How much unused information can I remove before it becomes problematic?

Question

I have inherited a Jira set up, and for the most part I have managed to add in new workflows, fields, projects etc that I have wanted to get everything moving in a way that reflects our current way of working

Now I am left with a LOT of things that have not been used in the 3+ years since I have been managing my teams and projects - and I want to know how detrimental it will be if I delete old/unused workflows, fields etc. How ruthless can I go before history gets deleted and the world stops making sense. Of course I am only going to delete what is not currently used, and I do not want to delete old projects, mostly just workflows and fields

Which brings me to another question - all the data held in the fields that is not currently used, can it be searched/filtered etc, used in any way when not associated with an actively used field

Rebekka Heilmann (viadee) · Accepted Answer

Hi @Julieanne Mortimer

You can delete unused workflows and schemes with no issues. The history will reference Statuses, which exist seperately.

For fields, every existing field is searchable. It doesn't matter if it is currently associated with projects. If a field has or had data in it, this data will be deleted with the field. That might be an issue if the field is used in active projects. You can just check for not empty values in the field per JQL.

I would clean up in the following order:

1. Archive old projects (give them a read-only permission scheme that will keep them searchable, give them a standard workflow (all statuses transition into all statuses), maybe even delete them?

2. Delete unused configurations

3. Check fields carefully by searching for values in them. Only delete unused fields

Be aware, that filters (and boards, dashboards referencing those) will break, if you delete or rename fields and other objects. The jql query is stored in plain text and cannot be repaired automatically. In Cloud, it got much harder to edit and therefore repair other user's filters.

Julieanne Mortimer · Accepted Answer

Thank you for the advice @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  and @Rebekka Heilmann _viadee_

I will take this slow and carefully. But I like my chances of getting this right, as I have migrated most, if not everything to new workflows, screens and fields. I will take an extra time with the fields