Usability doubts for issueFunction and fixVersion

[Nathalia Delgado]

Hi, everyone!

I've been using JIRA for 7 years now, currently at the version 6.4.12 and I love it!

When our clients ask for a new feature or improvement, we create issues like this:

• CLI-1, CLI-2, CLI-3

Then, the DEV team estimates so they can see if it's going to be done right away or in the  next Sprint. Let's say they can only add the first 2 issues:

• For CLI-1, they will create and link PRO-1 (product issue);
• For CLI-2, they will create and link PRO-2.

They may need to create and link more issues for different products, depending on the request. In the end, it's normal to have PRO-1, PROD-1, PRODU-1, PRODUC-1 and PRODUCT-1 linked to CLI-1, for example.

When the product issues are done, they are resolved, closed, and get a fixVersion. Let's say;

• PRO-1 has fixVersion = 1.0; 
• PROD-1 has fixVersion = 2.0;
• PRODU-1 has fixVersion = noNeed;
• PRODUC-1 has fixVersion = 4.0;
• PRODUCT-1 has fixVersion = noNeed.

Althought the product issues are done, the client issues will only be installed later (let's say in the next sprint, when CLI-3 can also be delivered or just when the client desires).

So it is important for the manager to know the fixVersion of the product issues... However, the client issues will only get a fixVersion when they are installed.

I tried to filter like this:

issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf("project = CLI") AND fixVersion in versionMatch("[0-9]$") ORDER BY project, fixVersion DESC

This way I could found every product issue that was linked to the client issues, besides seeing the fixVersion for each product issue.

Then, I exported to a Dashboard and selected the columns as follow:

1. Links
2. Type
3. Key
4. Status
5. Summary
6. Fix Version

The problems that I have faced:

- I can't order by the linkedIssues column;

- The linkedIssues column 'duplicates' the CLI issue, making it harder to check (this happens when there are more than 1 product issue linking to the client issue - so for every product issue there will be a row, not for every client issue);

-  The "Links" column will bring ALL the linked issues, but I wanted to see only the issues from "CLI" project;

For that problem I ask the question: is there anything I could change in my filter?

- If a "CLI" issue is already "Fixed" (ready to be installed), they get crossed-out, making it hard to look at.

Then I ask: is there a better way to filter this? I don't know, but it feels like I've done it backwards... does it make any sense?