Managing number of custom fields in Jira Data Center

This insight is shown when your Jira Data Center instance has more than 800 custom fields.

How does a high custom fields count affect performance?

While Jira does not strictly enforce a hard limit on the number of custom fields you can create, Atlassian provides guidelines to help keep the number of custom fields to a manageable level, often suggesting not exceeding around 1,200 custom fields. This is not a strict limit but rather a guideline to ensure that performance remains optimal. An excessive number of custom fields can significantly impact Jira's performance:

• Increased reindex time: More custom fields lead to longer reindexing operations.

• Slower issue creation and updates: Each custom field adds processing overhead.

• Degraded search performance: Queries involving numerous custom fields can be slower.

• Increased database size: Each custom field stores data, potentially leading to larger databases.

For a comprehensive understanding of custom fields and their impact, refer to managing custom fields in Jira effectively.

What's the recommendation?

To ensure optimal performance, aim to keep the number of custom fields below 800. If you're exceeding this threshold, consider the following actions:

• Analyze and optimize custom fields

• Implement a governance process

• Educate users on alternatives

• Conduct regular cleanup and maintenance

Analyze and optimize custom fields

A thorough analysis of your custom fields can reveal opportunities for optimization:

1. Use Jira's built-in tools to generate usage reports for custom fields.

2. Identify custom fields that are unused, rarely updated, or have limited scope.

3. Consider converting global context fields to more specific contexts where appropriate.

4. Remove or archive unnecessary custom fields.

Use Jira's built-in feature to optimize custom fields by scanning for fields with global contexts. More information can be found in the Optimizing custom fields .

For detailed instructions on analyzing custom field usage, see analyzing the usage of custom fields.

Implement a governance process

Establishing a clear governance process can prevent the unnecessary proliferation of custom fields:

1. Create an approval workflow for new custom field requests.

2. Require documentation justifying the need for each new custom field.

3. Implement regular review cycles to assess the ongoing necessity of existing custom fields.

4. Assign ownership and responsibility for custom field management to specific team members or roles.

For more information on effective custom field management, refer to Managing custom fields effectively.

Educate users on alternatives

Many custom fields can be replaced by existing Jira features:

1. Provide training sessions on Jira's native features that can replace custom fields.

2. Create documentation highlighting alternatives such as labels, components, or issue types.

3. Showcase real-world examples of how these alternatives can be used effectively.

4. Encourage users to consult with Jira administrators before requesting new custom fields.

This education can significantly reduce the demand for new custom fields and improve overall system efficiency.

Conduct regular cleanup and maintenance

Regular maintenance is crucial for keeping custom fields under control:

1. Schedule periodic reviews of custom fields, ideally quarterly or bi-annually.

2. Use the Analyzing the usage of custom fields guide to identify candidates for removal or optimization.

3. Archive data from obsolete fields before deletion if necessary.

4. Follow the steps outlined in deleting custom fields when removing unnecessary fields.

Refer to cleaning up your Jira instance for a comprehensive approach to cleaning up your Jira instance, including custom fields.

Additional considerations

1. For Data Center deployments, ensure that custom field optimizations are synchronized across all nodes in the cluster.

2. Consider using apps or scripts to automate the analysis and reporting of custom field usage.

3. Regularly review the performance impact of custom fields, especially after major changes or upgrades to your Jira instance.

If you've implemented these recommendations and continue to struggle with custom field management, consider contacting Atlassian Support for further assistance.