Slices

You can reuse the queries that group work items within a board’s swimlanes to filter a report. This lets you analyze one swimlane at a time without waiting for the entire board to load.

For example, swimlanes may be based on a work item's status category. You can reuse these queries in a report by adding them as custom slices.

To reuse swimlane queries:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select Slices from the dropdown.

3. Open the Custom JQL slices section.

4. Paste the query from a swimlane (for example, Issues to do).

5. Optionally, in the Custom JQL slices section, enable Hide All Issues slice.

This prevents the report from displaying the full board content in the All Issues slice. Only the custom slices based on your swimlane queries will appear.

You are not limited to JQL queries. You can also create slices using other swimlane options in Jira, such as:

• Assignee

• Epics

• Spaces

For example, to use Assignee as a slice:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select Slices from the dropdown.

3. Open the Slice By section, select Assignee.

Within slices, you can display different types of values for each group—not just the number of work items in each status category—such as:

Time-based values

Slices can display time-based values. In the example below, Remaining Estimate is shown in slices that are customized with JQL to filter by priority, status, and work type.

Relationship-based values

Slices can display relationship links, such as Blocked By, alongside the name of the work item being blocked. When you select a slice with this link, the report shows the work items that are blocking the work item named in the slice.

Fractions or rates

Slices can display fractions or rates. In the example below, 36 story points are distributed across four assignees. One assignee has no story points assigned, so n/a appears in the slice, and 1 point remains unassigned. Each slice shows the assignee and the fraction of points assigned relative to the total.

When you select a slice for an assignee, such as Adam Grant, the report displays all work items assigned to them. Note that for the selected slice in the screenshot, work items include only the points directly assigned to Adam (2 story points), regardless of any points associated with a parent work item assigned to another assignee, such as Emily Lake.

Percentages

Slices can display percentages. In the example below, 51 work items are grouped across three releases. Approximately 71% of the work items have no fix version assigned, 8% (about 4 out of 51 work items) are assigned to Version 1.1, 10% to Version 1.0, and 12% to Version 2.0. Each slice shows the release name and the percentage of work items assigned to that fix version relative to the total.

If a work item is assigned to multiple releases, the cumulative percentage of the slices may exceed 100%, as the work item will appear in multiple slices.

When you select a slice for a release, such as Version 1.1, the report displays four work items assigned to it. Parent work items will appear regardless of which release they are assigned to, but they are not included in the percentage calculation.

You can establish minimum and maximum values for a custom slice to show a warning when limits are surpassed, much like the constraints on board columns shown in the screenshot.

In the example below, the Open Bugs slice contains 9 work items. Since the maximum value is set to 5, a warning appears next to the slice—regardless of the value displayed (such as Remaining Estimate) or the display format.

To define a threshold for a slice:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select Slices from the dropdown.

3. In the Custom JQL slices section, select a slice (for example, Open Bugs).

4. Enter a value in the Max (Maximum) field. If the number of work items exceeds this value, a warning is displayed. If a field is left empty (for example, Min), no warning is triggered for that condition.

5. Click Save in the header.

Once you set a minimum or maximum value, it does not need to be updated. A warning will appear automatically whenever the threshold is crossed as work item counts change over time.

In comparison, Jira board settings can also trigger warnings when column constraints are exceeded. For example, in an active sprint, a warning appears in the To Do column when the number of work items (14) exceeds the maximum limit of 5.

When you need personalized indicators, slices can be used to filter the contents of your progress indicators. Here are examples for not using and using slices are filters.

Slices impacting indicators

Slices are also helpful in space reports where each slice represents a version. When you select a version, you can see the amount of work completed for it through numerical and time-based indicators.

Slices not impacting indicators

In a report that focuses on team performance, each slice may represent an assignee. In this setup, slices can appear below the progress indicators. When you select an assignee, the indicators do not change. Only the Summary and Breakdown sections update.

This approach works well when work items are reassigned within the same team or when several members log time on a work item owned by one assignee. In these situations, team-level metrics, such as total time spent or progress toward completion, often give a clearer picture than individual metrics.

To configure whether slices filter progress indicators within a report follow these steps:

1. Click Configure in the header section.

2. Select General in the dropdown.

3. Click Misc, and select whether to use default app setting or modify how slices affect progress indicators.

For more information on configuring default app settings, refer to the related article.

Consider disabling the All Issues slice when you want a different slice to be active when opening a report. In the example above, the Unassigned slice appears as the active slice.

This approach is useful when you have many assignees and want to focus on one at a time without displaying overall results. To achieve this:

1. Enable Hide All Issues slice in the report sidebar, as shown in the screenshot above.

2. In the Slice By section, select a field such as Assignee.

Alternatively, enable Hide All Issues slice, and create a Custom JQL slice and place it first in the list.

You can use slices in a similar way to Quick Filters on the Releases page to display work items by status categories such as To Do, In Progress, and Done. In the example above, the slice shows work items with a To Do status category that belong to Version 2.

With slices, you combine multiple Quick filters and further customize both the data source and how results are displayed by following these steps:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Open the Slices tab in the report sidebar.

