A Sprint cannot be closed due to the error "Sprint cannot be completed as there are incomplete subtasks on the following issues"

Summary

When a user tries to close a Sprint from an Agile board, the following message might be displayed in a pop-up, preventing the user from completing this operation:

This article lists the most common root causes of this issue, explains how to identify them, and offers suggestions for avoiding them.

Environment

Jira Software Server/Data Center on any version from 8.0.0.

Diagnosis

To diagnose this issue and identify the right root cause, follow the steps below:

Diagnosis for Root Cause 1

• Open each issue listed in the pop-up, and scroll down to the Sub-Tasks panel

  • If you see any sub-task that is not complete (not in a Done/Closed/Resolved, etc...) status, then Root Cause 1 is relevant and you can move on to the corresponding resolution section:

    

  • If all the sub-tasks are in a completed status (Done/Closed/Resolved, etc...) as shown below, move on to the next diagnosis step

    

Diagnosis for Root Cause 2

• Go to the Board column configuration page Board > Configure > Columns, and look at the statuses mapped to each column

  • If you see that the status the completed sub-task is in (Closed status in the example above) is listed under the Unmapped Statuses column, then Root Cause 2 is relevant and you can move on to the corresponding resolution section:

    

  • If you see that the status the completed sub-task is in (Closed status in the example above) is completely missing from the page, then either Root Cause 3 or Root Cause 4 might be relevant, and move on to the next step

    

Diagnosis for Root Cause 3 and Root Cause 4

• Go to the Board General configuration page Board > Configure > General

  • Check the projects associated to the board in the Projects in board section

  • For each of these project, check if the sub-task issue type is associated to its own workflow, as illustrated in the screenshot below:

    

• Still in the Board General configuration page Board > Configure > General

  • Click on the link Edit Filter Query in order to open the filter used by the board, in the issue search page

    

• Check the results from the filter and check if you see sub-tasks listed in the results. If sub-tasks are missing from the results (as shown in the screenshot below), then Root Cause 3 or Root Cause 4 is relevant, and we need to identify which one of these 2 causes is. Move on to the next step.

  

Diagnosis for Root Cause 3 only

• If the filter is explicitly filtering issues by issue type and excluding the sub-task type, try to add the sub-task type to the filter and check the results

• If you see that sub-tasks now appear, then Root Cause 3 is relevant and you can move on to the corresponding resolution section:

  

• If sub-tasks are still missing, then move on to the next step

Diagnosis for Root Cause 4 only

• You already tried to add the sub-tasks issue type to the Board filter query and yet, sub-tasks are still missing as shown below:

  

• Take a look at the filter, and check if there is any condition involving a custom field. In the example above, we can see that there is an AND condition using a custom field called "Test Select List"

• If removing the condition based on this custom field field brings the sub-tasks as illustrated below, then Root Cause 4 might be relevant

  

• Go to the context configuration of this custom field by going to page ⚙ > Issues > Custom Fields, searching for this field, and going to ... > Configure Contexts

  

• Check if the issue type sub-task is missing. If it is missing (as illustrated below), then Root Cause 4 is relevant and you can move on to its corresponding resolution:

  

Cause

The main reason why the Sprint cannot be closed is because the are sub-tasks which are in a status that is not mapped to the Done column in the Board Column configuration.

In the example below:

• The Bug SCRUM-13 has a sub-task which is in the Closed status:

  

• Checking the Board column configuration, we can see that the Closed status is not mapped to the Done column, and therefore is not treated as a "Completed" status from the Board perspective:

  

There can be various reasons why a sub-task is not in a status mapped to the Done column. Each of these reasons is listed below:

• Root Cause 1 - Some sub-tasks have not been completed yet

• Root Cause 2 - All the sub-tasks have been completed, but the board column configuration is missing a status

• Root Cause 3 - All the sub-tasks have been completed, but the board filter query is excluding the sub-task type

• Root Cause 4 - All the sub-tasks have been completed, but the board filter query is using a field excluding the sub-task type in its context configuration

Solution

The ultimate purpose of each of these solutions is to ensure that all the sub-tasks are in a status that is mapped to the Done column in the Board configuration. In other words, the purpose is the following:

• The sub-task which is in a status (Closed, for example):

  

• This status is mapped to the Done column:

  

Solution for Root Cause 1

• Click on each issue listed in the error pop-up

• Scroll down to their Sub-Tasks panel

• Make sure that each sub-task is moved to a status mapped to the Done column in the Board Column configuration

Solution for Root Cause 2

• Go to the Board Column Configuration via the page Board > Configure > Columns

• Drag and drop the status the completed Sub-tasks are in from the Unmapped Statuses column to the Done column

Solution for Root Cause 3

• Edit the Board filter query to explicitly include the Sub-task issue type and save it

• Go to the Board Column Configuration via the page Board > Configure > Columns

• Drag and drop the status the completed Sub-tasks are in from the Unmapped Statuses column to the Done column

Solution for Root Cause 4

• First, we need to make sure that sub-tasks issues are not excluded by the board filter by going with either option below:

  • Option 1: Edit the context configuration of the custom field(s) used in the Board query by including the issue type sub-task

  • Option 2: Edit the Board filter query to remove the condition using the Custom Field that does not have the issue type sub-task in its context configuration, and save it

• Go to the Board Column Configuration via the page Board > Configure > Columns

• Drag and drop the status the completed Sub-tasks are in from the Unmapped Statuses column to the Done column