What makes the status Resolve special

Question

I recall using Jira in the past that Resolve is a special status. Dashboards and other areas of Jira treat "Resolved" issues as more than just a status and more like a milestone in the development process. This is not the same as close. In the case where we are not packaging shrinkwrap software but delivering code to in-house users, we deploy our code to UAT and wait for a user's pass or fail before it gets migrated to Production and then validated again prior to closing the issue. There must be some internal metadata being flagged other than just the status being set so once an issue is closed, it is still considered "resolved". What are the implications of using the "Resolve" status at the "Code Complete" point in the lifecycle prior to going to UAT? Is this the right application of the status "Resolved"? Or should it map to "UAT Pass"?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted Answer

Actually, it's not quite that.  Resolved is just a status in the workflow, like Open, Closed, In Progress, or any others you might add - On hold, blocked, waiting for info, gone to the pub...

It's up to you if you want to use resolved as it is by default in Jira.  Or you can kill it completely in a workflow.  For example instead of using "resolved" at the "code complete" point, dump it and explicitly use "code complete"

However, what I think you're actually thinking of is the "resolution" field.  The rule in Jira is simple here.  If the resolution has ANY value, then the issue is considered as done, it's key gets struck out, and it doesn't appear in lists like "currently assigned to me", "outstanding in the project" and so on.   If the field is empty, then it is seen as something that needs to be doing.  (Word of warning - I really do mean empty - some people add a resolution of "unresolved" and then end up here asking why they are treated as done - it's because they've put something in)

This ties into the workflows - as you go through a transition to resolved or closed, Jira typically puts the resolution field on the screen, so the user enters a value.  It automatically clears it on "reopen".

When you design a workflow, bear that set/unset of resolution in mind...

It's then up to you to decide when a resolution should be set or unset in your workflow!