Jira Software hieararchy in issue types

Question

Hey guys,

This question might be redundant, but I need a definitive answer.

Currently we have Jira Software running here and my team would like a better organization for our IT project. We have tickets that fall under categories like Hardware, Software, User Access, Network, etc...

Under these categories there would be a few different issue types, is this doable under one project in Jira Software?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

You could do it with issue types, but it sounds more like you need a field you can stick on an issue to capture these categories.

Components spring to mind, but these are very much project items, and ones that your project owners would be able to amend, so I think I'd look at creating a globally available select list for the categorisation (possibly multi select so you could have items that are "hardware and software" for example).  You could even make it mandatory in order to force it to be used (This will make people fill in incorrect answers instead of leaving it blank, but we usually find most people do try to answer correctly when they have to)

Alex Christensen · Answer

As far as I know, there is no way to enforce that kind of heirarchy in issue types. If an issue type is available for a project, it's available for the whole project - there's no way to create "issue type categories" in a single project.

What are the different issue types you want to us for each category? In my opinion, if those issue types are at all similar, I'd create a standard set of issue types that can be used by all of those categories, then just use a custom field to keep track of the category (Hardward, Software, User Acess, Network, etc.). Personally, I feel like that's a simpler approach, but I don't know your requirements for your system, so I could be wrong in this case.

Also, why are you opposed to using more than one project for these categories? That would be an easy way to split them into categories and you could configure the permissions to be the same across all of those projects, as well.

J. Caldwell · Answer

Vanilla Jira Software, straightforward no. Categories are related to projects. Issue Types are associated to projects.

Hypothetically, if you limited the issue types to specific projects, then yes, you could infer them to categories. But the first time someone makes a mistake or adds a non-appropriate issue type to a project associated with a category, it will all go to hell.