Why Every Jira Admin Needs Field Usage Visibility

[#1]

As a Jira administrator, I was once asked a deceptively simple question by management:

“Where is this field used?”

The goal was reasonable:
They wanted to analyze the instance, optimize performance, reduce confusion, and clean up technical debt that had accumulated over years.

What I quickly realized was that Jira makes this question surprisingly hard to answer.

---

The Reality of Finding Where a Field Is Used

In Jira, a field is never “just a field”.

To understand where a single custom field is used, you need to manually walk through a long and fragmented chain of relationships:

Screens path

For one field, you must determine:

• On which screen(s) the field appears

• Those screens belong to which screen scheme(s)

• Those screen schemes are referenced by which issue type screen scheme mappings

• Those mappings are associated with which project(s)

Workflow path

At the same time, you must also check:

• On which screens the field appears

• Those screens may be referenced by workflows

• Workflows belong to workflow schemes

• Workflow schemes are associated with project(s)

And this process must be repeated:

➡️ One field at a time
➡️ Manually
➡️ Across multiple admin screens

There is no single place in Jira where you can see this information consolidated.

---

Why This Becomes a Serious Problem

This isn’t just an inconvenience — it creates real operational risk.

1. Performance degradation

Over time, Jira instances suffer from field proliferation:

• Dozens (or hundreds) of unused or rarely used custom fields

• Fields attached to screens and workflows “just in case”

• Legacy fields left behind after process changes

A large number of fields:

• Slows issue creation and editing

• Increases indexing and rendering cost

• Makes configuration changes riskier

When Jira feels slow, fields are often part of the reason.

---

2. User confusion and data inconsistency

Another common pattern I’ve seen:

• Multiple fields with the same semantic meaning

• Slightly different names

• Created by different teams at different times

• Nobody remembers which one is “the right one”

Users ask:

“Which field should I use?”
“Why are there three fields that mean the same thing?”

This leads to:

• Inconsistent data

• Broken reports

• Low trust in Jira as a source of truth

---

3. Cloud migrations make it worse

During Data Center → Cloud migrations, teams often want to:

• Start fresh

• Keep only what is truly needed

• Avoid carrying over years of configuration debt

But without knowing:

• Which fields are actually used

• Where they are used

• In which projects and workflows

…it becomes nearly impossible to make informed decisions.

---

The Core Jira Limitation

The core problem is simple:

Jira does not provide an overall, exportable view of field usage.

The information exists — but it’s:

• Scattered

• Fragmented

• Locked behind multiple admin screens

• Impossible to analyze at scale

This makes systematic cleanup and optimization practically unworkable.

---

Why I Built Fields Usage for Jira

After going through this process repeatedly, I realized Jira admins need a different approach.

I built Fields Usage for Jira to answer one fundamental question clearly and completely:

Where is each field used?

What the app does

It provides:

• A single table view showing field relationships

• Visibility into:

  • Screens

  • Screen schemes

  • Issue types

  • Workflow schemes

  • Projects

• The ability to export the data for:

  • Excel

  • Audits

  • Migration planning

  • Cleanup analysis

No guessing.
No clicking through dozens of configuration pages.
No field-by-field detective work.

---

Why This Is a Usefull Tool for Admins

Without field usage visibility:

• You are blind when optimizing performance

• You cannot safely clean up configuration

• You cannot explain impact to management

• You cannot plan migrations with confidence

With it:

• You can identify unused fields

• Reduce duplication

• Simplify user experience

• Improve Jira performance

• Make data-driven decisions

---

Final Thought

Jira is incredibly flexible — and that flexibility is exactly why technical debt accumulates silently.

Fields Usage for Jira doesn’t add new complexity.
It reveals what already exists, clearly and honestly.