Redmine

We have a department that's using the issues list, sorting by updated date (oldest @ top), as a queue system. Each person in the dept takes the top one works on it then goes back and takes the next top issue.

The reason they sort by updated date is because if anything is added to the issue, they want it to fall to the bottom of the list (person submitting didn't have everything so they lose their place in line).

This is working but now they've asked to let the submitters (authors of issues) have the ability to rank their issues. So they could say

"Work on #-1234 before #-4321"

even though #-1234 has a newer updated date. They don't want to move in front of all the issues, just the ones they authored. More like saying

"The next one of mine you work on, make it #-1234 even though it has a newer updated date than #-4321."

I could make a custom field but if they change that then their issue falls to the bottom of the list so that doesn't work.

We thought about grouping by author but with the number of issues we have that would be difficult from a logistic standpoint.

It's almost as if I need 1 custom field I can change that doesn't affect the updated date of the issue but I can't do that right now.

So I'm looking for help here either specifically or philosophically on where we can go with this (or even if there is a solution at all).

Thoughts?