Work with issues in Jira Cloud

Different organizations use Jira to track different kinds of issues, which can represent anything from a software bug, to a project task, or a leave request form. Need help working with issues? Jira Work Management lets you create issues quickly, assign them to the right person, and get working on them right away. On this page, you'll find a quick overview of everything you can do with an issue, as well as links to pages with more detail.  

In Jira Work Management, an issue is essentially a packet of work. It could be a small task, like "Remember to order pizza for charity night", or a large chunk of hard work like "Build bridging wall between house and garage." It depends on your project, and how you and your team decide to break down your work into issues.

An issue is broken down into several key areas. You can see all the critical information, like the assignee, due date and description, all in one place.

Project and issue keys

Issue keys

Issue keys are unique identifiers for every piece of work you track with Jira. They are easily recognizable and quick to remember.

You'll see issue keys:

• On issues themselves, as a label
• In search results and saved filters
• On cards on your boards or in a project's backlog
• In links connecting pieces of work
• In the issue's URL
• Anywhere you need to reference the work you're tracking

Issue keys are made up of two parts:

1. The project key (SMART in the screenshot above)
2. A sequential number

Project keys

Project keys are a series of alphanumberic characters that describe to people across your Jira site what pieces of work are related to your project. They're the most memorable and recognizable piece of an issue's identifier. For example, our team is codenamed Donut World. We use the project key "DONUT" to help people across Atlassian know and recognize work that relates to our team.

Project admins can create and assign their project's key when they create a new project. Based on the project's name, Jira suggests a recognizable key. If you're a project admin, you can customize this while creating a project by selecting Advanced options. You can also update it in the project's settings. They must be at least 2 characters long and start with an uppercase letter. Read more about editing a project's details.