How to manage Jira issue changes across projects

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Did you know that around 50% of IT projects fail or are significantly delayed due to poor communication and lack of change control processes? When changes pop up unexpectedly, it can feel like everything is at risk of falling apart. Managing these shifts effectively is crucial to keeping your project on track and meeting deadlines.

In this article, we’ll walk you through practical tips and tools to help you handle issue changes smoothly and keep your projects on track. Let’s make the chaos a thing of the past.

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JQL: identify which issues were updated

Jira Query Language (JQL) is a powerful tool that allows you to filter and track issues across multiple projects. JQL has some limitations when searching past changes. So, the best we can do is to use the “updated” operator to identify which tasks have recently changed. Here’s how you can use JQL. 

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➤ Searching by UPDATED

The updated field provides an easy way to track recently modified issues.

project IN ("Project A", "Project B") AND updated >= -7d  

How it helps:

• Lists issues updated in the last 7 days in the specified projects.

• Great for staying on top of current activity.

Limitation:

The updated field does not specify what changed. For detailed tracking, you need other tools.

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➤ Searching by WAS/CHANGED

The WAS/CHANGED operator helps you track historical field states but is limited to six fields: status, assignee, priority, resolution, reporter, and issueType. 

project = "Project A" AND status WAS "In Progress" DURING (startOfMonth(), endOfMonth())  

What it does:

• Identifies issues that were in "In Progress" in the specified project this month.

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The CHANGED operator highlights updates to specific fields, making it easier to pinpoint changes.

priority CHANGED AFTER -7d  

What it does:

• Tracks issues with priority changes in the last 7 days.

Limitation:

WAS and CHANGED operators only apply to the six supported fields. Older changes outside Jira’s history retention period won’t be available.

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Pro Tip: Combine WAS, CHANGED, and updated

To get a comprehensive view of changes, you can combine these operators:

project = "Project A" AND (status CHANGED OR assignee WAS "jdoe") AND updated >= -14d  

What it does:

• Tracks issues in "Project A" where either the status changed or the assignee was previously "jdoe" within the last 14 days.

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Activity gadget: track what exactly was updated

The Activity gadget in Jira is a visual tool that helps you track specific updates to issues within a project or across multiple projects. Unlike generic filters, it provides a detailed view of what was changed, making it easier to understand the context of updates.

Configuration allows you to select one or multiple projects where you need to track changes.

When to use it:

The Activity gadget is especially useful for:

• Monitoring high-priority projects in fast-moving environments.

• Staying informed about changes made by specific team members.

• Consolidating activity from multiple projects, so you don’t need to jump between issues.

Limitations

While excellent for multiple issues tracking, the Activity gadget focuses on short-term visibility. It doesn’t offer the depth of historical data and comprehensive reports.

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Issue History for Jira: custom reports on all issue updates

The Issue History for Jira app provides a comprehensive view of all changes made to issues in your Jira projects. Unlike JQL or native Jira features, it captures every update across all fields, offering unmatched flexibility and detail for tracking issue changes.

Issue History for Jira gives you full transparency and control over every update made to issues. You can filter by one or several projects, select date range and updaters. 

➣ Report of changes for one project:

➣ Report of changes for several projects:

Try to create your custom report of changes

Wrapping up

Project changes are inevitable, but they don’t have to throw everything off track. Whether it's a shift in scope, a new requirement, or an unexpected roadblock, managing issue changes effectively is key to keeping your project on schedule. Tools like JQL, Activities Gadget, and the Issue History for Jira app empower teams to stay on top of every update, streamline workflows, and avoid costly mistakes. By leveraging these solutions, you can gain complete visibility and keep your projects running smoothly.

[Anahit Sukiasyan]

Hi @Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_

Nice article! Managing changes effectively is such a crucial aspect of project success, and I love how you’ve broken it down with practical tips. 

A quick thought: Do you have any recommendations for managing changes in environments with a lot of custom fields? Tracking updates across those can get overwhelming, so any additional insights would be great. 

[Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_]

Hi @Anahit Sukiasyan 

Thank you for your feedback! I’m glad you found the article helpful.

Tracking changes for custom fields can indeed be challenging. I believe Jira Automation can help with this. You can set up rules to automatically notify your team when specific custom fields are updated or log changes in a dedicated field or comment. Also, the Issue History for Jira app from my team is designed to track changes for any fields (standard and custom). You can select the fields you need for your report.

Here is another article related to this topic: How to see custom field history in Jira