Marking issues as closed or won't do in the next-gen backlog

[Jen Blagg]

I recently moved one of our team's boards to the next-gen board and I wanted to do some clean up of our backlog. I've noted that there is no longer a Close Issue --> Mark status option in next-gen. How do I close issues in the backlog and mark them as "Won't Do" or "Duplicate"?

Do I have to add them to a sprint and marked them as closed? 

[Cesar Salazar]

This is a really basic feature. A lot of people need to have "Won't Fix", "Duplicated" or "Rejected" issues, and want them to be hidden on their board.

[Tim Klein]

I am just copying my answer (from https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Next-gen-questions/How-do-you-resolve-or-close-an-issue-in-a-next-gen-project/qaq-p/1050600#M3057) here in case

I seriously wonder why nobody of Atlassian did react so far. This is what I did (New Gen Agile) - adding a "Dropdown" field to the ticket type calling it "Resolution" with the according options like "done", "won't do", "duplicate", etc

its in Project Settings > Issue Types

[Jamie_Bullock]

@Tim Klein Thanks, but this solution is not useful unless there is a way to close an issue without marking it as "Done". What does a "Done" issue with a Resolution Status of "Won't Do" mean, for example?

The overarching semantics are wrong. If Jira offered "Closed" instead of "Done" then your proposed status labels would make more sense, because the semantics would be "Closed as Done", "Closed as Won't Do" etc.

[Tim Klein]

@Jamie_Bullock Hi Jamie, you are right, but this way I can at least filter for my field additional field until Jira will implement the needed feature. It helps a bit a least.

[Ashley_Clark]

Just wondering if there is any update to this. We need a way to close tickets without marking them as "done" and without having that status in our active board.

For example, if a ticket is a duplicate but has some unique info in it, we want to link it to the original and close it. We don't want to mark it "done" because the original ticket isn't done and we don't want to confuse anyone into thinking work was done on it already. We don't want to delete it completely because it has some valuable info or conversation.

Another example is tickets that we realize we are not going to do (due to a variety of potential reasons) but we don't want to delete them because we need to keep a record of the conversation where we discussed it. And we don't want to mark it done, because it wasn't done.

What is the course of action we can take here? It seems in Next Gen we either have to say it's Done (when it isn't) or we need to delete. We can't even add a "closed" status to tickets to have them get archived.

[Ashley_Clark]

In the end, we have given up on Next Gen and moved back to classic Jira. I would suggest that Next Gen is simply badly named. It should be called Simplified Jira, or something that does NOT imply it's better/more up-to-date like the words "next gen" imply.  It seems that Next Gen is a slimmed down less feature-rich version, but that isn't what one expects with a name like Next Gen and could be what is contributing to the frustration.

[Martz]

Jira Light maybe?

[Rico Ngo]

Are you guys planning to have this basic feature? It would be nice to know whether it will be planned or not at all... 

Next-gen is nice, but still misses some basic functionality for the average Jira user. A little bit more flexibility is desired. 

[Charles Paul]

Please add this feature.  It has been a couple years that this has been raised as a major problem, and I continue to see requests for this.

I do not appreciate the way that Jira is forcing projects to adapt their culture to suit the mechanics of a tool.  It should be the other way around.  I am sure there is an agile guru who probably made this suggestion to workflows... but they are wrong.

[Nícolas Iensen]

In my team, we decided to create a new project we call "graveyard". If there is a ticket that won't be done and it doesn't have any relevant information, we just delete it. On the other hand, if the ticket has important information we move it to the graveyard.

[Tom Harkness]

Haha this is great! I love it, and not just because its my only option. 

[Jonathan Regeimbal]

This is a huge miss IMHO.  Being able to distinguish between issues where work added value versus issues that resolved for some other reason but need to be in the system is critical to almost any team I can think of.  Certainly any software team.  Any reasonable team that tried to use this will hit this almost immediately.  If I could AT LEAST setup a RULE on columns that would set RESOLUTION I could work around this.

Meanwhile, I've tried multiple ways to migrate back to classic, yet the Description fields end up being set to empty, even after marking the "Retain" column during the bulk move.  Can't even migrate off this thing.

Half baked product, awful execution.  Wouldn't recommend Next Gen to even the most basic team.

