Managing projects in Jira often means dealing with repetitive tasks, duplicating issue structures, or maintaining consistency across teams and projects. While Jira offers many powerful tools, one of the most effective ways to streamline workflows is by using templates. However, the word "template" can mean different things depending on what you’re trying to achieve.
In this publication, we’ll explore the main types of templates available in Jira, their use cases, and the top apps from the Atlassian Marketplace that can help you make the most of them.
Why One Template Doesn’t Fit All
The word "template" might suggest a single solution, but in Jira, templates come in many forms to support different needs. Each team has unique workflows - some require duplicating entire issue hierarchies, others focus on standardizing task descriptions or automating communications.
Whether you’re looking to replicate an entire work item structure (issue), streamline content creation, automate communication, or duplicate entire projects, Jira offers a variety of tools and plugins tailored to these goals. Understanding your team’s specific workflow is key to selecting the right type of template.
In this article, we’ll break down the main types of templates in Jira, highlight their use cases, and showcase the top apps from the Atlassian Marketplace to help you get the most out of them.
1. Work Item Structure Templates (Hierarchy of Work Items)
When working on large or recurring projects, manually recreating work item hierarchies can be time-consuming. Work Item Structure Templates allow you to clone work items in a specific hierarchy, preserving the relationships between them. This includes Epics, Stories, Tasks, and Sub-tasks, but it can also involve other types of linked work items.
Why It’s Useful:
This type of template is invaluable to duplicate repeated tasks in your backlog, when you need to replicate an entire set of work items across different teams or even projects, ensuring that no critical steps are overlooked.
Example Applications:
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Clone Expert for Jira Templates, Epics and Issues: This tool allows you to clone Epics as well as any work type along with all its sub-tasks, offering unparalleled flexibility. Additionally, it features a transparent editing table, enabling users to customize tasks and sub-tasks before cloning. This ensures that your cloned items are perfectly tailored to your project needs, maintaining consistency and streamlining processes across teams.
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Deep Clone for Jira (Cloud only): With this app, you can clone entire work item hierarchies, including dependencies and relationships, giving you flexibility in replicating tasks in bulk.
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Elements Copy & Sync: Automates the replication of work item relationships, ideal for task hierarchies.
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Templating.app - Issue Templates & Project Templates for Jira (Cloud only): This app enables users to set up both work item and project-level templates, allowing teams to easily replicate configurations and work item structures across different projects. Ideal for users who want comprehensive templates that apply to both individual tasks and whole project setups.
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Smart Issue Templates for Jira: This tool allows for rapid replication of common work item structures, such as a standard hierarchy of Epics, Stories, and Tasks, making it easy to maintain consistency and streamline backlog management across similar projects.
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Issue Templates for Jira: Although primarily for content templates, the app also offer some capabilities for cloning entire task structures with predefined relationships between issues. This makes it applicable for creating and reusing specific hierarchies across projects.
Real-Life Scenarios:
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Marketing campaign replication
A marketing team managing multiple product launches can use a Work Item Structure Template to quickly replicate the same set of tasks - such as creating social media content, planning ad campaigns, and coordinating product documentation - across each new launch without missing any steps.
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Production Product Release
A development team preparing for a production product release can utilize an Work Item Structure Template to replicate tasks, including final QA testing, stakeholder approval, deployment steps, and post-release monitoring, ensuring that every critical stage is covered.
2. Content-Specific Work Item Templates
Standardizing content within individual work items is another essential use case for templates. These templates ensure that the necessary information is captured consistently, whether it’s for bug reports, feature requests, or internal documentation.
Why It’s Useful:
Templates with pre-defined fields and descriptions help teams maintain consistency and avoid leaving out critical details when creating tasks.
Example Applications:
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Clone Expert for Jira Templates, Epics and Issues: This app allows users to create templates based on existing work types, ensuring compatibility with standard Jira structures. The content of these templates is replicated during cloning and can be fully customized before being added to the backlog, providing flexibility and ensuring task relevance.
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Issue Templates Agent (Cloud only): Specializes in creating structured task descriptions, guiding users to fill in all the necessary fields to maintain a consistent format.
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Issue Templates for Jira: This app is highly focused on enabling standardized content creation within individual work items, making it easier for teams to set up predefined fields, formats, and descriptions that can be reused.
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Elements Copy & Sync: Automates the process of copying content across work items, including comments, attachments, and custom fields.
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Easy Issue Templates for Jira: Designed for quickly setting up predefined work item templates, this app simplifies task creation by filling in specific fields automatically, based on pre-set templates.
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Default Values for 'Create Issue' Screen - Issue Templates: This app allows teams to pre-set default values in the "Create Issue" screen, helping users follow a consistent format for specific work types.
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Checklists for Jira (Free) by HeroCoders (Cloud only): A simplified checklist tool for individual tasks, ideal for keeping track of task-specific to-dos and sub-steps, particularly for repetitive tasks within specific types of issues.
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Issue Checklist Template and Report (Cloud only): Enables checklist templates within work items to maintain consistency across tasks. This app is especially useful for tasks that require multiple steps or need a standard checklist format.
Real-Life Scenarios:
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Bug reports
A software development team uses a Content-Specific Task Template for bug reports. Each report includes pre-set fields for "Steps to Reproduce," "Expected Behavior," and "Severity," ensuring that all necessary information is provided upfront.
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New employee onboarding
An HR team uses a Content-Specific Task Template to streamline onboarding for new employees. This template includes predefined tasks such as creating a domain account, setting up an email account, scheduling onboarding training, and ordering a computer. By standardizing the onboarding process, teams ensure a smooth and efficient start for every new hire.
