Documentation for GreenHopper 6.2.x. Documentation for earlier versions of GreenHopper is [available too].

Ranking an issue alters its relative priority within its current column and swimlane. Ranking your issues helps you to organise tasks in your product/sprint backlog more effectively.

Rankings allow you to prioritise issues at a more granular level than issue priorities in JIRA, as rankings can help you to determine whether a single issue is more important/urgent than another single issue. For example, you may have two separate issues which both have a priority of 'Major'. Using GreenHopper ranking, you can assign one of the issues a higher ranking than the other.

(info) Plan mode is only available for Scrum boards.

To rank an issue in Plan mode:

  1. Click the Agile link's down-arrow in the top navigation bar, then select your preferred board from the resulting dropdown menu.

  2. Click Plan to go to Plan mode.
  3. Rank an issue by dragging and dropping it to a higher or lower position in the backlog (see Screenshot 1 below);
    or:
    Send multiple issues to the top or bottom of the backlog by selecting them (Shift>Click or Ctrl>Click) and right-clicking (see Screenshot 2 below).

To rank an issue in Work mode:

  1. Click the Agile link's down-arrow in the top navigation bar, then select your preferred board from the resulting dropdown menu.

  2. Click Work to go to Work mode.
  3. Rank an issue by dragging and dropping it to a higher or lower position within its current column (see Screenshot 3 below).
    (info) If an issue has sub-tasks that are in the same column and swimlane as itself, the sub-tasks will be shown in a group below the issue.
    • When you rank an issue that has sub-tasks, all of the sub-tasks that are currently grouped with that issue will be automatically moved with it.
    • Sub-task issues can only be ranked in relation to their 'sibling' issues.

On this page:

Related pages:

Tips and notes:

(tick) You can also use Keyboard Shortcuts 's' + 'b' to move an issue to the bottom of its current column, or 's' + 't' to move it to the top.

(info) Please note:

  • You can only rank issues if ranking has been enabled — see Enabling Ranking.
  • You can only rank issues if you have the 'Schedule Issue' permission for the issue you want to move higher or lower on your board.

 


Screenshot 1: Dragging and Dropping an Issue in the Backlog (in Plan mode)


Screenshot 2: Right-clicking select Issues to send them to the Top/Bottom of the Backlog (in Plan mode)



Screenshot 3: Dragging and Dropping an Issue within a Column (in Work mode)

43 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    No idea why, but I cant seem to get the sub tasks to show, running on the latest version 5.9? I can rank but subtasks arent visible?

    1. Shaun Clowes

      This should now work on 5.9.1, the most likely cause was the sub tasks not having the same Sprint value as their parent, this is now enforced

  2. Raphael Marthe

    Hello,

    I can rank issues in the planning board, so my configuration seems ok, but I cannot rank (by dragging) on the rapid board.

    any clues ? In the configuration screen of my rapid board, I see the message "Current Query does not currently allow ranking" (even after clicking on "Add Rank" so my filter ends with ORDER BY Rank ASC)

    BTW, I'm on Greenhopper 5.8.x, but the documentation is the same.

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Hi Raphael,

      Can you please ensure you are on the latest version of GreenHopper for JIRA 4.4.5 - GreenHopper 5.8.7. 

      Are you the owner of the board? Did you create the board using the Kanban preset (selecting a project) or was it created by selecting a saved filter?

      If it was a saved filter, do you own it?

      Thanks Raphael,

      Nicholas Muldoon

      1. Raphael Marthe

        Thank for the quick answer.

        I have Greenhopper 5.8.3, so it's an old version. I'm the owner of the board, it was created using the Kanban preset.

        anyway, we will upgrade to JIRA 5.0 and Greenhopper in a few weeks, so I will recheck then and post here if the issue will be resolved.

         

        Thanks again,

        Raph

        1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

          Sounds like a bug to me Raph, and one we've fixed in a subsequent release. Upgrading to JIRA 4.4.5 and GreenHopper 5.8.7 will get you the latest GreenHopper available for JIRA 4.4.x.

