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Jira doesn't have a "category" for issues built-in, so you'll need to do something to add one. I don't know if your question is about getting a category added to the system, or it's about using something your admins have already configured.
Either way, you'll need to talk to your admins to get it added to your issues.
Thanks for quick reply Nic, in this case I am the admin and would like to add some categories for my team to associate their tasks to in order to filter/report on specific tasks by category
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Ok, there's a couple of options.
You could use the built-in labels - these let people put whatever words they want on an issue, so they could be useful as categories. But they may be too flexible for you.
If you want fixed category names, then add a select-list custom field, and populate its options with your categories, then put it on the create, edit and view screens for the project(s)
One note of caution - category already has a couple of meanings in Jira-speak, so I would recommend describing your category field a little more - just something like "team category" or "work-type category". It will avoid confusion when you have people who have worked with Jira before - they'll be assuming "category" means "status category" or "project category"
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