Use cases

This chapter provides use cases - examples how Issue Templates for Jira can be used in practice.

How to benefit from multiple template repositories

Overview - multiple repositories

In this scenario you have several spaces in your Jira instance. Most of these spaces share similar workflows and can benefit from common templates.

There is one space that serves as a storage for templates for multiple software spaces (global repository).

The Human Resources space wants to have its own templates, however, other spaces don’t need to use these templates. This space can be converted into a local repository, so only members of this space are able to use templates stored here.

There are two spaces at this point that store templates. One designated space for template storage that is set as a global repository, and one regular space that has some issues turned into templates that is set as a local repository.

With this kind of configuration you can avoid overfilling template selection and enable specific templates for specific spaces.

Configuration - Multiple repositories

As explained before, such a configuration can be very useful in different scenarios. Here’s an example of such a configuration.

Enable both spaces as repositories, one is set as global and one is set as local.

Global repository - template storage for multiple spaces

1. Go to space configuration and set General settings accordingly. In this case every user of this space is able to turn issues into templates.

   

2. Manually or automatically enable issues as templates or simply add new templates to this space and set availability.

   

3. Check the list to see your active templates.

   

4. Use an existing scope or create a new one.

   

Local repository - template storage for a single/specific space

1. Go to space configuration and set General settings accordingly. In this case only a selected space role is able to create templates.

   

2. Manually or automatically enable issues as templates or simply add new templates to this space and set availability.

   

   Note

   To avoid creating templates uncontrollably, the automatic option is disabled by default. Contact your administrator if you want to have templates enabled automatically.

3. Create an issue and enable it as a template. You can set a scope and availability for each issue.

4. Check the list to see your active templates.

   

5. Use an existing scope or create a new one.

   

Creating an onboarding template with a checklist

You can prepare a template for onboarding purposes that includes a checklist. In this scenario, a checklist corresponds with necessary access levels for a new employee.

Automatically creating version and component in different spaces

Issue Templates for Jira Cloud offers a feature that will automatically create respective version and component according to the template. For example, a space that stores software templates contains specific versions and components. If you use this template in other spaces that don’t have these items, they will be automatically created.

Steps

1. Create a template that contains a component and/or version.

   

   

2. Create a new issue from this template.

Result

Your issue has been created based on the template and versions/components were added to this Jira space.

Implementing a new feature (Smart defaults)

In this scenario, a user wants to have a template that would automate the process of implementing a new feature. With smart defaults, the process can automate:

• filling the starting date
• setting a deadline
• setting a reporter and assigning an issue to a specific role or person
• creating a label for this feature
• setting a version

In this case, smart defaults are configured as follows:

1. Start date - set to now, so it will automatically fill the start date as the day it was created. Thanks to smart defaults and static variables, this date will be automatically added to the custom field and description. In this case it corresponds with a custom field #10015, but it can be any custom field of a date picker type.
   Tip

   See Atlassian support for details on checking the ID of a custom field.

2. Due date will set a deadline for the process. In this case, it will add 10 business days to the start date using smart dates .
3. A person who creates an issue will be assigned as a reporter.
4. The issue will be assigned to a specific role, in this case the space lead.
5. A label will be automatically created that corresponds with the name of the feature. The label refers to the value you have set in the dynamic variable.
6. You can set the version here. The fix version field is based on the value set as the dynamic variable.

The feature name will be automatically applied to the referred fields, such as the summary, new feature idea in the description and the label in this case.

Once the template is configured, the user can navigate to the create from template option to use it.

You will be asked to fill in the feature name, description (user story), and the version.

Result

The output looks like this:

Preparing a timeline for a complex task with multiple steps (Smart defaults)

In this scenario, a user wants to plan an event and add steps in form of a timeline. With smart defaults you can offset dates easily, as well as copy values from parent and linked issues. An epic is created that corresponds with planning steps. Steps are added as stories and an epic for a corresponding process that happens simultaneously is linked.

For child issues you can use the following smart defaults:

• Due date - parent + 1w
• Assignee - parent
• Components - parent

For the epic you can use:

• Due date - primaryissue.due_date.plusBusinessDays(5)

Result

Both epics have been created and child issues with set values have been applied.

Child issues copied the assignee, components, and shifted the date as configured.

Due date of the linked epic has also been shifted.

Linking an epic (Smart defaults)

You can configure an epic link or a parent in smart defaults so that it will link to an already-existing epic. This way templates will automatically link to the specified epic in this space or another.

See Smart Defaults - Advanced for details.

Configure the Epic Link field with the name of the epic using Smart Defaults, for example "IT-1" to create a link to an epic.

Result: