> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://learn.nextedy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Prioritize Work Items
> Enable the Prioritization feature on the board to reorder work item cards within a swimlane, establishing a ranked order that persists in Polarion.
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## Before You Begin
* You need edit permissions on the work items in the board scope.
* The board must be displaying work items as cards (not in read-only mode). See [Read-Only Mode](/planningboard/guides/advanced/read-only-mode) if the **Prioritize** button is not shown.
* Familiarize yourself with the board layout if needed: [Basic Board Interactions](/planningboard/getting-started/basic-interactions).
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1. Navigate to the Polarion page that contains your Nextedy PLANNINGBOARD widget.
2. In the toolbar in the upper-left corner of the board, click the **Prioritize** button ( icon).
Prioritization mode is now active. A visual indicator shows that the board is in priority-editing state.
The **Prioritize** button is one of several toolbar controls. If you cannot see the toolbar, check that the board has loaded fully. Use the **Refresh data** button to reload if cards are missing.
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Within each swimlane, drag cards up or down to reflect their priority. The card at the top of a swimlane column is treated as the highest priority.
When Prioritize mode is active, each card shows its current priority value in brackets next to its priority field. Here are three cards before any reordering — PB-138 at 61.0, PB-136 at 55.0, and PB-122 at 46.0:
After dragging PB-122 above PB-136, its priority value updates to reflect its new position (58.000 — the average between 61 and 55):
Dragging PB-122 further to the top position assigns it a value of 71.000 (10 points above the previous top card):
Each drop is saved immediately — you do not need to confirm or submit changes.
The card sort order within a swimlane is coupled to the overall item sort order configured via the **Sort by** widget parameter. Changing priority order in Prioritization mode rewrites the item rank in Polarion. If your board is configured to sort by a field such as due date or severity, enabling prioritization overrides that display order for subsequent loads. Verify your **Sort by** setting before using prioritization in boards that rely on field-based sorting.
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Repeat the drag-and-drop reordering for each swimlane that needs priority adjustments. Each swimlane maintains its own card order independently.
When you drag a card and Planningboard saves the change, the board preserves your current swimlane and scroll position. You will not be jumped back to the top of the board, which makes it practical to work through a long list of items in a large board.
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Click the **Prioritize** button again in the toolbar to turn off prioritization mode. The board returns to its standard drag-and-drop planning state.
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## Configure the Sort Order Used for Prioritization
The **Sort by** widget parameter controls the initial ordering of cards when the board loads, and it interacts directly with prioritization. To configure it:
1. Open the widget configuration (expand tools → click the edit button on the widget).
2. Locate the **Parameters for Work Items** section.
3. Set **Sort by** to the field or criterion that should establish the default order before manual prioritization is applied.
| Sort by value | Effect on board |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Priority field | Cards load in Polarion priority rank order; drag reorders that rank |
| Due date | Cards load by due date; drag overrides the date-based order with a manual rank |
| Severity / custom enum | Cards load by enum value order; drag overrides with manual rank |
All Plans on the board must use consistent calculation types. Mixing Plans with different calculation configurations causes summation issues in capacity and effort totals, and can affect how items sort relative to each other across columns. If items appear in unexpected positions after prioritization, verify that all Plans in your project use the same calculation type.
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## Verified Items Cannot Be Moved
Work items with the **Verified** status are locked on the board. Cards in Verified status cannot be dragged in either standard planning mode or prioritization mode. This applies both to moving them between Plans and to reordering them within a swimlane.
This is expected behaviour. Verified items have completed their planning lifecycle. If you need to reorder a Verified item, change its status first via the work item sidebar.
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## Interaction with the Unplanned Section
Items in the **Unplanned** section (the right-hand backlog sidebar) are not part of the prioritization order. Prioritization applies only to cards already placed on the board (i.e., assigned to a Plan column). Plan items from the Unplanned section first, then use Prioritization mode to rank them within their swimlane.
Attempting to drag a card from one column (Plan) to another while Prioritization mode is active is blocked. The board displays an error message:
See [Manage Unplanned Backlog](/planningboard/guides/planning/unplanned-backlog) for guidance on moving items from the backlog onto the board.
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## Prioritization and Card Filtering
When the board has active card filters (for example, filtered by assignee or by a custom query via the funnel icon), Prioritization mode operates on the currently visible cards only. Hidden cards retain their position in the full order. Reordering filtered-view cards may produce gaps in the overall rank sequence.
If you only want to prioritize a subset of items — for example, only stories assigned to a specific user — apply that filter before entering Prioritization mode. This limits the drag targets to the relevant cards and makes the relative order easier to reason about.
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## Verification
After reordering cards and exiting Prioritization mode, you should now see:
* Cards in each swimlane column appear in the order you set.
* Refreshing the board (using the **Refresh data** toolbar button) reloads the board with the updated order intact — confirming the priority was saved to Polarion.
* If another user opens the same board, they see the same ranked order.
After exiting prioritization mode the priority brackets disappear from the cards. The card positions are preserved but the values are no longer shown:
Use the **Refresh data** button to confirm the new order persists:
After refreshing, the cards reload with the updated priority values visible:
If cards revert to a different order after refresh, check whether the **Sort by** widget parameter is set to a field value that overrides the manual rank on load.
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## See Also
* [Drag and Drop Planning](/planningboard/guides/planning/drag-and-drop) — standard planning interactions before using prioritization
* [Configure Work Items Dataset](/planningboard/guides/configuration/work-items-configuration) — set the **Sort by** parameter and work item query
* [Sort Swimlanes](/planningboard/guides/swimlanes/sorting-swimlanes) — configure how swimlane rows themselves are ordered
* [Basic Board Interactions](/planningboard/getting-started/basic-interactions) — toolbar controls and card quick actions overview
* [Manage Unplanned Backlog](/planningboard/guides/planning/unplanned-backlog) — move backlog items onto the board before prioritizing
**KB Articles**
* Introduction to Planningboard
* Planningboard interface & basic interactions
* Planningboard Widget Parameters
**Support Tickets**
* [#5879](https://support.nextedy.com/helpdesk/tickets/5879)
* [#6174](https://support.nextedy.com/helpdesk/tickets/6174)
* [#6496](https://support.nextedy.com/helpdesk/tickets/6496)
**Source Code**
* `Item.java`
* `PlansMode.java`
* `Config.java`
* `PlanningBoardDataService.java`
* `PlanningBoardWidgetRenderer.java`