When to use labels and components?

[Ky M]

I am new to Jira, and my company is currently working to standardize the nomenclature and use cases for labels and components. I understand that labels are used globally,while components can be used only within project and help reduce typos.

However, I’m struggling to clearly define the separate use cases for labels and components and how can we differentiate their nomenclature. For example, should components be named after categories (like application names) or releases (indicating the integration of apps from development to production),  while labels in relation to the services of the issues?

Your guidance on this would be greatly appreciated!

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Ky M,

Both labels and components can help you categorise issues. You are right about the scope of both: labels are spread across your entire Jira and components live within a single project. There is no prescription about what you can use them for; however - happy to provide some additional tips ...

• One thing I would not do, is use components (nor labels) for releases. Jira has a concept called Versions for this, that even links to a specific releases section in your project and 2 system fields fix version (the version a feature is released in) and affects version (for bugs, the version a bug occurs in).
• Labels can to tag issues for whatever reason. It may be to identify issues you want to mark for investigation, because they belong to a team, because they are a candidate to be removed or archived, ... Since they are global across all projects, they can and will be used for many different purposes. Which is great; but because of that, I always suggest to not use them to identify something very specific (like application modules, organizational units, ...) unless it is temporary.
• Labels also can't contain spaces. So, they are not well suited for categories that are described with multiple words.
• Components are indeed restricted to a single Jira project. They are well suited if they represent categories that fit within the context of that specific project. If your project is for tracking software development, typical use cases can be frontend / backend / API / Mobile App / ... Or if you have a project to track your Atlassian stack at your company, they could be Atlassian products, such as Jira / Confluence / Trello / Tempo / ... Just try not to mix these two; make a clear choice.
• Components can have a component lead, which may come in handy if you want to automatically assign newly created issues to that person responsible for it. Labels don't have that.
• If, by any chance, you would one day start using Compass, compass components will be available as components instead of the default Jira components.

Apart from labels, components and versions, Jira allows you to use different options to categorise your issues as well. Teams are obviously a straightforward option to identify your teams. If you have a list of departments, company colours, ... that have a specific naming and meaning in your organisation, it is often the best choice to create custom fields of your own with a field name and list of options that follow your bespoke terminology.

Hope this helps!

[Ky M]

Thank you for your response. I appreciate the detailed information you've provided, and I would like to delve deeper into my understanding of Jira.

Regarding the topic of releases, I have a couple of questions. How do you determine when to change the naming of a release? If an application is updated frequently in production, does that necessitate creating a new release each time to update the version? This approach seems somewhat inconvenient. Would it be more effective to maintain just one release for production and one for development, with version updates detailed in the release description? I would love to hear your thoughts on this method.

Additionally, is it correct to say that labels are used for categories that can be applied across multiple projects, while components are designated for categories that are specific to individual projects?

Thank you for your insights!

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Ky M,

Let me try to answer:

How do you determine when to change the naming of a release? If an application is updated frequently in production, does that necessitate creating a new release each time to update the version?

All depends on your needs and your process. To be honest: Jira does not enforce you to do anything. Look at your current release process and implement what is helpful for you. If you develop a software product and you currently release a new version of the product e.g. once every 3 months, that probably means your release would include quite a few new features and bug fixes. Defining a version in Jira allows you to identify all work that was included in that 3-monthly release, which is quite practical if you publish release notes, need to investigate problems that start occurring afterwards and so on. In terms of naming: make sure you recognise what they are. It does not make much sense to just make up a name for a release that doesn't help you identify what it stands for.

Additionally, is it correct to say that labels are used for categories that can be applied across multiple projects, while components are designated for categories that are specific to individual projects?

That is only part of the difference between the two, of course (see my original post), but yes, that is absolutely correct.

[Ky M]

Great! Thanks for your reply!

[Vronik]

Hi

Since labels are transversal to all of Jira, you should think about them being something valid for all projects within the instance that also helps you to perform filters in general
While components, precisely because they are at the project level, can help you categorize versions, products, differences of something specific, etc. within a project.
Therefore, in the labels, think of something general that can be helpful for all users of the instance and the components more at the local project level
Also keep in mind that once the labels are created, you cannot delete them, therefore, calmly analyze your needs so that you can decide the best options for you and others.
I hope my answer has given you another perspective

Regards

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Sorry for jumping in here but I just wanted to give out a note on this:

Also keep in mind that once the labels are created, you cannot delete them, therefore, calmly analyze your needs so that you can decide the best options for you and others.

Labels are actually 'deleted' once you remove a particular label from every single issue it is attached to. You could filter out issues by that specific label you wish to delete and use bulk issue edit (or automation; or some third-party tools) to remove that label from the issue. Once that's done, it might take some time for the system to not show this label as an existing one on Jira issues, depending on how 'widely' the label was used and how big of an instance you have.

[Ky M]

Thanks for @Vronik and @Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_ for the explanation.