Customize work item fields in team-managed projects
Are you on the right help page?
The following information only applies to team-managed projects.
To check which type project you need help with, look at the bottom of your project’s left-hand sidebar:
If you see an icon stating You’re in a team-managed project with Give feedback and Learn more menu items, you're in a team-managed project.
If you don't, you're in a company-managed project. Check out our company-managed project documentation.
Specific types of work require specific kinds of information for your team to successfully complete their tasks. Jira can collect and display this information to provide your team the context they need to get the job done.
This extra, customizable information appears in a work item's fields. You can customize each work type to show different fields and collect the exact information your team needs to succeed.
Specific types of requests require specific kinds of information for your team to successfully complete their tasks. Jira Service Management can collect and display this information to provide your team the context they need to get the job done.
This extra, customizable information appears in a request's fields. You can customize each request type to show different fields and collect the exact information your team needs to succeed.
You must have the administrator role in your project to do the things described on this page. Learn more about team-managed project roles.
How fields appear on your work items
When you add fields to your work types, they appear on all work items of that type.
- Fields you add to Description fields in your project's settings appear in the main content area of your work items.
- Fields you add to Context fields in your project's settings appear on the right side of your work items.
- If you drag fields under the Hide fields below dotted line, they appear on your work items when someone completes the field. If the field is empty, it’s hidden. Select Show X more fields when viewing a work item to interact with hidden fields.
How fields appear in your portal and to your agents
When you add fields to your request types, they appear on that type’s portal request form. You can also add fields for your agent’s eyes only.
Fields you add to the Portal fields list in your service project's settings appear in the portal. You can give these fields a customer-facing display name to make it easier for customers to submit the right information in their requests.
Fields you add to the Internal fields list in your service project's settings appear in the agent’s view of customer requests. These always show if someone's completed the field. But they may be hidden if the field is empty (see #3).
- The first six fields in your Internal fields list will always show. Jira Service Management hides any additional fields in that list if they're empty. An agent can select Show more when viewing a request to interact with hidden fields.
Add fields to your project
To add a field:
From your project's sidebar, go to Project settings then Fields.
On this page, select Add fields. Once the field is in your project, it’ll appear on the table on the Fields page.
To reuse an existing field, search for it in the panel. To reuse a field from another project, it needs to have been created by an administrator and not in another team-managed project. How to use a field across your entire site.
- To make a new field that lives only in this project, use Create field. These fields can’t be reused by other projects. More on the types of custom fields.
To make it appear on a work type, go to the Work types page, select the work type you want to add the field to, and drag the field from the toolbar into the list of fields. Jira highlights the areas you can drop the field into.
The previously-created fields list contains:
- fields you created on other work types
- fields Jira Software created for you
- fields 3rd-party apps created for you
You can drag previously-created fields into your work type to reuse them. Using the same field between more than one work type makes it easier to sort, search, and report on those fields.
When a field appears on more than one work type in the same project, the fields share the same name and description. If you change the name in one work type, it will change in the others that use that field. Checkbox and dropdown fields also share their available options. But, the field can have a unique default value on each work type.
Fields in team-managed projects are contained within the project itself. Currently, you can't share a field created in one team-managed project with another team-managed project, or with company-managed project. Similarly, you can't use a custom field created in a company-managed project on your team-managed project work items.
To rearrange the order of fields in the work item, drag and drop the fields into the order you prefer.
To remove a field, drag the field back into the fields toolbar.
Add, reorder, or remove fields
To add a field to your request type:
From your project's sidebar, select Service project settings > Request types.
Select the request type you want to edit.
Drag fields from the toolbar into the list of fields. Jira highlights the areas you can drop the field into.
The previously-created fields list contains:
- fields you created on other request types
- fields Jira Service Management created for you
- fields 3rd-party apps created for you
You can drag previously-created fields into your request type to reuse them. Using the same field between more than one request type makes it easier to sort, search, and report on those fields.
When a field appears on more than one request type, the fields share the same name and description. If you change the name in one request type, it will change in the others that use that field. Checkbox and dropdown fields also share their available options. But, the field can have a unique default value and display name on each request type.
