Best Practices for Assigning Issues to Multiple Members in Jira

[#1]

The question of assigning multiple team members to a single Jira issue is widely popular. Traditionally, Jira tasks are assigned to a single individual to signify primary responsibility. However, modern project management often requires the involvement of several team members to complete a task. While Jira does not directly allow multiple assignees for a single issue, there are effective ways to manage this within the system that we are happy to share with you.

1. Subtasks for Collaborative Assignments

One way to involve multiple members is by breaking down a main task into subtasks. Each subtask can be assigned to different team members, facilitating a division of labor while still connecting each piece of work to the larger task. This approach not only makes it clear who is responsible for each part of the task but also allows for detailed tracking of progress on individual components.

To make it easier to track workload through subtasks, teams can integrate with tools like Planyway. Planyway offers a team timeline feature that visualizes not only Jira issues but subtasks too. This can help project managers to ensure that deadlines are met and workloads are balanced, with the added benefit of providing a visual representation of the project's progress for the entire team to see.

(https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1221297/planyway-resource-planning-project-roadmap-time-tracking?tab=overview&utm_campaign=atlassianarticle&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=atlassiancommunity&hosting=cloud)

2.Custom Fields for Multiple Assignees

For instances where a task genuinely requires joint responsibility, a Jira administrator can create a custom field, such as "Secondary Assignee" or "Collaborators." This field can then be used to indicate additional team members who are working on the task. While these members will not receive the same notifications as the primary assignee, the project lead can use filters and dashboards to keep track of tasks with multiple assignees.

3.Using Components or Labels

Another strategy is to use components or labels to associate a task with multiple team members. Components can represent teams or specialties within your organization, and a task can be associated with multiple components. Similarly, labels can be used to tag team members or roles. These methods require team members to monitor their respective components or labels, but it can be an effective way to denote multi-member responsibility.

[Chris K]

Hi @Mary from Planyway

Thanks for sharing your great article! :)

We are facing a similar requirement in one of our Jira projects, where there are up to 20 individuals working on one specific item. On some tasks within the item can be worked on parallel, others needs to be done sequential. Because we didn't want to flood the project with sub-task tickets or spam the issue itself with a lot of custom fields, we decided to search for a checklist add-on from the marketplace.

We are very happy with the app Checklist for Jira, which provides exactly the solution we were seeking for: Provide all the important steps of an item together in one issue. With the add-on, we are able to create different checklist templates, which get created depending on the issue type right after issue creation. Each checklist item can be assigned to a specific user, status and deadline, which allows us to break down all the work. There are also some functions, which come very handy together with Jira automation, which allows us to automate and optimize the workflow and the corresponding processes.

Just wanted to share this experience as it seems to fit as a fourth best practice in your list for assigning issues to multiple users :)

Kind regards,

Chris

[Oleksandr Siryi_Railsware_]

Hey, @Mary from Planyway 

Thanks for your insights.

Might I add that there's also an option of adding checklists to your Jira issues? Clear ToDo's can add some structure and clarity to a process in addition to "assigning" multiple people to a Jira issue. Plus, an app like Smart Checklist lets you save and reuse checklists as templates. This is a nice touch for recurring processes or adding DoD checklists automatically.

[Elizabeth Jones]

Thanks for the recommendations. I currently use subtasks for collaborative assignments and custom fields for multiple assignees depending on the use case. Additionally, leaving an issue unassigned, but using components is a helpful way to create a queue. Great advice; thanks!

[Laurie Sciutti]

👏🏻

[Asha Goyal]

Hello @Mary from Planyway 

This article has great ideas on how to manage tasks when many people need to work

together.

Thanks

[Kimberly Scharrenberg]

2.Custom Fields for Multiple Assignees

I really like this feature, except the way it is used. Cause if the field is empty, it does not show up in existing user stories, which is very annoying if you want to add more users in retrospect. Now I need to auto-fill it with an empty user, so that it always shows up so we can always use it later, and it auto-filled.

I would have really liked to be able to just add one from an empty box. :(