Create and work with issues

An issue is the most basic entity in Jira. Depending on your team and its needs, issues can represent different things. In the Dragon Design Tees project example, each issue would represent the work needed to create and complete new t-shirt designs. 

Create your first issue 

Let's create an issue to track the creation of a new t-shirt design.

1. Click Create in the navigation bar

2. Fill out the fields using the sample data is shown below (Only the fields with * are mandatory): 
   
   

   • Project: Dragon Design Tees

   • Issue Type: Task

   • Summary: Create a contractor resources spreadsheet

   • Description: The spreadsheet must contain a breakdown of all contractors and specific skill sets.

   • Leave all other fields blank or at their default values.

3. Click Create

A confirmation message will display for a few seconds. Make a note of the issue key of your new issue (DT-1, for example).

Create two more issues to familiarize yourself with the process. Select the Create another check-box at the bottom of the Create issue dialog to keep the dialog open after you click Create.

1. Quick-add buttons: Add attachments, subtasks, linked issues, and content from Atlassian Marketplace apps.

2. Transition issues: Quickly get from to-do to done, and any status or workflow step in between.

3. Watch and more actions: Watch the issue, and perform other issue actions like move and clone.

4. Issue details: Assignee, labels, components, time tracking, custom fields, and more. Choose Show more to view all issue fields.

5. Configure issue layout: Move and hide fields in the issue view.

6. Docked comment bar: Always there, so you can quickly add a comment no matter how far you've scrolled.

Edit an issue 

You can edit your issue to add more information, attach new files or screenshots, and add metadata like labels.

1. In your project, select Issues from the project sidebar and open the first issue you created.

2. Click the Priority field and change it to "Critical" 

Transitioning the issue 

Every issue has a lifecycle. In Jira, the lifecycle of an issue is managed by a workflow. A workflow consists of issue statuses—like To Do and Done—and the transitions between each status. In this step, you'll start working on your issue by transitioning it from To Do to In Progress.

1. Select the first issue you created (DT-1)
   The issue should be in the To Do status.

2. Select the current status of the issue and change it to In Progress.

Notice that resolving an issue prompts you to enter more information, whereas starting progress on the issue didn't. Some issue transitions have screens associated with them in the workflow associated with your project.

Assign the issue to another user 

You can better manage your work by assigning issues to other members of your team. 

1. Open one of the issues you have created 

2. Click the Assignee field

3. Type the name of the person you want to assign in the Assignee field and select from the drop-down list that appears.