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

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.

 

(info) 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:

  • Expedite — this swimlane is based on the following JQL query: priority = Blocker  (You can change this column's Name, JQL and Description if you wish. See the JIRA JQL documentation for help with your JQL query.)
  • Everything Else — this swimlane is always at the bottom of the screen, and cannot be deleted. It acts as a "catch-all" for issues that do not match the JQL of any of the swimlanes above it, hence it has no JQL specified.

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).

StoriesOne 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):
AssigneesOne 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 

 

Choosing a different type of swimlane

To choose whether to base your swimlanes on JQL queries, stories or assignees (or to have no swimlanes),

  1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.
  2. Click the Swimlanes tab.

  3. 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.

Modifying your Query-based swimlanes

If your swimlanes are based on JQL queries (rather than on stories or assignees), you can create/delete/change them as follows:

  1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.

  2. Click the Swimlanes tab.

  3. 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.)
    (info) 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"

(info) For more details, see the JQL documentation.


 

 

38 Comments

  1. Mark Gibaud

    May 24, 2012

    I would like to put "everything else" in a position elsewhere than the very bottom, as I'd like a swimlane called "next version" at the bottom. How can I best achieve this? What is the equivalent JQL for everything else such that I can create a similar swimlane which I can then position myself?

    1. Anonymous

      Jul 24, 2012

      Did you ever get an answer to this?  We like the story swimlanes, with the exception that you lose priority order if a story (or stories) don't have sub-tasks. 

    2. Daniel Eichling

      Jan 18, 2013

      I hope this doesn't get lost because this is one of the biggest complaints we have currently with the new boards.  All the other features are great but we would really like a way to have a swimlane that could be under the "default" so that we don't always have to create filters for what should be "standard" work!

      1. Amanuel Burhan

        Aug 15, 2013

        Hey, 

        I was also annoyed that the "Everything Else" column was at the bottom. So to get around it I set up a separate "Everything Else" column (which I dragged to the top) with the inverse conditions. I called this new swim lane "All other stories". but you could leave the name as Everything Else and apply the same conditions. 

        For example: 2 swim lanes Design tasks & All other Stories ( and the third swim lane "Everything Else")

        In the Design Swim lane the JQL statement was Summary ~ Design

        In the All other Stories swimlane the JQL statement is Summary !~ Design

        This does mean that the design tasks had to have the work "design" contained within the Summary AND the All other Stories had to NOT contain the work "design"

        I know this is a bit of a work-a-round but it gets the same result as long as you're not having loads of swim lanes. 

        Note: - If you do have more swimlanes - then bear in mind that the JQL statement (for "All other stories") will have to  incorporate the corresponding NOT statement. i.e. Summary  !~ design AND Summary !~ SPIKE etc.

         

        Hope this helps but also hope JIRA allows you to drag the default "Everything Else" swim lane to the top

  2. Anonymous

    May 28, 2012

    Does anyone know if you can set up a swimlane constraint like you can a column constraint?

  3. Anonymous

    Jun 05, 2012

    Swim lanes are great for organising the Work mode.

    Any chance of incorporating them into the Plan mode?

    I have quite a few projects in my Rapid Board, swim lanes in the Plan mode would provide a neat way of viewing my backlog.

  4. Anonymous

    Aug 15, 2012

    hey,

    Does anybody know how can I change the priority of a parent issue when using the swimlane by stories?

    Thanks

    Tal

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Aug 20, 2012

      You can drag the issue higher or lower to change its rank. To change its priority, you will need to edit the issue.

  5. Jason Brison

    Aug 28, 2012

    Hello,

    Will there be plans to allow us to drag issues between swimlanes?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Aug 29, 2012

      You may like to watch/vote/comment on GHS-4518 - Getting issue details... STATUS

  6. Marko Djukic

    Sept 07, 2012
    • Added my vote to GHS-4518, moving between swimlanes would be fantastic.
    • Anyone know of any way to create additional base swimlanes? Eg. we have assignee, but fixversion would be really useful or component too.

  7. Salem Korayem

    Oct 22, 2012

    For functions like QA and Design that serve multiple projects at the same time, it would be great to have swimlanes based on Projects/Component.

    Currently this is doable by adding multiple queries for each project which is cumbersome. Any plans on having this in the near future?

  8. Anonymous

    Oct 31, 2012

    What permission grants access to create swimlanes? Some members of our project can add new swimlanes, while some can't. Is there a per-project setting or just a global setting somewhere?

    1. Jason Brison

      Oct 31, 2012

      Swimlanes are configured in the Board Configuration options which can only be accessed right now by the board owner

      1. Anonymous

        Nov 02, 2012

        Thanks Jason. That answered my question.

  9. Anonymous

    Nov 06, 2012

    We are quite keen on improvements to the story-based swimlanes since we would like each story to keep it's priority (visually) when it's dragged between columns.

    We like the Kanban flow, though it is quite hard to quickly identify if somebody is working on something with a lower priority than they should. Then we have to use the "classic" boards which obviously has its own flaws.

    Is there a plan to improve this flow?