[George Brindeiro]

With the latest release of Next-gen Workflows, you should be able to create more than one "Done status" when you edit your workflow:

You can then edit the columns and statuses in your board to move the Won't Do status to the same column as Done:

[Alla Bongard]

Hey George! 

I've tried your suggestion, but I'm not able to clear the "WON'T DO" tasks, although they are in the "DONE" column.

Were you able to clear them?

[Kuba Bomba]

@Angélica Luz

Then you can edit the category of the status on Jira Settings > Issues > Statuses.

Does it really work so for the next-gen projects? I'd like to mark a few columns as "Done", so that the issues there disappear after 14 days from the board. 

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Kuba,

No, after some testing I saw that the global settings for statuses won't apply to next-gen projects as it's independent projects. Sorry about that mistake.

The last column of the board is always the resolution, so if you don't have sprints enabled, the issues will be removed from the column after 14 days.

Regards,
Angélica

[Danie Kriel]

Hi @Angélica Luz I have been keeping tabs on the 14 day archive, this is not working and there is no status or filed to archive. The team likes the new Jira next gen but we have boards with 100s of tickets on them and you need to scroll for days to get to a done ticket thats incorrectly moved. When will this be amended?

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Daniel,

If it's an active sprint, the tickets won't be removed after 14 days on the "Done" column.
For the tickets to be archived after 14 days, the sprint must be disabled. Also, all cards must have this icon .

If the tickets are not being archived after 14 days even with the correct configuration (not an active sprint and on the "Done" column), we must investigate what may be causing this.

Regards,
Angélica

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Jen,

The next-gen projects were created to be simple, so there is no option to edit the workflow to add more status or to add a screen to set the resolution.
Here is some documentation that may help you to get to know more the next-gen projects:

• Managing next-gen project
• Working with next-gen Software Project
• Creating, editing and deleting next-gen project
• Get started with next-gen boards
• Customizing an issue's fields in next-gen projects
• Available custom fields for next-gen projects

Regards,
Angélica

[Jen Blagg]

Thanks! Do you have a recommendation as to how to mark it as "Won't Do"? Is the expectation just to mark it a "Done"?

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Jen,

You can create new columns, that will create new statuses, but it won't be possible to edit the workflow to add screens.
On the board, click on the + and add "Won't do" and "Duplicated" for example.

Regards,
Angélica

[Danie Kriel]

Any idea when this feature will be added we have multiple done tasks but the tasks in the colomn list is becoming enormous. We really need a place where tasks are hidden of the board. can you please assist on how to achieve this.

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Daniel,

Currently, there are no plans to implement this feature.
I've checked for tickets and feature requests, but there is nothing related to adding screens to the workflow on next-gen projects.
On the documentation Get started with next-gen projects, it shows that if you don't have sprints enable, the tickets will be removed from the boards after 14 days.

The last column of your board is always the resolution column. This means that:

If you have sprints enabled: When you complete a sprint, these issues won't return to the Backlog.
If you don't have sprints enabled: These issues will be automatically removed from your board after 14 days.

If this option does not work for your environment, please feel free to create a feature request on jira.atlassian.com.

Regards,
Angélica

[Alf Prøven]

Hi @Angélica Luz - I when trying to delete an issue, I get this warning, that tells me to either resolve or close the issue. My preferred option would be to close, as this issue was a duplicate of an other issue in my backlog. But I cannot find out how to close an issue? Can you please advise?

Regard Alf

[Mark Roberts]

I have exactly the same issue, I don't want a done column with loads of issues in it - there needs to be a way of either hiding a column from the Board.

@Angélica Luz, so if the issue is auto removed from the board's last column after 14 days, where does it go, is it completely deleted?

Thanks

Mark

[Ben]

I don't think I've ever encountered as poorly an implemented and half baked paid project as Next Gen - and this issue is one of many examples why.  The jarring usability inconsistencies and missing basic features is really quite astonishing for a product as mature and well funded. as Jira.  Massively regretting our decision to use for our current project.

[Deleted user]

Words out of my mouth. Huge disappointment for a dedicated Jira user for years. Disgrace :(

[Jonas Laberg]

Wanted!

[Paul Alexandru Zah]

Please vote for the feature request to implement state category here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17497 (ie, being able to add a "Won't Do" end state instead of always closing with "Done").

