How can I raise a clarification in jira on a user story

Question

I have an ask not to raise clarification as a bug on a task, but as a clarification on the user story. How do I achieve this? Currently, the drop-down menu for Create > Worktype at my organisation does not list Clarification. Please explain if this is a configuration of features in Jira that needs to be sorted out at my organisation.

Piyush Annadate _ACE Pune_ · Answer

Hello @Digesh Bhatt ,
Welcome to the Community !

Seems Clarification is more as input based on requestor and may not be an work item (it may based on organization process).

You may ask Jira admin to create a custom-field (multiline text) as 'Story Clarification' and add it during the initial story process or even closure (clarification is more like criteria during story creation).

I can think clarification more as 'acceptance criteria' or 'definition of done' (few cases). Having a acceptance criteria as clarification about story requirement in checklist as well - which can be checked based on completion.

If not above, clarification can be completion or cancellation closure notes based on story completion transition to DONE with required resolution. Clarification as a work item may exists in your instance but not in your project wherein you are not able to find that in dropdown.

Also, having a clarification as a issue type (subtask) may not be good case, as you cannot restrict creating a subtask for STORY but not for BUG.

Sanam Malleswari · Answer

Hi @Digesh Bhatt

Raising a clarification should not be treated as a bug if it’s not a defect, but rather a question or discussion around a user story.

In Jira, the available issue types (like Bug, Task, Clarification, etc.) are controlled by your project's Issue Type Scheme, which is configured by your Jira administrator. If you don’t see "Clarification" or a similar option in the Create > Issue Type dropdown, it likely means your Jira project doesn't currently have that issue type configured.

Here's what you can do:

Check with your Jira Admin or Project Admin and request:

To add "Clarification" as a custom issue type to your project, OR

To guide the team on the preferred way to raise clarifications (e.g., using a label, comment, or sub-task under the user story).

Alternatively, you can:

Add a comment directly on the user story to ask your clarification.

Use a sub-task (if available) to create a clarification linked to the story.

Or, raise a regular issue and tag it with a "clarification" label if your team uses labels to track such items.

This setup is not a Jira Cloud feature limitation — it's just that your organization's configuration might need to be updated based on your team’s working style.