

• If originBoardID exists but does NOT match the Jira Board ID AND the “Jira sprints to sync” setting is set to “Only Sprints created on this board”, then the error “Sprint was not created because this sprint originates from another board” will be captured in the log entries available at Jira Align > Settings / Administration > Jira Settings > View Logs > set Item to Sprints

• If originBoardID exists but does NOT match the Jira Board ID AND the “Jira sprints to sync” setting is set to “Sprints created and shared to board" then the stories should appear correctly (however this configuration is not recommended.)

Solution

Corrective action needs to be taken in Jira to set or update the originBoardID of the affected sprint(s). This can potentially be done using one of two methods:

Method 1: using the Jira REST API 

• If familiar with the Jira REST API then a POST command to the /rest/agile/1.0/sprint/{sprintId} endpoint can be used to set or update the originBoardID

Method 2: directly update the Jira Database

Note: this can only be performed by those with access to Jira's database (or with the help of Jira Support) 

• Modify the database where Sprint table = AO_60DB71_SPRINT and the originBoardID column = RAPID_VIEW_ID

Should further assistance be needed then a support case with Jira Support may be required for help with correcting the sprint information within Jira

Warning: If the originBoardID exists on a sprint but does not match the actual Board ID and the sprint was used against stories under different boards, then instead of changing the originBoardID, create a new sprint in the second board and then move all affected stories to this new sprint.