  10. Anonymous

    Nov 22, 2012

    Subtasks are not shown automatically under a story, if you use stories for swimlanes and the subtasks are not covered by your filter. I assumed that all subtasks would be visible, regardless of the filter, as long as the story itself matched. Why is this design decision made?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Dec 03, 2012

      You may like to watch/vote/comment on  GHS-6309 - Getting issue details... STATUS

  11. Anonymous

    Dec 12, 2012

    I would like to have swimlanes based on fixVersion - is this possible (swimlane for each unreleased fix version)

    but can only figure out how to create swimlanes based on a single fixVersion -

    Can anyone tell me how to do this?

    1. Anonymous

      Dec 13, 2012

      You have to set up each fixversion swimlane manually. Put in the jql as: fixversion = blah for each swimlane.

      We use this a lot. It's crap. It should be dynamic.

    2. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Dec 16, 2012

      You may like to watch/vote/comment on GHS-5720 - Getting issue details... STATUS

      1. Pavel Bulanov

        Mar 16, 2013

        So far any swimline can indicate only one filter - i.e. by specific version, component, priority, etc.? Is there no way to "iterate" through all versions or components or priorities - like it's happening for user-stories and assignees in pre-defined swimlines? Is it complicated to be able to have swimlines shown by any field, not just those two? Are there any tricks with it?

        1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

          Mar 18, 2013

          Hi, you may like to watch/vote/comment on GHS-5720 - Getting issue details... STATUS (version-based swimlanes) and/or GHS-4669 - Getting issue details... STATUS (field-based swimlanes in general)

  12. Anonymous

    Jan 10, 2013

    I would like a swim lane for tickets related to Epics (versus tickets not part of any epic), but it looks like swimlanes are only defined with JQL. Is it possible to access the GH 'Epic' field in JQL?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 13, 2013

      Epics will be searchable in JQL in the very near future — please watch our Release Notes.

      You may also like to watch/vote/comment on GHS-6426 - Getting issue details... STATUS (built-in option for Epics-based swimlanes)

  13. Anonymous

    Jan 25, 2013

    It seems like the swimlanes used to filter the view by Stories isn't working. It works for Assignees but not for Stories. This is a problem since we can't see subtasks for the stories in the columns. This happend after the last update recently and looks like it might be a bug.

    Anyone else get this problem? 

    1. Anonymous

      Feb 07, 2013

      Yes I have this problem also

  14. Serge Kruppa

    Jan 29, 2013

    There seems to be a hard limit of 10 swimlanes in Greenhopper, including "Everything Else". I configured an 11th swimlane and it didn't show up on the Agile Board (Kanban) work view. No error, it just isn't displayed. Is that a bug, a configurable limit or a design limit?

    The issue is that I'm trying to create a Kanban board with swimlanes for all of the 20+ components that my team is working on. That way I can minimize the amount of clicks to see dev. work in progress for each component -  very convenient, except I'm stuck right now.

    Any feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 30, 2013

      I haven't encountered this limit. Please note that a swimlane won't appear on your board unless it currently contains issues. For further assistance, you may want to contact http://support.atlassian.com

      1. Serge Kruppa

        Jan 30, 2013

        You are absolutely right, there was no issue matching the JQL query that I wrote, hence nothing to be displayed. Having created a first issue for that new component, it does show up in its own swimlane. Many thanks for your prompt response!

  15. John Hermary

    Jan 30, 2013

    I have a project named EPT that I tried adding as a swimlane to my Kanban board, however it doesn't show up on my board.  I tried each of these JQL queries:

    project = EPT

    project = 'EPT'

    project = "EPT"

    but none of them work. My other projects show up in the swimlane no problem.  Any suggestions please?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Feb 06, 2013

      You may need to check whether the project has been included in your board's filter? If that doesn't help, please contact http://support.atlassian.com

  16. marco san juan

    Feb 25, 2013

    hi

    we noted that, by configuring stories as swimlines, when a high priority story with top rank doesn't have sub-tasks, it's degraded down as "other issues", so the team can't see it at the top of the board to be the first to be started, as occurs on phisical boards.

    it's really a unexpected behavior that is forcing us to create sub-tasks for very small stories.

    do you plan tu prevent this behavior by forcing stories to be presented as swimlines even those without sub-tasks? we think priority rank should allwais be more important than presentation or anything else.

    (we are using a installed GH v6.1.3.2)

    thanks!!

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Feb 25, 2013

      Hi, you may want to consider basing your swimlanes on Queries (instead of Stories).

      Or if that doesn't meet your needs, you may like to log a feature request at https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/GHS

    2. Jim Lesko

      Jun 27, 2013

      We have this problem as well, if there is a good query-based solution out there I'd love to get a chance to see it.

  17. Ivo

    May 22, 2013

    When a user story got sub tasks the estimation of the user story is not shown on the board. How can I configure this?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      May 24, 2013

      Hi, you may like to vote, watch, or comment on GHS-6531 - Getting issue details... STATUS and/or GHS-8134 - Getting issue details... STATUS

  18. MattS

    Jul 25, 2013

    There are a number of helpful tips in these comments that could usefully be added to the main part of this page. E.g. swimlanes based on queries don't show up unless at least one issue matches, and if an issue could match multiple queries it is displayed in the first swimlane that the issue matches



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