What is a resolution in Jira?

In Jira, a work item’s Resolution field describes the reason it was moved to Done.

For example, let’s say you work on a software development team, and you have a Jira project for tracking bugs. Your team might have a Done status, which the bugs move to when they’re no longer being worked on. That Done status could in turn have different resolutions, like Fixed, Won’t Fix, and Can’t Reproduce.

Impact on Jira views

Note that Done work items don’t have to have a resolution - but we strongly recommend that they do, because it can affect the way work items display in Jira. Examples include:

• Boards: on Scrum and Kanban boards, resolved work items will display with strikethrough text.

  • If resolutions aren’t set correctly, items might be struck through despite being In progress or To do.

• Reports: the Created vs. Resolved Issues report relies on the resolution being entered appropriately.

  • If resolutions aren’t set correctly, your reports might show unreliable data

• Filters: the Open Issues filter shows issues that don’t have a resolution.

  • If resolutions aren’t set correctly, you might get issues that have moved to Done showing in Open issues.

Read more

We strongly recommend setting up your workflows so that resolutions are automatically set when work moves to a Done (green) status. To learn how to do this, see Configure resolutions in a Jira workflow.