How do I implement a checklist in jira?

Christian Holmboe August 15, 2012

I've been asked to implement a way of handling checklists in jira:

As an example, we have a checklist that we run through for new hires. It contains stuff like Setup and sign contract, Set up domain user account, Supply access card, Company orientation and so on. There are 30+ items on the list. Each item is checked off by a person from one of Legal, Internal IT, HR, Office facilities or Mentor. Some of the items may not be applicable for all new hires (Example: a new sales person will need an account with our travel agent, others do not).

My thought right now is to have a Issue-type for each checklist and somehow create sub-tasks (assigned to Legal, IT etc) based on information supplied at the creation of the issue.

What I like from you is pointers to how to approach/implement this. Are there plugins that could help me? Some smart configuration hints? I know java and have had a brief look at how to build plugins with the atlassian sdk but really would like to solve this without too much programming.

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Rp Subhub
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August 15, 2012

Another approach you might want to consider is creating "template" tasks with sub-tasks and then using Clone action.

Christian Holmboe August 21, 2012

Thank you! I'll look into if this will work for us.

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14 votes
Railsware November 23, 2016

Hi all,

We are using JIRA Cloud in our team. We tried JIRA subtasks but often it’s just an overkill. Usually task don’t need to be estimated, tracked etc.

We just needed a punch list of things to consider a task complete. So as we couldn’t find anything cool and decided to make our own checklist :)

Now we want to share it with other people. It's free so anyone can try.

It has:

  • Simple and minimalistic UI.
  • Markdown support.
  • Possibility to add simple instruction per each checklist item to simplify complicated things.

Download: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/rw-smart-checklists/cloud/overview

Maybe it will be useful for somebody else.

Thanks.

 Smart Checklist banner Vlad.jpg

4 votes
Ravi Sagar _Sparxsys_
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October 1, 2017

If you just want to manage a simple list of tasks within your Jira issue then you can also use this new app called Elements. It will let you manage your checklist in a nice tabular way. It can also do some basic calculations in your table. If you are looking for a simple solution then do take a look at this app on marketplace.

Also check this video to learn how to use this app.

https://youtu.be/MaHsTpK9nOs

2 votes
Jack Hunter [HeroCoders]
Marketplace Partner
Marketplace Partners provide apps and integrations available on the Atlassian Marketplace that extend the power of Atlassian products.
December 14, 2017

Another alternative is a commercial Cloud add-on "Issue Checklist": https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.gebsun.plugins.jira.issuechecklist/cloud/overview

It allows applying default checklist on issue create to achieve exactly what has been asked. 

Cheers,
Jack

0 votes
LUC FILION June 12, 2014

Hi Christian,

I do recommend you take a look at Gaia for JIRA (http://bit.ly/RwwjGQ) which allows to create projects based on templates (and in this case, create JIRA-based checklists projects)

It's got a nice template for checklists in JIRA that's got 30 predefined items ... (this one is given as an Agile Product Owner checklist, but it could be any type of checklists). It lets you see the checklist status through a report as well. It's good to take a look at it.

Also, I may recommend you follow this link to have a explanations on the way to do that yourself: http://bit.ly/1le3mWT

Cheers,

Luc

0 votes
David Toussaint [Communardo]
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August 15, 2012

Hi Christian,

the suggested approach is not bad at all you might want to try this. Have a look on the plugin "Create on transition" for JIRA.

Annother approach would be as followed (I configured something similar once which did work quite well):

  • Create a new workflow with Status for all the relevant persons/departments (HR, IT, ...)
  • connect the status through transitions in order to allow the needed flexibility (some sort of m:n mapping would be applied)
  • Either display screens on workflow transitions that ask the current assignee to check his details on that checklist or automaticly populate a custom field on each transition. (you may need the JIRA Suite Utilities plugin for this)

Overall this task looks mainly like a configuration issue with no coding involved at all.

Hope that helps. Feel free to come back at me for more detailed tip on this if needed.

Chers, David

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