How come you cannot set Resolution on columns other than Done?

Jack Kora February 13, 2019

I really like the next-gen simplified Jira. The UI is better and most of the complex features that made the classic Jira so difficult aren't needed for a lightweight process. And I love the Roadmap feature!

However, every single team I ever worked on needed to close issues with the status of Won't Do. It's just how life works - some things you do not work on. 

So how come when you create new columns on the board you cannot create a Won't Do column and have it set the Resolution on the issue???

Because of this single omission I had to stay on jira classic. And I don't even see this feature in the roadmap.

1 answer

1 vote
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.
February 13, 2019

An issue that is in the "done" column is done and needs no more work.  Core Jira (without Software) has a different concept of "done" which is simply "the resolution is set".  Historically, there's been a long and often painful disconnect between "done" and "resolved".   Next-gen fixes that by combining them and binding the resolution to the "done" column.

>So how come when you create new columns on the board you cannot create a Won't Do column and have it set the Resolution on the issue?

Because things not in the "done" column are not done, they're still open, and hence should have no resolution.

> every single team I ever worked on needed to close issues with the status of Won't Do

Yep - and that's represented in Jira with an end-status in the "done" column, and a resolution of "won't do".  They're done because you've finished with them.

Jack Kora February 13, 2019

Ok. So what next? I still cannot use next gen jira. I need a way to resolve issues with status of Won't Do. From what you said it sounds like you just confirmed my problem.

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.
February 13, 2019

You're right, if you insist on using a status of "won't do".  Next-gen expects you to include that in "definition of done", meaning the done column, but does not yet allow you to map multiple status into a column like classic does.

Your options are to use a classic board with "won't do" as a status in the done column, or, with Next-gen, use the "done" status with a resolution of "won't do" for those that you close because you won't do them.

Like # people like this
Jack Kora February 13, 2019

Nic, I am confused by one thing. In the next gen, how do you set status "done" with resolution of "won't do"? I did not see such an option.

Like George Morris likes this
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.
February 13, 2019

Sorry, I was unclear, and left one thought out - you should be able to do this *eventually*, when the function is added to Next-gen.  For now, you can't.  It's just the way you should be able to do it in future if I've read the conversations correctly.

Like # people like this
Jack Kora February 13, 2019

Ah... Thanks Nic!

Jennifer Kendrick January 14, 2020

I feel as though won't do items should not contribute their story points to the completed estimates of a sprint. This will skew velocity reporting. So I will simply leave as blocked :(

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer