Managing Components and Default Assignee selection in Jira Software Projects

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

Summary

Jira components help you group issues in your project around product features, departments, or workstreams. You can assign component owners, and auto-assign people to issues linked to those components.

Components let you and your team classify issues so you can easily find and report on them. As a project admin, you can create components that you and your team can then add to issues via the standard component field.

  • When creating Components, you can optionally fill in the following values:
    • Description - Describe the component so others can understand what it’s used for

    • Component lead - A person designated as being responsible for issues that have the component

    • Default assignee - A person who is automatically assigned to the issue if the component is added

Default assignee 

You can select one of the following options to define whether or not new Jira issues with this component will be automatically assigned to a particular user by default.

  1. Component lead :
    The user you add in the Lead field. The component lead is a Jira user who owns the component and will be set as the default assignee for all new issues created with this component.

  2. Project default :
    The project default assignee is the user set as the default assignee for any new issue created in a current project. You can make this user the default assignee for all new issues created with a particular component.

  3. Project lead :
    The project lead assignee is the person running or owning a current project. This person is defined in the project settings.

  4. Unassigned : 
    This option means that no user is assigned to a component. An issue with this component won’t have any assignee unless you select another user manually.

  • Components



  • Project Lead and Default Assignee

Selecting a default assignee

When you set a default assignee for a component, this component assignee will override the project's default assignee for new issues with this component.
When creating issues with this component, you’ll be able to leave the option Automatic in the Assignee field and won’t need to select an assignee from the list of users. Jira will determine the component assignee and set this user in the new issue.

Jira uses the following rules when assigning issues during issue creation.

  1. If the reporter selects an assignee, then the issue is assigned to that person regardless of the assignee settings at the project or component level.
  2. If the reporter leaves the assignee as Automatic, then Jira checks if any components were added.
  3. If no, then Jira assigns the issue to the default assignee at the project level, which is either Unassigned or Project Lead.
  4. If only 1 component was added, then Jira assigns the issue to the default assignee at the component level, which is either Project lead, Component lead, Project default, or Unassigned.
  5. If multiple components were added and one of those components has a default assignee set to Component lead, then Jira assigns the issue to that person.

Default assignees precedence : 

When you create a new issue with multiple components, Jira checks the precedence of their default assignees to assign the right user to this issue.

Components are assigned in the below order :

  • Component Lead >> Project Lead >> Unassigned >> Project default


Component lead
 always has the highest precedence, so an issue with a few components will always be assigned to the component lead automatically.
If several components in this issue have component leads as their default assignees, Jira will apply alphabetical order to check the component names and assign the issue to the lead of the component which starts with the top letters of the alphabet.


Example: The below table shows to which user a new issue with multiple components will be assigned, depending on users' roles and component names. 

  • The user creates an issue with multiple Components and the Assignee is left to Automatic.


  • Lets assume a project has the below Components and their respective Default Assignee

    Project Lead : Mars


    Component Lead

    Component

    Default Assignee

    1VenusAlphaProject default 
    2NeptuneBetaUnassigned
    3EarthGammaComponent lead
    4SaturnDeltaProject lead
    5MercuryEpsilonComponent lead
    6JupiterZetaComponent lead



  • Issue assignee information based on the Component selected. 


    Issue components

    Issue assignee

    1

    An issue has the below three components selected during issue creation.

    • Delta 

    • Gamma 

    • Beta 

    Earth will be set as the assignee.

    Earth is a Component lead for the Gamma component. This role takes precedence over the Project lead role and the Unassigned option.

    2

    An issue has the below three components whose default assignees are all set as the component leads. 

    • Gamma

    • Epsilon

    • Zeta

    Mercury will be set as the assignee.

    Mercury is a lead of the Epsilon component. The name of this component starts with the letter E, which goes before G(Gamma) and Z(Zeta) in the alphabet.

    To determine an assignee of an issue with multiple components that have leads, Jira considers the name of the component, not the name of the lead.

    3

    An issue has the below two components. 

    • Delta 

    • Alpha (the project default assignee is set to Unassigned)

    Mars will be set as the assignee.

    Mars is running or owning the current project, and is set as the Project Lead under Project settings. 
    Project Lead → Mars is assigned as the to the default assignee of Delta component.


    4

    An issue has the below two components set during its creation.

    • Delta 

    • Zeta – Jupiter, component lead without the Assignable user permission

    Mars will be set as the assignee, even though the Project Lead role has lower precedence than the Component Lead.

    Although Jupiter is a Component Lead, she doesn’t have the Assignable user permission in the project. Thus, Jira can’t assign the new issue with the Zeta component to Jupiter.

    If the Component Lead doesn’t have the Assignable user project permission, they won’t be assigned to an issue where their Component is set.

    5

    An issue has two components set during its creation.

    • Alpha (the project default assignee is set to Project Lead)

    • Beta 

    The issue will remain Unassigned

    Since Beta component's default assignee is set to Unassigned and the Alpha component's default assignee is set to Project default, Unassigned takes precedence.


    Components are assigned in the below order :

    • Component Lead >> Project Lead >> Unassigned >> Project default


Last modified on Apr 4, 2024

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