JIRA - Issue Types

Jira - Issue Types

In Jira, an ‘issue’ is a fundamental concept representing any unit of work, such as a task, bug, story, feature, or improvement. ‘Issue Types’ are used to differentiate and categorize these various kinds of work within a project, allowing for tailored workflows, fields, and reporting.

Common default issue types include (but are not limited to):

Sub-task: A smaller piece of work that is part of a larger standard issue. Sub-tasks must always have a parent issue and are used to break down complex tasks into manageable parts.
Bug: A problem, defect, or error that impairs or prevents the functions of the product or system.
Epic: A large body of work or a significant user story that can be broken down into smaller, manageable stories or tasks. Epics are commonly used in Agile development (especially with Jira Software) to group related stories for a larger feature.
Improvement: An enhancement or refinement to an existing feature, functionality, or task.
New Feature: A new capability or piece of functionality of the product or system that is to be developed.
Story (or User Story): A requirement or feature expressed from an end-user perspective, typically used in Agile development (Jira Software). Stories describe what a user wants to achieve.
Task: A general task or to-do item that needs to be completed to achieve a team’s goal.

Note: The specific issue types available depend on the Jira product (e.g., Jira Software, Jira Work Management, Jira Service Management) and any customizations made by your Jira administrator. Administrators can create, modify, and delete custom issue types to precisely match an organization’s unique processes and terminology.

Jira administrators can view and manage all available issue types in the system. The typical navigation path is (this may vary slightly based on your Jira version and product):

Click on the ‘Settings’ (cog icon) in the global navigation bar (usually top right).
Select ‘Issues’ from the settings menu.
In the sidebar of the ‘Issues’ administration area, under the ‘Issue Types’ (or a similarly named) section, click on ‘Issue types’. This page lists all global issue types defined in your Jira instance.

Issue Type Schemes

An ‘Issue Type Scheme’ is a configuration that defines a collection of issue types and their order of appearance. This scheme is then associated with one or more Jira projects. By doing so, it dictates precisely which issue types are available for users to create within those specific projects and in what order they are presented in the ‘Create Issue’ dialog.

Jira usually includes a ‘Default Issue Type Scheme’ which often contains all standard global issue types and any newly created ones. When a new project is created, it’s typically associated with this default scheme or a copy of it, unless a different, custom scheme is explicitly chosen. Jira administrators can create and manage multiple custom issue type schemes to provide tailored sets of issue types for different types of projects or teams.

To manage Issue Type Schemes (as a Jira Administrator):

Navigate to ‘Settings’ (cog icon) > ‘Issues’.
In the sidebar, under the ‘Issue Types’ (or similar) section, click on ‘Issue type schemes’.
On the ‘Issue Type Schemes’ page, you can view existing schemes. To create a new one, click a button typically labeled ‘Add issue type scheme’ (often found at the top right of the page).

When adding or editing an issue type scheme, you will typically configure:

Name: A descriptive name for the scheme (e.g., ‘Software Development Scheme’, ‘Marketing Project Scheme’).
Description (Optional): A brief explanation of the scheme’s purpose.
Issue Types for Scheme: You can select which issue types to include in this scheme from the list of all ‘Available Issue Types’ (globally defined issue types). This is often done by dragging and dropping issue types from an ‘Available’ list to a ‘Selected’ list for the current scheme.
Order of Issue Types: You can arrange the order in which these selected issue types will appear to users when they create an issue in a project using this scheme.
Default Issue Type: You can specify a default issue type for the scheme, which will be pre-selected when users create issues.

After configuring these details, click ‘Save’ to create or update the scheme. The new or modified scheme will then appear in the list of available issue type schemes.

Once an issue type scheme is created, administrators can perform several actions on it:

Edit: Modify its name, description, the included issue types, their order, and the default issue type.
Associate: Link the scheme to one or more Jira projects. This is the crucial step that applies the defined set of issue types to those projects.
Copy: Duplicate an existing scheme, which can be useful as a starting point for creating a new, similar scheme.
Delete: Remove a scheme, provided it is not currently associated with any projects.

Practical Application: For instance, a ‘Software Development’ project might use an issue type scheme that includes Epic, Story, Bug, Task, and Sub-task. In contrast, a ‘Marketing Campaign’ project could use a different scheme with issue types like Task, Campaign Asset, Content Request, and Milestone. This customization ensures that users in each project only see and use issue types relevant to their specific work context, leading to better organization and more efficient project management.