3. Email Templates (Automated Communication)
Managing communication between teams and clients can be a challenge, especially when dealing with multiple issues. Email Templates help automate and standardize email responses triggered by specific events, such as issue creation or status updates.
Why It’s Useful:
By automating communication, you ensure consistency in messaging, reduce manual follow-up tasks, and minimize the chance of miscommunication.
Example Applications:
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Jira Automation: This tool allows you to create workflows that send automated emails based on specific triggers, such as moving an work item to a new status or creating a new work item.
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Email This Issue: A plugin specifically designed to improve communication in Jira, allowing users to create customizable email templates and workflows.
Real-Life Scenario:
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Ticket Status Updates
A customer support team uses Jira Automation to notify customers when their work item has been updated, resolved, or escalated. The pre-set email templates ensure that each message is consistent and professional, without the need for manual intervention.
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Client Inquiry Follow-Up
When a customer inquiry or issue requires clarification, teams can use pre-designed email templates to ensure that outgoing messages adhere to established visual and content standards. This approach maintains professionalism, reduces response time, and ensures brand consistency, while providing all necessary information to the customer.
4. Project-Level Templates (Duplicating Entire Projects)
For teams that work across multiple projects with similar setups, Project-Level Templates can be a lifesaver. These templates allow the duplication of the entire project configuration, including workflows, permissions, issue types, and custom fields.
Why It’s Useful:
Setting up new projects can be time-consuming, especially if they require the same configuration as existing projects. Project-Level Templates save time and ensure that new projects follow the same structure, minimizing setup errors.
Example Applications:
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Project Configurator for Jira: This app lets users clone entire projects, copying workflows, permissions, work types, and more, ensuring consistency across projects.
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Project Templates for Jira: Provides ready-made project templates that can be reused to set up new projects with pre-configured settings.
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Delegated Project Creator for Jira: Allows admins to delegate project creation, using templates to ensure consistency in new projects. This tool is useful for organizations that frequently spin up similar projects and want to ensure that each one adheres to specific configurations.
Real-Life Scenario:
A consulting firm uses Project Configurator for Jira to replicate project setups for new client engagements. Each new project includes the same work types, workflows, and permissions, ensuring a consistent experience across teams.
5. Response and Comment Templates (Service Desk Communication)
When handling customer support or internal IT requests, communication efficiency is key. Response and Comment Templates allow teams to automate repetitive messages, reducing the time spent on manually composing answers to frequently asked questions or status updates.
Why It’s Useful: With these templates, support agents can respond to common inquiries quickly and consistently, ensuring that all communication is accurate, professional, and tailored to specific needs.
Example Applications:
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Canned Responses Pro for Jira: It allows users to create reusable response templates for common issues, set dynamic signatures with user and project data, and even automate actions (e.g., closing a ticket after sending a thank-you response).
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Response Templates for Jira (Canned Responses) (Free) (Cloud only): Allows service desk agents to quickly reply to tickets using pre-defined templates, ensuring consistency and saving time in repetitive responses. The Pro version includes additional formatting options and dynamic fields.
Real-Life Scenarios:
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Ticket status updates
A customer support team uses Jira Automation to notify customers when their ticket has been updated, resolved, or escalated. The pre-set email templates ensure that each message is consistent and professional, without the need for manual intervention.
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Customer query follow-up
A sales or support team handles customer inquiries requiring detailed explanations or additional clarifications. Using pre-designed email templates ensures that outgoing emails adhere to the company's visual and content standards, maintaining professionalism while providing all necessary information. This approach streamlines communication, reduces response time, and ensures brand consistency across all client interactions.
Table of Applications by Category
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Clone Expert for Jira Templates, Epics and Issues
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Issue Structure, Content-Specific Task, Project-Level
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Deep Clone for Jira
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Issue Structure, Project-Level
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Elements Copy & Sync
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Issue Structure, Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Templating.app - Issue Templates & Project Templates for Jira
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Issue Structure, Project-Level
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Yes
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No
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Marketplace Link
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Smart Issue Templates for Jira
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Issue Structure
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Issue Templates for Jira
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Issue Structure, Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Issue Templates Agent
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Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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No
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Marketplace Link
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Easy Issue Templates for Jira
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Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Default Values for 'Create Issue' Screen - Issue Templates
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Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Checklists for Jira (Free) by HeroCoders
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Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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No
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Marketplace Link
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Issue Checklist Template and Report
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Content-Specific Task
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Yes
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No
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Marketplace Link
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Jira Automation
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Email, Response and Comment Templates
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Yes
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Yes
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A built-in capability within Jira
Documentation Link
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Email This Issue
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Email
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Project Configurator for Jira
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Project-Level
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No
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Project Templates for Jira
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Project-Level
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Delegated Project Creator for Jira
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Project-Level
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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Canned Responses Pro for Jira
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Response and Comment Templates
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Yes
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Yes
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Marketplace Link
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| Response Templates for Jira (Canned Responses) (Free) |
Response and Comment Templates
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Yes
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No
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Marketplace Link
Marketplace Link
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Conclusion
Templates in Jira are powerful tools that can significantly enhance team productivity and ensure consistency across projects. Whether you're replicating complex work item hierarchies, standardizing content within tasks, automating emails, or duplicating entire project setups, there's a wide variety of solutions available to fit your needs. By understanding the different types of templates and how they can streamline your workflows, you can save time, reduce errors, and improve overall team efficiency.
Choosing the right template approach for your team is key to unlocking Jira's full potential. Explore the wide array of template tools available in the Atlassian Marketplace and discover the options that best align with your project management goals.
