Change column status in existing board

[John Kraaijeveld]

We're using JIRA for our development team. After an reorganizational fit, the status and name of several columns in the board do not correspond any longer. Our board consists of an Simplified Workflow.

My question: what are the consequences of changing the status of one or more columns? Does it affect the history of issues already completed, i.e. will searching for them be more difficult? Are there any other consequences?

[Phill Fox]

As @Nic Brough [Adaptavist] has already commented changing the status of columns will not change any data on the issues. However, if you have changed the Simplified Workflow for your project already this will have caused any previous statuses to be renamed to match your new definition. So be aware that whilst changing the labels of the columns has no impact whatsoever on the underpinning data, changing the workflow names can impact the history of statuses as shown for each issue.

[John Kraaijeveld]

When I asked the question I was not aware of the changes made to the Simplified Workflow by our teamlead. It now consists of 9 statuses instead of 3. Can you describe the possible impact on status history when assigning statuses to columns? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Again, changes to columns does not change any data on the issues.

If you change the workflow though, there can be some changes on the current data - if you delete a status, issues in that status will have to be changed to another. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Changing the status in columns will not change any data on the issues, so go ahead and do it.  It only affects the display of the board.