3. In the Slice By section, set Slice By to Status Category, as shown in the screenshot below.

4. (Optional) Add the Fix Versions column in the Summary and Breakdown sections to preview filtered work items.

5. In the Custom JQL slices section, click + Add Slice.

6. Enter a name and select a color for the slice, then add a JQL query:
   statusCategory = "To Do" AND fixVersion = "Version 2.0" . This query has the same effect as applying two Quick Filters.

7. (Optional) Set a maximum value to display a warning when the slice exceeds it. In this example, attention may be needed because more than five work items have a To Do status category in Version 2.0. This may indicate that additional work—such as bugs or scope changes—has been added beyond the original five work items.

8. Review the slice’s appearance and order, then click the slice to apply it.

9. Click Save in the header.

After selecting the slice, you can view work items with a To Do status category that belong to Version 2, similar to the Releases page.

A newly created report displays slices grouped by Status Category, ordered by decreasing value, and showing the work item count for each group.

In the example above, there are 14 work items with a To Do status category, 14 with Done, and 2 with In Progress.

No. Warning types are enabled in the Warnings tab, as shown in the screenshot above. These types do not affect warnings displayed in slices.

In this example, 10 work items are flagged in the Warnings tab: 8 are unassigned and 2 are overdue. These work items are visible when the All Issues slice is selected.

When you select another slice, such as Open Bugs, the report is filtered. As a result, only 2 of the 10 flagged work items remain visible.

When both minimum and maximum values are set for a custom slice, only the minimum warning is shown if the work item count does not meet the minimum threshold.

In the example above, the Open Bugs slice contains 9 work items. The maximum is set to 5 and the minimum to 10, so a warning appears indicating that the minimum threshold is not met.

Yes. You can change the time units for time-based fields across all report sections, including slices, by following these steps:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select General from the dropdown.

3. Click Time Units and choose a value.

4. Click Save in the header.

Yes. You can hide slices based on a field and display only custom slices by following these steps:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Click the Slices tab in the report sidebar.

3. In the Slice By section, set Slice By to None, as shown in the screenshot below.

6. In the Custom JQL slices section, click + Add Slice to create a custom slice.

8. Click Save in the header.

The All Issues slice does not represent the cumulative sum of all slices. For example, in the screenshot above, the value displayed is the work item count.

1. In the first set of slices, work items are grouped by Status Category.

2. These slices appear to the right of the All Issues slice, and their total (14 + 14 + 2) equals 30 work items.

3. The second set includes slices created with custom JQL. In this example, one slice shows three work items of the Bug type.

Note that when using percentage or rate formats, it is recommended to use only one set of slices. Combining the first set of slices with custom JQL slices may result in totals that do not reach 100%, making the data harder to interpret.

No. Creating multiple slices does not impact report performance.

There is no limit to the number of slices you can add in the Settings sidebar. However, if you use more than five slices, the additional ones may be hidden under a dropdown in the Slices section, depending on their value and display format.

Similarly, when adding a new slice, you are limited to selecting from 10 colors, but there is no character limit for slice names. Using very long names may also cause the slice to be hidden under a dropdown in the Slices section.

To define which slice is active when a report opens:

1. Select the desired slice.

2. Click Save.

When the page is reloaded or another user opens the report, the selected slice remains active and continues filtering the report.

When the Hide All Issues slice option is disabled and no slices are configured, the slices section is empty and hidden. Follow these steps below to add slices in this section.

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select Current Tab from the dropdown.

3. Check whether Show slices is enabled and turn it on. The screenshot below shows this option disabled.

4. Select Slices from the dropdown.

5. In the Slice By section, choose a field (for example, Status Category).

6. Click Save in the header.

Alternatively, check whether the Custom JQL slices section is empty. If it is, click + Add Slice to create a custom slice. This will make the slices section visible.

You may see this error when no slices are configured and the All Issues slice is disabled. Follow these steps to resolve it:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select Current Tab from the dropdown.

3. Disable Show slices (the screenshot below shows this option enabled).

Alternatively, if you want to use slices:

4. Keep Show slices enabled and select the Slices tab instead of Current Tab.

5. In the Slice By section, choose a field (for example, Status Category).

6. Click Save in the header.

If you can’t view all work items referenced by a report, even when no error appears, it may be due to a disabled feature or insufficient permissions to access the report source.

To check whether all work items are visible using report settings, follow these steps:

1. Use the All Issues slice. If the work item count does not match the number of work items referenced by the report source, and the source is not extended to include parent, child, or sibling items, proceed to step 3.

2. If this slice is missing, disable Hide All Issues slice in the report sidebar.
   Afterwards, click Save in the header section. The screenshot below shows this option disabled.

3. If you are unable to view all work items after clicking on the All Issues slice, you may be missing permissions for accessing contents of the report source. Refer to a related article for verify your permissions.

An error may appear when using an unbound JQL query for a slice, as shown in the screenshot above. This type of query does not specify any fields, such as space, assignee, work item type.

Instead, it only includes sorting terms, such as ORDER BY created DESC, which sorts results by creation date in descending order.

To resolve this issue, include filtering criteria in the query, such as a space, assignee, work item type, release, status, or priority.