Labels vs. Components - When to use each?

[Ben Weisman]

Looking for some guidance on when to use each.

[Joseph Chung Yin]

@Ben Weisman -

In addition to what @Mark Segall mentioned, here are a bit more information for you to consider -

Component/s -

1. Projects can be broken down into components, e.g. "Database", "User Interface". Issues can then be categorised against different components.

2. Component/s is defined in each project and project admin can control the component value nomenclature.  Issue can be assigned with one or multiple component/s.

Labels -

1. Agents can tag issue with a value at will.  However, there is no nomenclature control.  Meaning you cannot control what label value is created (i.e. abc vs ABC)

2) Labels cannot have spaces (i.e. "ACME 123" will be treated as two labels - "ACME" and "123")

In our environment, we preferred using component tagging to issues to ensure value control across all the issues.  This give us a proper control/mgmt on tagging issues.

Hope this helps.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Infrastructure Applications Team

Viasat Inc.

[Mark Segall]

Hi again @Ben Weisman 

Labels are great for quick tagging needs... Maybe you have a group of issues that you want to tag quickly for easy reference.  The downside is that they are not controllable so someone could type test1 vs test_1 vs tst1, etc.  So, I typically use them for quick point-in-time categorization needs.

Components are for where you want a little more structure and control over what can be selected.  Additionally, they offer a mechanism for dynamic issue assignment. I use these when I have the same type of stuff coming in over and over and I want to flag it with a controlled taxonomy.