          Upgrading to JIRA 5.0.x and GreenHopper 5.9.x is preferred as you get a tonne of new functionality.

          Thanks Raph,
          Nick 

          1. Raphael Marthe

            Hello,

            today we've migrated to JIRA 5 (and greenhopper 5.9.4).

            Now everything is working fine !

             

            Thank you for your support,

             

            Raph

      2. Unknown User (boardtc)

        Hi Nicholas,

        I have the same issue that Raphael describes for a scrum board, we are using JIRA v4.4.4#664-r167664 & GreenHopper 5.8.7. Would upgrading JIRA to 4.4.5 fix it?

        1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

          Hi Tom,

          Before upgrading JIRA please ensure that the query for the board is using the correct Rank field. You can click on Edit Filter from the Configuration page for the board and then check the filter in the Issue Navigator - in some circumstances customers had multiple "Rank" fields, not simply the GreenHopper Rank field, and GreenHopper picks up the wrong one.

          Of course, I would also strongly encourage an upgrade to JIRA 5.0 and GreenHopper 5.9 at your earliest convenience. 

          Thanks Tom,

          Nicholas

          1. Unknown User (boardtc)

            Thanks Nicholas I hope we can upgrade soon but stuck with above for now. I'm not sure we could manage a 4.4.4 upgrade but if it fixed this I could push for it.

            When I edit the query this is where I see "Current Query does not currently allow ranking". The query above finishes with ORDER BY Rank ASC.

            What do you think?

            1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

              Sounds like an issue that we may have solved in a newer version Tom, trouble is I am not sure if it is JIRA 5.0 or not - which would be a significantly bigger upgrade.

              Can you check Administration -> Custom Fields and see how many Global Rank fields there are. Perhaps there are two called "Rank" and GreenHopper is getting confused - in which case you'll want to rename the one that isn't of the Global Rank type.

              Thanks Tom,
              Nicholas 

            2. Ruchi Tandon

              Hi Tom,

              I just found out that this is expected behavior after the sort order of the filter behind Greenhopper boards has been changed to anything other than Rank. Even when you change it back to Rank, Greenhopper needs to be notified of this change. The solution can be found here: Current Query does not currently allow ranking Add Rank. Let me know if this helps.

              1. Unknown User (boardtc)

                Thanks for the post. Unless I am missng something this page does not say anything that one would not try anyway. I double checked and tried editing the query, removing and reading the order by. If I then click add rank I get a message saying the query was updated but even after refreshing it still says:

                1. Michael Andreacchio

                  Hi Tom,

                  We would like a closer look at your instance there to see what may be going on there. I've tested this in the latest GreenHopper 5.9.6 and can see that this works fine on my end when creating a new rapid board, then assigning it to multiple projects. There may be something going on there in your configuration that could be holding back this from working. 

                  The best option from here may be to contact us at http://support.atlassian.com so that we can go more in depth into your problem there.

                  Best Regards,

                   

                  Michael

                  Atlassian GreenHopper Support

    2. Michael Ruflin

      Hi Raphael,

      In addition to having the filter use "ORDER BY Rank ASC" you will also have to ensure that

      • there is only one custom field called "Rank"
      • the "Rank" custom field is using the global context, thus applies to all projects and issue types

      Regards,
      Michael 

  3. grant luna

    Is there a way to get the "rank" or "global" rank fields to appear on Rapid Board/Edit Issue page?

    Note: Both rank fields appear on the standard/Jira edit issue page but not within the Greenhopper edit page view.

    FYI - I am using Greenhopper 5.9.6

     

    1. Shaun Clowes

      Hi Grant, 

      No, it's not possible to display this value in the detail view. This is because the rank is now global (i.e across all issues in the instance of JIRA). The absolute number doesn't really mean anything, the relative ranks only matter when related issues are shown next to each other on the GreenHopper board.

