How to Track Status Changes Over Time in Jira

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Jira status changes show how work really moves - not just where it finishes.

Work items don’t move step by step. They can slow down, return to previous statuses, or get stuck. These changes help PMs and team leads identify delays, rework, and process problems. But Jira mostly displays the current status, not how a work item has changed over time.

So, let’s explore in detail why Jira status changes are important and how to track them in a simple way.

Why Tracking Jira Status Changes Matters for PMs and Team Leads

Jira status change indicates how work really flows through your process.

A work item may go from To Do → In Progress → Done. But in reality, it moves back and forth much more often. On the other hand, it may be blocked and then reopened, or it may wait too long in one status. These moments can be easy to miss if you are only looking at the current status.

By monitoring changes in the status of Jira tasks, the PMs and team leads can:

• See where work slows down
• Find steps where work gets stuck most often
• Understand the extent of rework that occurs
• Check whether the team is following the expected workflow

Status changes are particularly useful during:

• Sprint retrospectives - to talk about what really happened
• Planning - to help improve estimates and timelines
• Reporting - to explain delays with facts, not guesses

Without status change history, any team relies on memory and assumptions. With it, they can make decisions based on real data.

How to Track Jira Status Changes Using Native Jira Tools

Jira allows you to view status changes, but only to a basic level.

Work Item History Tab

Each work item in Jira has the Activity section with the History tab. There you can see:

• When the status changed
• Who made the change
• What the previous status was

This is useful when you need to check one particular work item. But the problem is that you need to open work items one by one when checking status changes, for example, across all project work items. There is no summary view and no easy way of seeing trends over time.

Jira Reports and Boards

Jira also includes reports such as:

• Cumulative Flow Diagram

• Control Chart

These reports help understand flow in general, but:

• They don't display precise status changes
• They don't explain how the work moved back or got stuck
• They don't display a history of individual work items

Why This Is Not Enough for PMs

Native Jira tools provide the answers to questions like:

• “What is the status now?”
• “How much work is done?”

But PMs and team leads often require different answers:

• “Where did work slow down?”
• "About how often did work go backwards?"
• "When did something change during the sprint?"

For that, you need more in-depth tracking of the status of Jira work items over time.

Advanced Way of Tracking Jira Status Changes

In situations where you need more than basic history, Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) app from the SaaSJet team can help you gain a clear understanding of how work items change their status over time.

This app provides a complete log of Jira work item status changes, including those that have been edited or deleted, unlike the native Jira views, which show only the current state.

Complete History of Status Changes

Using the Issue History for Jira app, you can easily track:

• Every status change
• Exact dates and times of the changes
• Earlier and new status values
• Users who are responsible for the status change

And you can always respond to simple yet significant questions:

• When did a work item go into In Progress?
• How long did it stay there?
• Was it reopened in the sprint?

No manual checks. No guessing.

Want full visibility into Jira status changes?

Go beyond the current status and see how work items really move over time. Track status changes, spot rework early, and export audit-ready reports with Issue History for Jira.

👉 Try Issue History for Jira on Atlassian Marketplace

Monitoring Specific Status Transitions

Not all the statuses are equally important. With Issue History for Jira, you can filter the statuses easily. For example, it is needed to understand which work items in the Support project were reopened in the last two weeks. 

To do that, you need to select the project and date range, then use the status field filter. 

It helps to find where work goes backward, measure rework, and improve workflow rules. 

Easy Exports for Reports and Audits

Reports with work item status changes can be exported in CSV or Excel format. 

This is useful for sprint reports, management updates, process reviews, and compliance and audit needs. 

The Advanced Excel export in the Issue History for Jira app has a Field changes total count report. With this report, you can easily see how many times the Status field changed for each work item. If the number of status changes is much higher than expected for your workflow, it usually means that statuses were moving back and forth too often. 

It can be a sign of unclear workflow steps, frequent rework, and blockers discovered too late. 

See Status Changes Over Time

Visual status change tracking is one of the most significant benefits for PMs and team leads.

With the Dynamic Status Chart gadget provided by the Issue History for Jira app, you can:

• View how many work items were in each status over time.
• Track changes by sprint, project, or filter.
• Quickly identify slowdowns and unsteady workflows.

This helps to improve retrospectives and discussions and make them more fact-based.

Summing Up

Tracking Jira status changes over time helps PMs and team leads understand how work flows and where it stops. Basic visibility is available with native Jira tools, but they don’t show status changes over time or the back-and-forth.

Using Issue History for Jira from SaaSJet, users can monitor all status changes, identify rework early, and use clear reports and exports to enhance team workflow, predictability, and efficiency.