[Jamie_Bullock]

I don't think "Won't Do" has the same semantics as "Closed". "Closed" feels like a state, whereas "Won't Do" feels like a reason. There may be many other reasons for closing an issue besides won't do, for example "can't reproduce", "can't do" or "duplicate". 

[Kristin Oberhaus]

"old JIRA" had closed with a "won't do" and then you could still link to the ticket for the information, but not have it show on the board.  

I don't care what it is called, but I want to be able to preserve a ticket that I did no work on and don't want it to show on the board.  

This is basic basic basic functionality

[John Walker]

I didn't spot this. 

I accidentally created a duplicate issue at: 

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-18435

Perhaps Jira might close one of those as a Duplicate. :)

[eirens]

Not if they're using a next-gen project, @John Walker. ;)

[Angélica Luz]

Hi @Ben,

As I mentioned in the first response on this thread, the next-gen project was created to be simple.
When we create a classic project, we can take a lot of time to configure everything. Next-gen projects were designed to be easier to create and configure because some teams don't need all the functionality that classic projects have.
If you need more features to configure your projects, please use our classic projects and if you have ideas that would be good for next-gen, feel free to share your ideas on https://jira.atlassian.com/.

Regards,
Angélica

[Jamie_Bullock]

Hi @Angélica Luz 

Whilst I applaud your desire to make things simple in next-gen, if they don't provide the functionality people need then it's too simple.

I think the ability to close an issue without deleting it is a fundamental requirement of any tracker. "Closed" is not the same as "Done". As others have stated there are times you just need to close an issue e.g. because it is a duplicate or a bug you don't want to log on your sprint board.

Jamie

[Mike Sanderson]

Yeah I am also taken aback that they're never planning to provide a way to distinguish tickets that were worked on vs. tickets that were closed for other reasons. Among other problems, it makes it impossible to do analysis of what work was completed (without deleting tickets, which has other issues). I agree classic projects can get too complex but this basically rules out ever using a next gen project ever again. 

EDIT: You can see the copy says you can "resolve or close" but you can't-- you can only ever resolve. No way to close issues. 

[Mike Sanderson]

I have opened a ticket for the delete alert text not being accurate: 
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17825

Hopefully when the text reads something like "If you don't want to delete, you can resolve this issue instead." it will be clear how limiting it is for an issue tracker to only have one way to resolve a ticket--how can you track statistics if every issue ends the same way?

But the linked ticket is just for the updating the delete alert misleading text, that has sent people here to this answer in search of how to close an issue instead of resolving or deleting it, because the delete alert states directly that is an alternative. 

[Kristin Oberhaus]

Sadly, this inconsistent documentation seems to be consistent with Next Gen .  I spent far too long looking for the Epic link, finally figuring out it was the parent link, which then asks for the Epic.  Very poorly put together in general.  

[Larry]

yep

[Angélica Luz]

Hi @Mark Roberts,

Currently, it's not possible to hide issues or column in the board. We have a feature request suggesting the implementation of this ability:
- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17295
Please, click on vote and watch to receive updates about the feature.

Related to issues removed after 14 days, it will not appear on the board, but you can find the issues by going to Issues and filters > Search issues.

Regards,
Angélica

[Tim Keating]

If you are using epics, you can filter the board by epic. So you can assign completed tickets to a completed epic and hide that.

As a simple step toward making this more usable, it would be really nice if the board and backlog views would remember these settings.

[Angélica Luz]

Hi @Alf Prøven,

To close the issue, you must click on the issue to open it and change the status to "Done" or any other status that has the color green. After that, you can refresh the page and the ticket will not appear in the backlog.

Regards,
Angélica

[Christian Reuter]

or any other status that has the color green.

In a next gen project, how does one add statuses that have the color green?

[Angélica Luz]

Hi Christian,

Only the last column will add a resolution and it will be green for users to understand that the ticket is closed. By default, the status is Done, but if you click on + you can add another status.

Regards,
Angélica

[Christian Reuter]

Thanks, so my understanding is that, if you have a Done column, there is no way to resolve a "won't do" or "duplicate" without moving it to the Done column.

Appreciate it!

[Kristin Oberhaus]

I understand what you are saying, but this implies that work has been done.  My last column is Approved and Done, the tickets i want removed are not done, and they will not be done.