      Thanks,
      Shaun 

  4. Anonymous

    Hello. Is it possible to create email notification on rank changing in Rapid Board?

    Thanks.

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Hello,

      No, it is not currently possible to create an email notification from a Rank event. 

      Thank you,

      Nicholas

      1. Laszlo Kremer

        Any chance that it will send notifications from a Rank event?

  5. Anonymous

    Hello. In Rapid Board, using Kanban method we have a problem with sub-task ranking. "Sub-task issues can only be ranked in relation to their 'sibling' issues." E.g. we have a list "task1", "task2", "sub-task of task4". We can increase rank of the "sub-task of task4" only by dragging down the "task1" and "task2". If there are many tasks in the list it become difficult to change "sub-task" rank among the other tasks. Also if some task have many sub-tasks and they are spreaded in a long period of time we have to rank some  sub-tasks as "high" and some as "low". E.g. "sub-task1 of task 2", "task2", "sub-task2 of task2". How can we solve this problem? Or we have not to use sub-tasks in a such way?

  6. Anonymous

    Hi.

    Ranking doesn't work for us correctly. We have four projects on a rapid board, and some of the tasks just drop to a random place when they are drag-and-dropped (on the rapid board).

     

    Rank fields: there are two rank fields in our JIRA

     1. "Rank - Global rank field for GreenHopper use only." 

     2. "Rank (Obsolete) - The ranking field will help in organizing and prioritizing your issues/cards in your product/sprint backlog more effectively."

    I guess these should not interfere with each other, as the 2nd is called "Rank (Obsolete)".

     

    Is it a bug, or we missed to set something?

    1. Shaun Clowes

      I'd raise a request with Support, they can probably help you faster than this documentation comment section can. 

      I'm not sure why the tasks would drop somewhere random. Check that the Rank field is not hidden and that you Rapid Board filter is correctly set to order by rank. 

      Thanks,
      Shaun 

  7. milica

    Hi all,

    When creating subtasks for the story, I would like some tasks to start at the same time, since they are assigned to different people that can work in parallel.

    For example:

    Story 1:

    • Subtask11 (estimation 1h) - Starts at 14pm - Assigned to personX
    • Subtask12 (estimation 2h) - Starts at 14pm - Assigned to personY

    Cumulative estimation for both tasks should be 2h, since both issues start at the same time, so the estimation is actually an estimation of the longer lasting task.

    Currently, story estimation is showing 3h.

    Any suggestion to handle this in 5.10?

  8. Eric Weiss

    Plan Mode on the Rapid Board is greyed out for me.  I can't seem to find any info/docs on why that is.  I am the owner/creator of the board.  Any ideas? 

    Thx,
    Eric 

    1. Shaun Clowes

      You are probably looking at a Kanban board rather than a Scrum board. 

      Thanks,
      Shaun 

  9. Anonymous

    Hi - 

    I'm trying to rank issues in a backlog using  Atlassian JIRA (v4.4.4#664-r167664) & GreenHopper (v5.8.7).  The issue is that my backlog spans a couple of pages in list view.  It seems that I can drag the issue to the page indicator at the top of the page and then sort it into the popup list that appears, but when I release the mouse button, the issue remains on page 1 (if i try to move to page 2, for example).  This leaves me unable to prioritize across pages.  I'm on a Mac and have tried with both Safari and Chrome, to the same effect.  

    Looking for some guidance.

    Thanks,
    Todd

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Hi Todd,

      Are you using the Classic Planning Board? If so, please see Ranking Issues in GreenHopper Classic.

      If that doesn't help, please conact http://support.atlassian.com

      Many thanks,
      Rosie

  10. Anonymous

    Hi All,

    We are using JIRA 4.4.5 & want to fetch GH Rank values from database.

    Looking for some help here.

