What are work item statuses, priorities, and resolutions?

Work items track what your team needs to get done to progress your projects and your goals. Each work item collects and displays the information your team needs to collaborate into a set of fields. A work item's status, priority, and resolution represent some of the most important fields describing and reporting on your team's work. They give your team at-a-glance information about where the work is in your workflow, how important it is to your project goals, and a description of how the work was completed.

This page lists the default statuses, priorities and resolutions that come with your Jira products. Jira admins: learn more about creating your own statuses, priorities, or resolutions.

Work item statuses

A work item’s status indicates its current place in the project's workflow. Default statuses are created when you create a project from one of our templates. The statuses are recommended starting points for each template, but you can edit or remove them from a workflow to suit your team's need. You can also create your own. Learn more about configuring statuses and their descriptions.

Here's a list of the statuses that come with JIRA products, depending on what projects you've created on your site.

Open

The work item is open and ready for the assignee to start work on it.

In Progress

This work item is being actively worked on at the moment by the assignee.

Done

Work has finished on the work item.

To Do

The work item has been reported and is waiting for the team to action it.

In Review

The assignee has carried out the work needed on the work item, and it needs peer review before being considered done.

Under review

A reviewer is currently assessing the work completed on the work item before considering it done.

Approved

A reviewer has approved the work completed on the work item and is considered done.

Cancelled

Work has stopped on the work item and is considered done.

Rejected

A reviewer has rejected the work completed on the work item and is considered done.

Draft

For content management and document approval projects, the work described on the work item is being prepared for review and is considered in progress, in the draft stage of writing.

Published

For content management projects, the work described on the work item has been published and/or released for internal consumption. The work is considered done.

Interviewing

For recruitment projects, this indicates that the candidate is currently in the interviewing stage of the hiring process.

Interview Debrief

For recruitment projects, this indicates that the candidate has completed interviewing and interviewers are discussing their next steps in the hiring process.

Screening

For recruitment projects, this indicates that the candidate has applied and is being considered for interviews.

Offer Discussions

For recruitment projects, this indicates that the candidate has been offered a position and recruiters are working to shore up the details.

Accepted

For recruitment projects, this indicates that the candidate has accepted the position. The work item is considered done.

Applications

For recruitment projects, this indicates that a candidate has applied and recruiters are waiting to screen them for future action in the hiring process.

Second Review

For document approval projects, the work described on the work item has passed its initial review and is being closely proofed for publication.

Lost

For lead tracking projects, this indicates that the lead was unsuccessful. The work item is considered done.

Won

For lead tracking projects, this indicates that the lead was successful. The work item is considered done.

Contacted

For lead tracking projects, this indicates that the sales representative has contacted their lead and the pitch is in progress.

Opportunity

For lead tracking projects, this indicates that the sales team has identified and opportunity they want to pursue.

In Negotiation

For lead tracking projects, this indicates that the sales team is adjusting their terms to make a sale.

Purchased

For procurement projects, this indicates that the service or item was purchased. The work item is considered done.

Requested

For procurement projects, this indicates that the service or item has been requested and is waiting for a procurement team member to action the request.

Jira statuses

If you have Jira, you also get these statuses by default, depending on what projects you've created on your site:

Reopened

This work item was once resolved, but the resolution was deemed incorrect. From here, work items are either marked assigned or resolved.

Resolved

A resolution has been taken, and it is awaiting verification by reporter. From here, work items are either reopened, or are closed.

Closed

The work item is considered finished. The resolution is correct. Work items which are closed can be reopened.

Building

Source code has been committed, and JIRA is waiting for the code to be built before moving to the next status.

Build broken

The source code committed for this work item has possibly broken the build.

Backlog

The work item is waiting to be picked up in a future sprint.

Selected for Development

The work item is verified and has been selected to be worked on in the future.

Jira Service Management statuses

If you have Jira Service Management, you also get these statuses by default, depending on what projects you've created on your site:

Declined

Waiting for support

Waiting for customer

Pending

Canceled

Escalated

Waiting for approval

Awaiting CAB approval

Planning

Awaiting implementation

Implementing

Peer review / change manager approval

Work in progress

Completed

Under investigation

Work item priorities

A work item's priority indicates its relative importance. The default priorities are listed below. Both the priorities and their meanings can be customized by your administrator to suit your organization. Learn more about configuring priorities and their descriptions.

Highest

This problem will block progress.

High

Serious problem that could block progress.

Medium

Has the potential to affect progress.

Low

Minor problem or easily worked around.

Lowest

Trivial problem with little or no impact on progress.

Work item resolutions

A work item can be completed, or resolved, in many ways. A work item resolution is usually set when the status is changed. Your administrator may have customized these to suit your organization. Learn more about configuring resolutions and their descriptions.

Once a work item is resolved (that is, the work item’s Resolution field is filled in), references to that work item show the key in strikethrough text. 

Here are work item resolutions that come with your Jira products by default:

Done

Work has been completed on this work item.

Won't do

This work item won't be actioned.

Duplicate

The problem is a duplicate of an existing work item.

Jira resolutions

If you have Jira, you also get these resolutions by default:

Cannot reproduce

All attempts at reproducing this work item failed, or not enough information was available to reproduce the work item. Reading the code produces no clues as to why this behavior would occur. If more information appears later, please reopen the work item.

Jira Service Management resolutions

If you have Jira Service Management you also get these resolutions by default:

Known error

The problem has a documented root cause and a work around.

Hardware failure

Software failure