Can I create a custom JQL field for calculated SLA or age of issue?

Question

I want to track dynamic values such as the age of an issue (i.e., how many days it has been open) or a custom SLA calculation. I'm trying to find a way to create a custom field that is automatically updated and can be used in JQL queries to filter or sort issues.

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Answer

Hi @Dinakaran R,

a work item's (issue's) various lifecycle events and status changes are captured in an work item's work item history, which you can access from the work item view in Jira or via Jira's REST API. From these status changes, you can calculate the time that a work item has been in a particular status - however it can be quite tricky to do that by hand.

That's the reason why a lot of users rely on solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace to do that for them. E.g., you may want to have a look at the app that my team and I are working on: JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also comes with a long list of so-called history columns that aren't natively available, including the time since creation, time in [status], time between [status] and [status], and many, many more.

This is how it looks in action:

As you can see above, you can easily sort and filter by your history columns, and also use them across JXL's advanced features, such as support for (configurable) issue hierarchies, issue grouping by any issue field(s), sum-ups, or conditional formatting. Of course, you can also export your data to Excel or CSV in just two clicks.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

Danut M _StonikByte_ · Answer

Hi @Dinakaran R,

Not sure if if is possible to add age as a field, but in JQL you try queries like these:

"Time to resolution" > 12h - for issues that took longer than 12h

created > startOfDay(-10) - for issues with age > 10 days

For something better, and if you want to try a plugin from Atlassian Marketplace, you can get a diagram and a report about the age of the issues by using the WIP Aging Chart gadget offered by our Great Gadgets app.

On its data tab, the report shows the issue by their age:

The same app offers also Control Chart gadget, Histogram Chart gadget and Time in Status gadget that you can use to track issues by SLA and easily identify SLA breaches.

Danut.

Iryna Komarnitska_SaaSJet_ · Answer

Hi @Dinakaran R ,

If you're looking to track issue age or custom SLA metrics in Jira, you can use the Custom Fields feature in the Time in Status app. It displays the time an issue has spent in its current status directly on the board and can be used in JQL. (Note: Only admins can create custom fields, and it's available for company-managed projects.)

To calculate the total age of an issue — not just the current status — you can generate a Time in Status report in the same app. The "Total" column will show the full issue age, and you can even create custom Status Groups to track specific workflow metrics.

(I’m part of the team that builds this app — feel free to reach out if you need help!)