why use fix version

Jamie Cole December 10, 2014

As part of our progressive software release's the discussion was around how to distinguish between which stories/bugs relate to which release at present we use labels. What is the advantage in using the 'Fix Version' field?

1 answer

2 votes
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
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December 10, 2014

Planning and consistency.  

You've got one, controlled and selectable list of versions which informs both the affects and fix version list.  That means your users cannot enter a slightly wrong label.  It's distinct from any other usage of labels too.  Versions also have the ability to be released (with a very basic release note report), you can tag them with dates (which can show in calendars and be reported on), the system distinguishes between Unreleased, released and archived versions, and there's several other reports on top of that.

If you then add the Agile addon, or for that matter, loads of other addons, or integrate with build tools or Confluence, they all make various uses of the version field too.  You've not mentioned them, so I won't ramble, but if you do decide to use Agile, Portfolio or other plugins, you'll really want to use fix versions.

Jamie Cole December 10, 2014

Can you elaborate on 'the system distinguishes between Unreleased, released and archived' how is this Achived?

thanks

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
December 10, 2014

Look at the version maintenance screen - you'll see that you can flag a version as one of those three options. For unreleased and released, the version fields group the versions together so that a user can see at a glance whether the version they're looking for is released or not. When you archive a version, it is removed from the selection list so they can't choose it any more, but remains on existing issues so you can still see it and search for it.

Jamie Cole December 10, 2014

Thanks Nic, your info has been very helpful.

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