How to create Components in team-managed (former Next-gen) projects

[#1]

Components are a great way to structure work in Jira. 

You could achieve a similar result if you were to use a different grouping (tagging) mechanism in Jira, like for example labels or custom fields; but components are popular for a few reasons including:

1. You get a component management page where you can administer your components
2. You can define and standardize component names 👉 which means no risk of typos (ex: when using labels).
3. You can automatically assign an issue based on component
4. You can create an unlimited number of components

When Atlassian announced Next-gen projects in 2018, many of us got excited about the new type of project - especially that you could now create easy-to-use epic roadmaps, do fast project setup and enjoy easy administration. For many of us, those benefits outweighed the fact that a few features, available in company-managed (former Classic) projects, were missing here and there.

One of these missing features is components. I took some time and collected a few workarounds posted here, in the Atlassian community, that you can use to achieve similar results as with components in company-managed projects. Also, I’ll introduce our own component management app Octo.

#1 Use custom fields

If you’re looking for a way to group your issues only, then you can create a custom field called “component” in your team-managed project. The best-suited type of field would be “Dropdown field” - which can be single or multi-select. You can define your own options that are visible in the dropdown and users can select them.

Pros

• A predefined list of options in the Component field that users can choose from
• Ability to filter issues by component field
• It’s free

Cons

• Can only define 55 values to be visible in the dropdown; if you need more, then you’d need to define a new field
• There’s no component management screen like in company-managed projects
• The field is project-specific, you can’t use it in other projects

#2 Use labels

Instead of using components, you can use labels to tag your issues instead. This might be a good solution if you want to structure your issues across multiple projects, but it might be difficult to manage because labels can be used for other purposes in your organization as well, and anyone can easily create them.

Pros

• Labels can be used across your Jira projects
• You can create as many labels as you wish
• You can filter by labels

Cons

• Anyone can create a label from the Labels field (it’s error-prone)
• There’s no label management screen for components like in company-managed projects
• Might already be used for another purpose in your organization
• It’s harder to manage than custom fields and components

#3 Use Automation for Jira to automatically assign Assignee when the issue is created

One of the great features of components is that when you assign it to the issue while creating it, then the assignee is automatically populated based on your component settings.

If you’re looking for this, then Automation for Jira might solve your problem. Automation for Jira allows you to create automated rules that are executed every time someone creates an issue, for example. It’s quite simple to set up; all you need to do is to specify the trigger, rule or condition (optional), and action. 

Here are two examples:

1.Automatically assign all bugs to our developer

Trigger: Issue was created.

Condition: Check if the issue was a bug.

Action: If it was a bug, then assign it to our developer Lily.

2.Automatically assign issues with a specific field value, eg. Component named Idea

Trigger: Issue was created.

Condition: Check if Component field has value “Idea”

Action: If it has this value, then assign it to our product manager Steve.

Pros

• Rules are easy to set up and you can add many triggers, conditions, and actions.
• It’s free (there are rule execution limits based on your pricing plan).

Cons

• You need to create these rules for all scenarios you have. Let’s say you have 50 Jira users to whom you’d like to assign issues based on various conditions for each; this might prove lengthy to set up and hard to maintain.

#4 Use Octo - Component management for the Jira app

Octo is a component management app for Jira Cloud built to make the management of your Jira components easier while offering extra features like component versions, shared components, and so on. We waited for components in team-managed projects for quite a while at Jexo, and so we decided to include that functionality in Octo until available by default in Jira.

Octo unlocks the Component screen in your team-managed projects, so you can create and manage components the way you’re used to in company-managed projects. You can also assign components to issues via the “Component” field and then filter for issues assigned to these components.

If you’d like to know more about how team-managed components in Octo work, you can check out our wiki page.

The only downside is that the automatic assignment functionality isn’t possible with Octo because we couldn’t place the field in the “create issue modal”. If this is something you’re looking for, then I can only recommend using Automation for Jira or using company-managed projects instead.

Pros

• Can create components in Next-gen projects and assign issues to them
• Can search by Component field or by an “octo-component” property
• Share components across many Jira projects (cross-project components)
• Has extra features, such as a single place to manage components across all your Jira projects, Component labels, Components versions/releases, and soon sub-components

Cons

• The app comes with an extra cost
• The automatic assignment based on the component while creating an issue isn’t supported 

Sum up

None of the workarounds mentioned above is a perfect replacement to components for team-managed projects, but for the time being, it’s the best we can do, and based on what the problem is you can find a temporary solution.

If you’re interested in team-managed components, please make sure to vote and follow this improvement ticket so you can get the latest updates on development from Atlassian. There’s also a public roadmap Atlassian is working on and planning to complete in the near future, but at the time I’m writing this post, I’m unable to find a Component feature for team-managed projects on the list.

👉 TRY OCTO FOR FREE TODAY

[Bhanu]

@Nikki Zavadska _Appfire_ All the workarounds suggested were great. The add-on is helpful. Hope atlassian comes out with an easier way to manage grouping on team managed projects. 

[Alex Lazar]

@Nikki Zavadska _Appfire_ great article, i am tackleing this exact issue now and we don't have the option to add apps that add a cost to our Jira instance!