Using Boards

While you can display linked issues in the card layout of Active Sprints and the Backlog view on a board, you cannot see how each card fits into the full hierarchy.

This limits visibility into the complete dependency tree and may lead to work being scheduled out of sequence, which can create bottlenecks later.

You can create a report from the Manage Pivot Reports page or from within a Board, referencing up to two closed sprints.

Afterwards, you can update the report source to include up to five closed sprints, as shown in the screenshot above, by following the steps in the related article.

Closed sprints cannot be displayed on a board. In contrast, you can create a report specifically for those sprints, to perform a retrospective of what what delivered.

In the screenshot below, a completed sprint appears with a green label and strikethrough text, while an active sprint is shown with a blue label and no strikethrough.

In the example, the Remaining Time for completed work items in the closed sprint is 7 hours. If the original estimates were unchanged, these hours were likely overestimated.

Even after accounting for these 7 hours, more than six days of work remain for work items planned but not completed during the sprint. This indicates that the sprint was not successfully delivered as scheduled.

You cannot create a report that references custom sprints directly from the board. However, you can update the report source to include them, as described in the related article.

The screenshot below shows a custom sprint added to the report source.

For example, a report created for a single sprint, as shown below, lets you monitor the remaining time for that sprint alongside work item status, assignee, priority, and work item type. If an assignee’s remaining work exceeds the sprint’s remaining time, those deliverables are at risk of not being completed.

In the screenshot, Emily Lake has over two weeks’ worth of deliverables remaining. If the sprint lasts only two weeks, these tasks are unlikely to be finished.

When a sprint closes and a work item is not set to Done, it is moved to the next sprint or returned to the Backlog. To track how often this happens from the board, you must enable the Sprint field in the card layout of the Active Sprints and Backlog view.

Alternatively, you can use JQL in the Issue Navigator to manually identify work items assigned to a sprint more than once, as shown in the screenshot.

As this number increases for incomplete work items, the risk of delay grows. You can then compare Time Spent against the Original Estimate to decide whether the work item should be reassigned, re-evaluated, or descoped.

This article explains how to display a report in sync with a board using a shortcut, as shown in the screenshot above.

Why should you display a shortcut?

When a report uses the same source as a board (such as a JQL filter or space), it reflects changes made to that source, including status updates, sprint closures, or other board configuration changes.

By adding a shortcut, as shown in the screenshot above, you can access the report directly from the board. If you update the board while the report is open, reload the report to ensure it reflects the latest changes.

How can you display a shortcut?

If you update the board while the report is open, reload the report to ensure it reflects the latest changes.

To add a shortcut in the space navigation:

1. Click Shortcuts in the space navigation.

2. Select + Add shortcut.

3. In the pop-up, click Add next to the Link option.

4. In the next window, enter the web address (URL) and the shortcut name. The name can be different from the report name.

5. Click Add to save the shortcut.

Whether you use a single sprint for the entire development team, separate sprints per project (as shown in the screenshot below), or one sprint per release, you can review their contents simultaneously in a report.

A Jira admin can enable or disable parallel sprints by navigating to Administration (gear icon) > Jira apps > Jira configuration > Parallel Sprints for company-managed spaces. This feature is not available for team-managed spaces.

By default, when you create a report using the actions menu in the Board:

1. Report name – Matches the board’s name where the actions menu is used. Until saved, the name remains a hyperlink to the board.

2. Description – Shows which sprint work items are included.

   • For Active Sprint, Future Sprint, or Backlog work items, the description reflects the option selected. For example, the screenshot above shows a report created from the SSP board for Active Sprint work items.

   • For Custom items, the description displays “Board Report” when the report is created using options from the Pivot Report Options pop-up.

Atlassian restricts third-party apps like Pivot Report from adding buttons, icons, or menus to Boards of Team-managed projects (formerly next-gen). This restriction in Jira prevents reports from being created directly in Boards.

How can you create a report for Team-managed projects?

As a workaround, you can create a report for Team-managed spaces from the Issue Navigator or the Manage Pivot Reports page. This can be done by referencing a filter or JQL, or by adding the space to the source after the report is created.

You can also update the source for reports created through Work item View actions and widgets.

How can you create a report for Company-managed projects?

In comparison, reports can be created from boards in company-managed projects (formerly classic projects), as well as from the Issue Navigator or the Manage Pivot Reports page.

For details on locating the project type or migrating to another type, see the related article.

Yes. You can prevent users from creating reports from a board by removing their access to the app entirely.

You can also remove the app’s integration at the space level. However, this only disables report creation from the Work Item view. It does not prevent users from creating reports from boards within that space.

The screenshot above shows a report built from a board to display Backlog work items. No work items appear because items with a To Do status are not mapped to any column on the board.

As a result, these work items do not appear on the board and are not included in the report.

Yes. The number of work items in the report source directly affects Jira’s API performance, which determines the report’s loading time—not Pivot Report itself.

• To speed up loading, reduce the number of referenced work items or those added through extensions (parent or child items).

• Also, specify which spaces or boards Jira should search. A narrower search scope means fewer items for Jira to process, resulting in faster results. Atlassian’s documentation offers additional JQL optimization tips.

Yes. Reports can display more work items than a board or the Issue Navigator. However, loading time increases as the work item count grows.

Working with high work item count in Cloud

Atlassian notes that searches have no work item limit, but display limits apply:

• Boards and backlogs show up to 5,000 work items.

• The Issue Navigator shows only the first 1,000 work items.

A report can help you work around certain Jira limits, though it may increase loading time. For example, a board may fail to load if it reaches the maximum work item limit.

In contrast, you can create a report based on the board or its underlying source filter. However, this report may take longer to load compared to one linked to a board that has not reached the maximum limit.

Working with high work item count in Data Center

The display limit for the Issue Navigator can be increased using a documented workaround. A report does not require this workaround, although very large reports may load more slowly.

Similarly to prior example, a report linked to a board or its underlying source filter may take longer to load if the workaround was applied to increase the limit.