Managing Issues

Overview

The term “issue” in Jira isn’t necessarily used how we think of it in the real world – as a “problem” or “obstacle”. Instead, issues in Jira are used for tracking the work in your project - tasks, milestones, and Initiatives.

Issues in Jira are broken into a hierarchy of Initiatives, Epics, Stories, Sub-tasks, and Risks. These are explained in more detail in Issue Type Overview below.

Note: Keep in mind that all of these things fit within your Jira PROJECT, which is really just a workspace.

The various issue types in Jira allow users to create a hierarchy of items within their project. The issue types are, in order of breakdown:

Summary of Issue Types in Jira
Type of Issue Definition Example
Initiative A traditional “project” or larger, overarching goal that needs to be accomplished Plan a Wedding
Epic A milestone within the Initiative Finalize Wedding Dinner
Story Something that needs to be completed for the Epic (milestone) to be successfully realized Book the caterer
Task A smaller piece of a Story (milestone) Picking a Restaurant
Sub-task A smaller piece of a Task Get price quotes
Risk Something that could potentially go wrong and cause a delay Desired caterer is already booked for another event

 

When creating a new issue or editing an existing one, a list of customizable fields will appear which you can use to provide more information about the issue. These fields will depend on the kind of issue you are working on. A brief description of some of these fields is provided below.

Note: These are fields that are available when CREATING a new issue. When editing an existing issue, additional fields may be available.

Summary of Issue Fields
    Field Available for:
Issue Field Field Description Initiative Epic Story Task Sub-task/Risk
Project The project (workspace) for the issue to be associated with. x x x x x
Issue Type Select whether you want to create an Initiative, Epic, Story, or Task. x x x x x
Summary A brief, descriptive title for the issue. x x x x x
Description A longer description of the issue. x x x x x
Sponsor Typically someone in a leadership role (e.g. an executive or director) who sets the Initiative's budget and pulls in resources as necessary. x x      
Manager The person who is in charge of getting the Initiative done, including managing resources, keeping track of the timing, etc. x        
Resources List one or more people who can provide assistance on this Initiative as necessary (e.g. subject-matter experts). x       x
Stakeholders List one or more people who are somehow invested in the completion of this Initiative (e.g. a client) x        
Target Start Hopeful start date x x x x x
Target End Hopeful end date x x     x
Start Date Actual start date x x x x x
Due Date Actual end date x x x x x
Labels Use one or more labels to help you categorize this issue. You can create new labels or use existing ones. x x x x x
Linked issues

Determine the relationship between this issue and another one. Available relationships include: is blocked by, blocks, clones, is cloned by, duplicates, is duplicated by, causes, is caused by, relates to.

The “Issues” field below is then used to specify which issues this is related to.		 x x x x x
Issue Used together with the previous “Link issues” field. This is where you specify what other existing issues this particular issue is related to. x x x x x
Security Level Determines the visibility of this issue. Selecting “Confidential” limits visibility to users in the issue’s Assignee and/or Resources fields. x x x x x
Attachment Attach files to the issue. Attachments will be accessible to anyone who can view the issue. x x x x x
Parent Link Associate an Epic with an existing Initiative.   x      
Epic Name Similar to the Summary field: A brief, descriptive name for the Epic.   x      
Reporter The name of the person who created the issue in Jira.   x x x x
Team A group of people who will work together on the issue.   x x x x
Assignee The name of the person who is responsible for completing and providing updates about the status of an issue.   x x x x
Original Estimate An estimate of the total amount of time (e.g. 3w 4d 12h) is required to complete the issue.   x x x x
Remaining Estimate An estimate of the amount of time left on a project until it is completed.   x x x x
Epic Link Associate the Story or Task with an existing Epic.     x x  

 

  1. Be sure you are viewing the project. From the Jira homepage, click on the name of the project to view it.Example project name
  2. Click Create in the top menu. The “Create issue” window will open.Create button
  3. Use the Issue Type dropdown menu to select the type of issue that you want to create. For more information on each issue type, see the Issue Type Overview accordion above.
    Note: Sub-tasks and Risks must be created directly from existing Tasks, not from this main menu.    Selecting an Issue type
  4. Depending on the type of issue that you select, different fields will appear where you can provide more information about the issue. The red asterisks (*) mark required fields.Issue creation form
  5. When you’re done, click Create.
  1. Be sure you are viewing the project. From the Jira homepage, click on the name of the project to view it.Example project name
  2. Click on an existing Story or Task to open a detail view.
  3. Within the detail view, click on the Create Sub-task button (Create Sub-task button).Create sub-task button within issue detail view
  4. A “Sub-tasks” field will appear. Use the dropdown menu to the left to select “Sub-task” or “Risk”.Selecting sub-task or risk
  5. Provide a description of the Sub-task/Risk in the text box.entering sub-task description
  6. When you’re done, click Create.
  1. Be sure you are viewing the project. From the Jira homepage, click on the name of the project to view it.Example project name
  2. Click on an existing issue to open a detail view.
  3. Click into the Assignee field. If the issue has not been assigned to anyone, it will say “Unassigned”. You can always reassign an issue later if necessary.Assignee field unassigned
  4. You can assign the issue to yourself or to another user by searching by name and selecting from the dropdown list. Only one assignee can be designated per issue.searching for an assignee
  5. To change the assignee for an issue, simply click on their name and either remove them or select someone else.Selecting an assignee
  1. Be sure you are viewing the project. From the Jira homepage, click on the name of the project to view it.Example project name
  2. Select Issues in the left-hand menu.Issues
  3. A new page will load with the project’s issues. From here, you can search for a specific issue or use pre-built and customizable filters to see certain types of issues.Searching for issues

Linking issues creates a relationship between those two issues. There are two common uses for linking issues:

  • When one issue is a duplicate of another (e.g. if one person opened the issue “Find a Caterer” and a second opened the issue “Pick a Restaurant that Caters”).
  • When one issue is blocked by another (e.g. if one Sub-task is “Order Sample Foods”, it might be blocked by a Sub-task “Get Food Allergy List”, which certainly needs to be done first).

There are many different screens in Jira to create links between issues – the same end result, just different steps to get there. Let’s walk through the most common screen - creating links between existing issues from an issue’s detail view.

  1. Be sure you are viewing the project. From the Jira homepage, click on the name of the project to view it.Example project name
  2. Click on an existing issue to open a detail view.Opening issue detail view
  3. Click the Link button (link button) and select Link issue.Selecting the "Link issue" option
  4. In the “Linked Issues” section, use the dropdown menu to select the type of relationship you want to create. In this example, the “is blocked by” relationship has been chosen.selecting a link relationship
  5. Use the search box below the relationship dropdown to specify which other issues you want to link to. Multiple issues can be linked at the same time.Selecting an issue to link to
  6. Click Link. Any links you created will now be listed in the issue’s detail view.Linked issue shown in detail view

     

You may have an Initiative that needs to be private only to your team, regardless of the default permissions of your Jira project (workspace).

  1. Open the Initiative issue.
  2. In the top right menu, choose the lock button.Lock button
  3. Choose the level of security you want the Initiative to have. The new security level will automatically save.

Note: If you set security on an Initiative, it will trickle down to all existing child issues but not extend to later created issues. For example, let’s say the default permissions in my project (workspace) are Public, but I have set the Mary and Sanju Wedding Initiative to Confidential. If I open the Mary and Sanju Wedding Initiative and add a new child Task issue “Find Flowergirl”, the “Find Flowergirl” Task will be Public, not confidential. When you add new sub-issues to a confidential Initiative, you must repeat the above steps.