What's the difference between request types and issue types?

Every request type in Jira Service Management is connected to an issue type. Request types manage the specific settings of an issue (such as naming, portal customization, and work categories) while issue types manage the foundational settings of an issue (such as workflows and fields).

One issue type can be used for many different request types. For example, the Purchase issue type could be used for both the Request new hardware AND Request new software request types.

However, one request type can only be connected to one issue type at a time. For example, the Request new software request type could use the Purchase issue type OR another issue type, but not both.

Request types

Request types are the types of requests that can be raised in your service project, such as ‘Get IT help’ or ‘Request a new account’. They direct your customers to the right place to submit their requests. You can add your own request types on top of the set of defaults provided by Jira Service Management, and organise them into custom Portal groups to help your customers find the request type they need for their request.

Phrasing request types in a customer-friendly way allows your customers to quickly identify what kind of service or request they need. Learn more about setting up request types.

Customer requests are automatically sorted into the correct queues in your project navigation sidebar by their request type. If you have work categories enabled, service request types will be sorted into Service requests, incident request types into Incidents and so on. Work categories also give your requests specialised features. Learn more about work categories.

The fields of a request type come directly from their issue type. The request type must have the same issue type as the issue it’s connected to. If you change the issue type of an issue, you’ll also need to update the request type to match. Learn more about how issue types and request types connect.

As you set up a request type, you can choose to include fields that are hidden from your customers in the portal but still make them available to your team to help them resolve the request. Some fields can be used by in the issue view but not in the portal. If you want to include these fields, you’ll need to to set a preset value for them. Learn more about configuring request types.

Issue types

Issue types manage the foundational settings of your issues such as workflows and fields. Each Issue type maps to a single specific workflow, but can access any of the fields available in your service project. Adding a field to an issue type allows any issue with that issue type to use that field in the issue view.

A Jira Service Management administrator can add and delete issue types from a service project to represent different types of work that agents do. Each Jira product comes with default issue types to suit the needs of your projects and teams. You can customize your issue types as needed to suit your team’s way of working.

• Learn more about issue types

• Learn more about default [System] issue types