How to Track Jira Issue Status Changes in Data Center

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Tracking the Jira issue status changes is very important for Jira Data Center users. This helps them to manage the workflow, monitor the progress, and also keep transparency. For project managers, developers, and stakeholders, it is essential to know how an issue passes from one status to another so that the team keeps time, reaches deadlines, and stays efficient.

There are some natively built features of Jira that track changes in the issue status. While these built-in tools are helpful, there are limitations to historical analysis, bulk tracking, and exporting status changes for reporting.

If you require more advanced tracking, third-party solutions offer more visibility on status transitions, allowing users to filter, analyze, and export an issue’s history.

In this article, we’ll discuss both native and third-party apps that make tracking Jira issue status changes as effective as possible.

Understanding Jira Issue Status Changes in Data Center

The Jira issue status shows where an issue stands in its project workflow. Teams create unique status lists for their projects based on how they work. For example, a software development project follows these stages: To Do, In Progress, On Review, and Done.

When a Jira issue shifts between stages, it is called a status transition. For example:

• When a developer wants to start working on an issue, they move it from To Do to In Progress.
• The issue goes from In Progress to On Review after the task is finished and is ready for quality checks.
• Once approved, it moves from On Review to Done.

Native Jira Data Center Options for Tracking Status Changes

Jira Data Center Issue History Tab

In Jira Data Center, the Issue History tab records all changes to an issue, including the status transition, assignee change, field change, and comment. It is a feature that is crucial for tracking the progression and changes of an issue over time.

How to access the history tab on a Jira issue:

1. Open the Jira issue you need.
2. Scroll down to the bottom section of the issue view and locate the Activity section.
3. Click the History tab to see the detailed change log.

The History tab also includes all details, such as:

• Status Changes: Records each transition between statuses (e.g., from "To Do" to "In Progress").
• Assignee Updates: Records changes regarding who is responsible for the issue.
• Field Modifications: Tracks alterations to several fields such as priority, due dates, or custom fields.
• Comments and Descriptions: Adds or changes the comments or descriptions of the issue.

The History tab is good for checking changes in individual issues, but it’s not great for multiple issues:

• Not Practical: You will have to open separate issues to see their history, which is not practical if you have a lot of issues to review.
• No Combined Reports: Jira has no built-in reports that contain a summary of status changes across multiple issues, thus making it very difficult to analyze the overall trends.
• Issues with the History tab: Using the History tab for too many issues can be inefficient and may affect system performance.

JQL Queries

Jira Query Language (JQL) helps users create precise queries to filter and analyze issues based on different criteria, including status transitions.

With JQL, you can search for issues that have changed a certain status. For instance, the following query can be used to look for issues that were moved from “To Do” to “In Progress”:

status CHANGED FROM "To Do" TO "In Progress"

Additional time parameters let you refine your search results more precisely. You can use this query to detect transitions from "To Do" to "In Progress" during the past 7 days:

status CHANGED FROM "To Do" TO "In Progress" AFTER -7d

Follow these steps to utilize JQL effectively:

1. Navigate to Issue Search. Users can initiate Jira issue searches by clicking on Issues from the header and selecting Search for issues.

2. Switch to Advanced search. You can reach the JQL query bar by selecting Advanced from basic search mode.

Status transition tracking with Jira Query Language (JQL) is limited: JQL cannot query issues on specific workflow transitions, so it is difficult to track certain status changes. Furthermore, JQL is unable to display the exact dates on which status was changed, and it is therefore not possible to track issue progress in as precise a way.

Using Issue History for Jira App for Enhanced Tracking

The Issue History for Jira app is a solution for Jira Data Center that provides complete tracking and reporting of issue changes. It is particularly useful when users need to monitor and analyze the history of multiple issues simultaneously, a capability that Jira’s built-in features don't fully support.

Jira issue status changes in Data Center can be tracked using Issue History for Jira by following these steps:

• Open Issue History from the main menu after its installation.
• Choose the project or issues you want to track.

• Focus on the Status column. You can find out who updated the status and when along with the previous and new statuses. Also, you can apply a filter to track specific status transitions.

• As a result, you can get a full report related to specific projects, date ranges, and issue status transitions.

• It is possible to export the history of issues with their status transitions to XLSX or CSV to process further or share with stakeholders if needed.

With Issue History for Jira, compared to Jira Data Center’s native offerings, you get a centralized, customizable view of all issue changes across multiple projects instead of having to open each individual issue separately.

Users can access filtering features, track deleted issues, and generate reports as XLSX/CSV documents using the app. It provides a friendly interface, which makes it easier to monitor status modifications between multiple projects and teams.

Try Issue History for Jira app

Summing Up

Jira Data Center users can track issue status changes through built-in features that include the History tab and JQL queries. However, users need to open each issue separately or build complicated JQL queries to utilize these native Jira features.

With Issue History for Jira, you can see all changes to the status of multiple issues in an all-in-one view with advanced filtering and exportable reports.