    Thanks,

    Pradeep

     

    1. Michael Andreacchio

      Hi Pradeep,

      We'd much prefer answering these questions over the support ticketing system at https://support.atlassian.com/

      But the quick answer is that your ranking data is most likely stored in the table AO_60DB71_ISSUERANKING if you are using a most recent version of GreenHopper available on JIRA 4.4.5

      Lastly, we do not recommend manually manipulating or changing any of the GreenHopper or JIRA database tables, these are not serviceable and direct alterations to the database are not covered by Atlassian Support.

      Cheers,


      Michael

  11. Kim Fortney

    Prior to 6.0 we used the ‘Greenhopper Business Priority Rank’ to prioritize JIRAs via the Greenhopper Planning Board. 

    With the new board in 6.0, is ‘Rank’ now recommended instead of ‘Greenhopper Business Priority Rank’?

    Will you describe the recommended usage of each?

    Thank you!

    --Kim

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Hi Kim, can you please contact http://support.atlassian.com for assistance with this? I'm guessing that "Greenhopper Business Priority Rank" is a custom field in your JIRA system, but I think you would be better served by the Support team in this case.

       

  12. Anonymous

    We have created multiple contexts on our planning board based on teams to prioritize bug backlogs. These are ranked by separate product owners. But we are observing that ordering/ranking just gets disturbed once in a while without knowing the root cause. Product owners indicated that they have not made any change in ranking and still things change. What are the potential reasons why ranks across different contexts can get changed and reordered? Any help will be much appreciated.

    1. Shaun Clowes

      Please note that ranking is global... it does not depend on contexts at all. So for example, if I had one context C1 that showed issues PRO-1, PRO-2 and PRO-3 and another C2 that showed just PRO-2, PRO-3, PRO-4 then I ranked PRO-3 above PRO-1 on C1 then PRO-3 would also be ranked above PRO-2 on C2. 

      Thanks,
      Shaun 

      1. Barney Dalton

        Do you have any plans to support more than one Ranking field so that different business priorities can be represented (as was possible in earlier versions of GH)?

        1. Shaun Clowes

          This can be done today, just create multiple fields of type "Global Rank" then order your boards using that field. 

          We wouldn't especially recommend this since it can be confusing, but it's supported. 

  13. Eddie Tse

    Is there a keyboard shortcuts to move the item up and down by one rather than "send to top" and "send to bottom"?  Something like a "Move rank down by 1" and "Move rank up by 1"?

  14. Anonymous

    We have upgraded both JIRA and greenhopper and had an agile view of a project where each Fix version was ranked, so we could easily drag and drop the tickets by Fix version. In the new rapid board, ORDER by ASC is in the swimlane query, but the tickets are not displayed by rank, and you cannot drag and drop to change the rank. What are we doing wrong?

    1. Anonymous

      Never mind. Solved it. I must say I prefer the much slimmer bars we had that you now only can get in planning mode, not in work mode....

  15. Anonymous

    Is it possible to create search query which returns stories with changes ranks for certain period?

     

    Thanks

  16. Anonymous

    I would be inclined to recommend purchase of this product if not for the unhelpful insistence on using manual ordering by the 'Rank' field instead of prioritization.This needs to optional.

    Task ranking on large projects is much faster when categorizing into priorities rather than having to drag individual items around the screen. It could be a nice secondary sort-order, but as a primary sort-order it's a disaster and the inability of the tool to support sprints without it limits the usefulness of the product.


     

    1. ewren

      I am battling with this scenario myself. We have a process where initially the backlog is ranked based on business need and technical complexity..ideally a rank that is calculated based on the values of two custom fields. Then once we get into the details of grooming a backlog for sprints, we re-order based on best fit for different sprints.

       

      Based on what I have tried so far, this is not really possible with Greenhopper.


       

  17. Alex Kempkens

    How can I create a filter over all stories and get them in the same rank as defined here in the board?

    In the past the field "rank" was used in a "order by rank" - If I do this now the order of the stories is not correct. In fact I find stories in the backlog having a higher rank than the once in the current sprint - confusing.



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