Fields in team-managed service projects are contained within the project itself. Currently, you can't share a field created in one team-managed service project with another team-managed service project, or with a company-managed project. Similarly, you can't use a custom field created in a company-managed project on your team-managed service project's requests.
To rearrange the order of fields, drag and drop the fields into the order you prefer.
To remove a field, drag the field back into the fields toolbar.
Default fields
By default, Jira adds the following fields to the work types in your software project:
Summary – a brief, one-line summary of the task. This field is always required in Jira.
Description – details of the work needed to complete the task.
- Status – the current workflow status and available transitions that move the work item through the workflow.
- Assignee – the person assigned to the task.
- Labels – tags used to group, filter, or search for work items.
- Reporter – the person who brought up the work item or task. Usually, this is the same as the person who created the work item. Some teams create work items in a working group or using a shared computer. These teams might need to adjust the reporter when creating work items.
Jira also comes with a few commonly-used fields you might consider adding:
- Priority – the importance of the work item or task in relation to others in the project. Only Jira administrators can customize what priority levels are available across their Jira site. Learn more about configuring priorities.
- Due date – the agreed time and date when the work item or task should be resolved.
- Environment – the specific technical environment that relates to the task. For example, "Chrome 78.0.3904.97, macOS Version 10.14.6, javascript V8 7.8.279.23".
- Time tracking – an interactive field that allows people to log work hours and estimated time remaining on a task. Learn more about logging time on work items.
- Start date – the date when work began on a work item.
If you've enabled project features, like sprints or estimation, you might see a few other fields:
- Sprint – labels the work item or task with the sprint it belongs to. This is useful in filtering, sorting, and reporting. The Sprint field is created automatically when you enable the Sprints feature. Learn more about the sprints feature.
- Story point estimate – the estimated amount of effort that the work item should take, expressed as a numeral (not necessarily equivalent to an amount of time). The Story points field is created automatically when you enable the Estimation feature, and select Story points as your estimation statistic.
Learn more about estimation. Original estimate – the estimated amount of effort that a work item should take equivalent to an amount of time. The Original estimate field is always available. The Original estimate field is created automatically when you enable the Estimation feature and select Time as your estimation statistic. Learn more about estimation.
Required fields
Use required fields to mark a work type’s most important details.
From your project's sidebar, select Project settings > Work types.
Select the work type you want to edit.
Select the Required checkbox for any fields you want to make mandatory.
Select Save changes.
Once saved, new work items of that type can’t be created unless the required field is filled out.
Create custom fields
To create a new custom field:
From your project's sidebar, select Service project settings > Request types.
Select the request type you want to edit.
Under Create a field, drag the type of field you want to create. Jira highlights the areas you can drop the field into. Learn more about the available types of custom fields
Give your new field a name (up to 120 characters).
Configure any extra field options, like adding a description for your team, and setting a default value.
Add a display name for the field. The display name is the customer-facing label in the portal request form.
Select Save changes.
Your new field is also available to your service project's other request types in their Previously-created fields lists.
You can create up to 50 custom fields in your service project.
Edit custom fields
To edit a custom field:
From your project's sidebar, go to Project settings then Fields.
Find the field you want to edit on the table, then use the More (•••) menu to select Edit field. To remove a field, select Remove field instead.
Edit any of the field's options like its default description, default values, or other options.
Select Save changes. Once the field is in your project, it’ll appear on the table on the Fields page.
Your changes update across all your work types that use the field in your project.
Edit custom fields
To edit a custom field:
- From your project's sidebar, select Service project settings > Request types.
- Select the request type whose field you want to edit.
- Locate the field and click its card in the list.
- Edit any of the field's options, like its default description, default values, or other options.
- Select Save changes.
Your changes update across all your request types that use the field in your service project.
Make a field required
Required fields force people to complete the field when creating or editing a request. Usually, these fields contain the most important information needed to work on the request.
You can only require fields that appear above the Hide fields below line.
To make a field required:
From your project's sidebar, select Service project settings > Request types.
Select the request type you want to edit.
Select the field you want to make required in your list of fields.
Click the field to expand its options and tick the Required checkbox.
Take care when making a field required. Any request types that share this field also share the required option.
For technical reasons, you can’t make the Assignee or Reporter fields provided by Jira required. Let’s just say if you did make them required, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference anyway.