Best practices on using the "Resolution" field

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Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the cloud platform.

Admins only

The following instructions are meant to be performed by Jira Admins. Jira users won't be able to access the administrative sections mentioned by this article.

This page is for company-managed projects.

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.

Don't create a Resolution named "Unresolved"/"None"

Any issue that has the Resolution field set is treated by Jira applications as "resolved". The Issue Navigator displays "Unresolved" when no resolution is set for an issue. So adding a resolution named Unresolved/None and setting it in an issue will mean that the issue is seen as resolved. This will lead to confusion and is strongly not recommended. 


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.

Have access to all projects

Be sure that you have the Browse projects permission on all projects of your Jira's Cloud instance. If this is not verified, you might not be troubleshooting all the necessary issues.



Closed issues without a resolution
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.


In Progress issues with a resolution
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.


Best practices check up

The ideal scenario is for both queries to yield no results. This would mean that the resolution of your issues is correctly set on your Jira's Cloud instance.

If your team finds results for any of these queries, please consider implementing the solution below.


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 pencil icon to edit it;
  3. 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:

Updating resolution using Jira Cloud API

 It is still possible to transition the issue to Resolve without any resolution using Jira Cloud API directly. Issue transition API is not expected to respect the screens. If your team is dependent on Jira Cloud API, then please consider implementing a solution to send the "Resolution" detail along with the transition issue endpoint while resolving the issue. You can refer to the Transition issue developer documentation to understand the structure of the payload acceptable with the "Resolution" field using API. Also, it is advised to use the Workflow Validator or Condition to ensure that resolution is set even when the issue is transitioned from API.

  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 pencil icon to edit it;
  7. 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.

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

tip/resting Created with Sketch.

Know the differences

The basic difference between these 2 methods is that by using the post function method, the resolution is automatically set to a pre defined value, whereas in the screen method, users can choose a value for the resolution field.

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 pencil icon to edit it;
  3. 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 pencil icon to edit it;
  3. 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 pencil icon to edit it;
  3. 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.

Bulk operations permission

Ensure that you have the Make Bulk Changes global permission before trying to perform the bulk transitions step.

Last modified on Dec 25, 2023

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