Newbie - JIRA Issues Not Closing

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Hi,

Apologies in advance, but we're a fairly new JIRA OnDemand shop, and we don't have much admin experience with the tool. We've tried to leave the system as vanilla as possible, but appear to have buggered something along the way.

We have a project with associated issues created. When QA has validated issues as fixed, they set the issue's Status to DONE, and set the Resolution value to Fixed. Product Management then comes along and if satisfied sets the Resolution value to DONE. The issue is... nothing seems to happen next. The issue appears to remain open and is no strikethrough shows on an issue list for a project. Are our expectations wrong? Or have we missed a setting somewhere?

Thanks in advance for your help...Pat

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Hi Nic,

Sorry for the delay. That I'm getting to know JIRA a bit better, I totally agree it looks like a workflow issue. To speed things up I attached a screenshot. The pic shows a standard defect of ours. I realize the workflow isn't started in the example I'm showing. Our normal process through this UI would be:

1. Developer starts work and clicks on Start Progress.
2. When that's done, the Status field (in the red highlight in attached pic) changes to in-progress as you'd expect.
3. When developer is done, they change status to Done, and updte Resolution to Fixed.
4. I then come along, comment and eventually change the Resolution field to Done as well. That's when we want something marked as "Done and Done", and for it's Resolved value to show that time.

You'll also note in my screenshot a 2nd highlighted area, titled Dates. You'll notice Created, Updated and Resolved all show the same times. That screams to me to be a workflow issue, but you'll know better than I.

Pat

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

How are they "setting the issue's status"? And how is the "set resolution value to done" being done as well?

I'm sort of assuming the first is via a workflow transition, and I'm not sure at all about the second - edit? transition?

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Hi Nick,

I don't believe the states are being changed by transitions (aka via workflow), or at least not intentionally. When we're updating states, per above, I'm referring to via the UI. QA validates a fix, then via browser UI clicks on Done. Similarly, when they're marked as Done, I review them then via the same UI update the issue as Done (for resolution). If the workflows are doing this behind the scenes, that's news to me and entirely possible!

Thanks for the help, and apologies for being completely daft in this area.

Pat

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, that does sound like workflow - you're not editing a field, you're using menu-like options to move the issue from one status to another.

But I'm not sure how you're going from Done to Done? Same menu option? Goes through a screen that presents you with the resolution?

One very daft question - where is the resolution you are setting appearing? When you go to issue view, is it in the top details panel under status?

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Crap... may have incorrectly entered that last bit as "Answered My Own Question". I most definitely have not. Here is my update as a comment instead...

Hi Nic,

Sorry for the delay. That I'm getting to know JIRA a bit better, I totally agree it looks like a workflow issue. To speed things up I attached a screenshot. The pic shows a standard defect of ours. I realize the workflow isn't started in the example I'm showing. Our normal process through this UI would be:

1. Developer starts work and clicks on Start Progress.
2. When that's done, the Status field (in the red highlight in attached pic) changes to in-progress as you'd expect.
3. When developer is done, they change status to Done, and updte Resolution to Fixed.
4. I then come along, comment and eventually change the Resolution field to Done as well. That's when we want something marked as "Done and Done", and for it's Resolved value to show that time.

You'll also note in my screenshot a 2nd highlighted area, titled Dates. You'll notice Created, Updated and Resolved all show the same times. That screams to me to be a workflow issue, but you'll know better than I.

Pat

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok. There's no picture, but your description gets us some way further.

On points 3 and 4, you need to understand that when the developer sets a resolution, Jira now considers that "done". If the resolution is blank (shown on screen as "unresolved", but literally an empty column in the database), then the issue is not-done.

I have a horrid feeling that you're setting the resolution on create issue though. That would explain some of your symptoms, because every issue starts aout as done! Have you got the resolution field on the create or edit screens? Because that is a bit of aproblem...

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Here's the image again. Not sure why it's not showing up. If it doesn't again, I'll try the upload in Firefox (using Chrome atm).

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No luck :-(

(I keep seeing people say they've uploaded pictures to Answers and nothing appears, so you're not alone!)

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Hey Nic,

Apologies for disappearing periodically. Other priorities keep distracting me from closing this issue.

I've read your last note, and I *think* I'm starting to get it. We use most, if not all, of the defaults that ship with OnDemand, and I think I'm seeing that the Resolution field does exist on our Create Issue screen. I'm not quite clear where to change this, but I think we are creating new issues with the Resolution field defaulting to fixed upon creation. Awesome... I know!

Anyway, I'm kind of getting confused when I delve into screens, screen schemes etc... We only have one screen scheme defined (default), only one screen in use and no special Issue Type screen schemes. So where do I remove the Resolution field?

Also... I never give up. Can you download the pic from my last post from this URL? It's my Dropbox account, and a URL directly to the image.

Pat

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ocdy8ys8vd30mw/JIRA%20Issue%20Interface%201.png

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, one screen scheme makes it easier, and actually, you don't need to do much

If you look at the screen scheme, it will tell you what screens you are using for Create, Edit and View (quite possibly, all the same screen!). All you need to do is make sure that the screens in use for Create and Edit do NOT have Resolution on them.

You don't actually need to worry about "view", because resolution is a system field - it will be shown even if you don't have it on the screen.

Once you've done that, there's one other place to look - check your workflow transitions next - these also use screens, and you want to make sure that they use a screen that DOES have resolution on it when you close/resolve an issue. (So, obviously, not the same screen as create/edit)

[pmccarten@clay-tablet.com]

Hey Nic,

I think we're getting there, but are not quite there. When I review the screen scheme in JIRA OnDemand, options to Create, Edit and View and not present. When I click on Screens / Screen Schemes I see the Default Screen Scheme as the only scheme listed and Operations to Configure / Edit / Copy. I don't see the views for Create, Edit, View etc...

I'm logged in as myself, and am an Administrator. Does this have anything to do with permissions, or am I looking in the wrong place?

Pat

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, if you're not seeing Create/Edit/View in the screen-scheme, then you are seeing simply "default" - one screen for ALL three options.

Under that, you can click "add" and it'll let you add create/edit/view.

I'd suggest

1. Make a note of what the "default" screen is (it may well be called "default screen")

2. Go to Admin -> Screens

3. Copy the screen you found earlier, naming it something like "Default with no resolution"

4. Go into the copy and remove Resolution from the list

5. Go back to the screen scheme

6. Click Add, twice, adding Create and Edit, and pointing both at the new screen