One Small Jira Habit That Changed the Way I Work

[#1]

A few years ago, we used to treat Jira like a checklist. Create a ticket, move it across the board, and close it.

But I realized something.

Whenever someone asked me, "Why was this change made?" or "What was the root cause of this bug?", I had to search through chats, emails, and old messages.

So I started following one simple habit.

Before closing any ticket, I add a short comment explaining what was actually done and, if it's a bug, what caused it.

It takes less than a minute, but it has saved hours of confusion later. New team members understand the context faster, repeated issues become easier to solve, and knowledge doesn't disappear when people change projects.

For me, Jira stopped being just a tracking tool. It became a place where the team's experience is stored.

Sometimes the smallest habits create the biggest improvements.

I'm curious what's one simple Jira habit that has made your daily work easier?

[Jean Gordon]

This is a process we have always followed in Jira as it is standard process for everywhere I have worked no matter which tool we have used.

We also have process guidance as many new people to projects seem to lack understanding of what they are doing.

Will only get worse as many are using AI which they think is gospel :-)

[Leonard Hussey]

Meaningful, accurate, categorized and disciplined ticket linking. Hands down.

By Meaningful I mean linking what makes sense: link tickets that have an _actual_ relationship. Something that is demonstrable. If you are thinking link relationship in terms of "seems", "maybe" or "could". Do not link. This is just nise.

By categorized I mean defined special linking rules: What link type to use in which situations. Define a process. 

By accurate I mean: Be mindful of the directionality of the link: "is duplicate to" is NOT the same as "duplicates". Both belong to the same Link type, but directionality _matters_

By disciplined I mean: do the above always. Do not miss actual ticket relationships.

Whenever an issue comes and is the same as a previous one, whenever an issue comes and is result of another one, whenever an issue comes and its solution depends on another one, etc. ... proper ticket linking can help traverse the path.

If tickets are created by external customers, they can come in all shape of form. Anything is possible in the Summary, several languages, etc. -> Ticket linking is what cut through all the noise and established clear relationships.

At least for us

[Gavin Perch]

Defining exactly what "done" looks like before hitting the keyboard saves so much back-and-forth later on.

When you pair clear criteria at the start with a quick summary at the finish line, Jira actually starts working for the team instead of the other way around. It turns every ticket into a clear story of intent and resolution.

[Scott Windus]

I rely heavily on workflow transition screens and required field validators to ensure that all work items are properly completed, particularly requiring a closing comment, an assignee, and other mandatory fields as needed. This is especially important in JSM projects. (Comments are the bread & butter of Rovo)

While some users consistently follow good practices when resolving work items, many do not. Without these controls in place, too many items are closed without the necessary information, so enforcing these requirements at transition is essential to maintain quality and consistency.