JIRA has Priority by default, but does it also have a default Severity field like Azure DevOps?

[omerkarabas]

Hello,

I'm migrating from Azure DevOps to JIRA Cloud and noticed an important difference in default fields.

What I've found: In Azure DevOps, there are two separate default fields:

• Priority (for prioritization)
• Severity (for impact assessment)

In JIRA, I can see there's a default Priority field, but I cannot find a default Severity field.

My specific question: Does JIRA have a built-in/default Severity field separate from Priority, or is Priority the only default field for this purpose?

In our Azure DevOps setup:

• Priority: Determines work order (P0, P1, P2, P3)
• Severity: Indicates impact level (Critical, High, Medium, Low)

These serve different purposes and we track them separately.

What I need to know:

1. Is there a hidden or less common default Severity field in JIRA that I'm missing?
2. If not, is the best practice to create a custom field for Severity?
3. How do other teams handle this Priority vs Severity distinction in JIRA?

Would appreciate insights from anyone who's handled similar Azure DevOps to JIRA migrations!

Thanks!

[Karan Sachdev]

Hi @omerkarabas

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

If you have a Jira Service Management subscription, the 'Severity' field is created by default and is associated with the service projects. You can utilise the same field in Jira (Software and business) projects as well.

However, if you have only the Jira subscription on your site, you will need to create a custom drop-down field to capture the severity details.

Thanks!

[omerkarabas]

Hi@Karan Sachdev , thanks a lot for the clarification. 

I'm interested in retrieving the Severity field details programmatically.

Could you please let me know:

- Which REST API endpoint(s) can be used to fetch this field’s value?
- Could you also share an example request and response?

Much appreciated!

[Karan Sachdev]

Hey @omerkarabas

Since this will be a custom field, you will have to use the REST APIs used for custom fields. You can fetch the ID of this field by editing its details. The ID is present in the URL.

The Issue custom field option API will provide the list of available options for a custom field.

For the severity value populated on a work item, you'll have to use the Get Issue API endpoint. Here, you need to provide the issue key as a parameter, and it will return all the fields for that issue.

Thanks!

[Ömer Karabaş]

Hi again @Karan Sachdev 

I wanted to follow up regarding my question about retrieving custom field selections across multiple projects. I've tried several suggested solutions, but I've encountered additional issues, which I've detailed in another question here:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/optimal-endpoint-for-retrieving-custom-field-selections-across/qaq-p/3025772#M1126083

Can you look ? 

Thanks so much 

[Karan Sachdev]

I've shared the details with a sample request and response on this post.

Thanks!