Purpose

The "Resolution" field is an important feature in Jira. It specifies the reason an issue is closed and removes the need of having multiple statuses with the purpose of stating why the issue is closed, thus capturing important data for your team while reducing the time you have to manage your workflow.

Jira considers that the lifecycle of an issue has come to an end when the "Resolution" field has a value.

There are many native functionalities in Jira that depend on the "Resolution" field. Some of them are (and they are not restricted to):

• Issues having its key strikethrough on boards;
• Reports about issues (for example, "Created vs resolved");
• System filters (for example, "Open Issues").

Keeping the "Resolution" field working according to the best practices is crucial for your team to leverage Jira on exploring your company's potential.

There will be situations where your team might notice odd behaviours when navigating through and working with Jira. Such scenarios can be (and they are not restricted to):

• An issue in an "In progress" column of your board being already strikethrough'ed;
• "Created vs resolved" reports won't yield the expected results;
• "Open Issues" are retrieving issues that are in a DONE status category.

These are strong evidences that the "Resolution" field might not be configured according to the best practices on your Jira's Cloud instance.

As a Jira admin, there are a couple of JQL queries that you can perform to verify whether the "Resolution" field of your instance is configured according to the best practices or not.

statuscategory = Done and resolution is EMPTY

This means that the issues are on a status which would be considered as the end of the issue's lifecycle, but they don't have a resolution set.

statuscategory != Done and resolution is not EMPTY

This means that the issue is in the middle of its lifecycle, but already has a resolution associated to it.

Solution

The following instructions are meant to prevent current issues from having the resolution field mistakingly set.

The setting of the resolution field can be achieved mainly by 2 ways:
(for instructions purposes, let's assume the last status of the relevant workflow is DONE)

Create a post function on the transition that leads to the "Done" status to set the resolution as something fixed:

1. Open your project > Click project settings > Click workflows on your left sidebar;
2. Find the relevant workflow, then, on your right corner, click the Edit workflow to edit it;
3. Select the Diagram tab, then select the transition to the "Done" status;
4. Click post functions;
5. On your right corner, click Add post function;
6. Select Update issue field, then click add;
7. On "Issue Field", select Resolution;
8. Select the relevant "Field Value", then click Add;
   1. You'll need to perform steps 3 to 8 on every transition that leads to the "Done" status!
9. Don't forget to publish the workflow draft.

Create a screen with the resolution field on it, then map this screen to the transition to the "Done" status:

1. Select Settings, in the top right of the screen > Issues > Screens or Type the g key twice on your keyboard (gg), then Screens;
2. On your top right corner, click Add screen;
3. Name your screen accordingly, then click Add;
4. Click on the Select Field ... dropdown menu, then select Resolution;
5. Open your project > Click project settings > Click workflows on your left sidebar;
6. Find the relevant workflow, then, on your right corner, click the Edit workflow to edit it;
7. Select the Diagram tab, then select the transition to the "Done" status, then click Edit;
8. On the "Screens" section, select your newly created screen, then click Save;
   1. You'll need to perform steps 7 and 8 on every transition that leads to the "Done" status!
9. Don't forget to publish the workflow draft.

Note: To remove a screen go to the desired transition > click 'Edit' > and on the Screen field just select "None".

If you happen to have a reopening transition or a status that allows it to be reached from any other status, you'll need to create a post-function to clear the value of the "Resolution" field. To achieve this:

1. Open your project > Click project settings > Click workflows on your left sidebar;
2. Find the relevant workflow, then, on your right corner, click the Edit workflow to edit it;
3. Select the Diagram tab, then select the "reopening" transition;
4. Click post functions;
5. On your right corner, click Add post function;
6. Select Clear Field Value, then click add;
7. On "Field", select Resolution, then click Add;
   1. You'll need to perform steps 3 to 7 on every reopening transition!
8. Don't forget to publish the workflow draft.

The following instructions are meant to correct previous issues that have the resolution field incorrectly set.

To set the resolution field on a "closed" issue:

1. Open your project > Click project settings > Click workflows on your left sidebar;
2. Find the relevant workflow, then, on your right corner, click the Edit workflow to edit it;
3. Select the Diagram tab, then click + Add transition;
4. From status Any status(the final status), to status Itself(basically creating a loop);
5. Name it accordingly ("Set Resolution", for example), then click Add;
6. Refresh the page;
7. Select the newly created transition, then click Post Functions;
8. On your right corner, click Add post function;
9. Select Update issue field, then click Add;
10. On "Issue Field", select Resolution;
11. Select the relevant "Field Value", then click Add;
    1. It is advisable to limit the use of this transition to authorized personnel only!
12. Select the newly created transition, then click Conditions;
13. On your right corner, click Add condition;
14. Select User Is In Group, then click Add;
15. Select the relevant group ("administrators", for example), then click Add;
    1. Don't forget to publish the workflow draft!

To clear the resolution field on an "In Progress" or "To Do" issue:

1. Open your project > Click project settings > Click workflows on your left sidebar;
2. Find the relevant workflow, then, on your right corner, click the Edit workflow to edit it;
3. Select the Diagram tab, then click + Add transition;
4. From status Any status(the final status), to status Itself(basically creating a loop);
5. Name it accordingly ("Clear Resolution", for example), then click Add;
6. Refresh the page;
7. Select the newly created transition, then click Post Functions;
8. On your right corner, click Add post function;
9. Select Clear Field Value, then click Add;
10. On "Field", select Resolution, then click Add;
    1. If the Resolution field is not listed in the list of values, searching for it by typing the first few letters will bring it up.
    2. It is advisable to limit the use of this transition to authorized personnel only!
11. Select the newly created transition, then click Conditions;
12. On your right corner, click Add condition;
13. Select User Is In Group, then click Add;
14. Select the relevant group ("administrators", for example), then click Add;
    1. Don't forget to publish the workflow draft!

Note! The transition from "Any status" to "itself" might not be available even after publishing the workflow draft. If you encounter this scenario:

1. Select Settings, in the top right of the screen > Issues > Workflows or Type the g key twice on your keyboard (gg), then Workflows;
2. Find your relevant workflow, then copy it (rename it accordingly);
3. Select Settings, in the top right of the screen > Issues > Workflow schemes or Type the g key twice on your keyboard (gg), then Workflow schemes;
4. Find the relevant workflow scheme, then click Edit;
5. Click Add Workflow, then Add Existing;
6. Select your newly copied workflow, then click Next;
7. Select the relevant issue types, then click Finish;
8. Click Publish to publish the workflow scheme draft;
   1. Since there wasn't any status removal, the modification should be seamless.

From here, you can Bulk transition the issues to correct the resolution value.