Maintaining a list of "Client" Values

[Michael Craig]

I've used Jira in a couple of jobs in the past and historically something they've always wanted to do was be able to attach some kind of "customer" or "client" name to a work item so that they could easily report / extract a list of tasks common to that client.  As a developer, often I would have many tasks in my board across several of that company's clients and it made my life easier to have a common share-able filter so that I could only look at company "Y" tasks.

While I know of only one way to do this, making a custom variable and attaching it to the appropriate schema or screen, maintaining the list was cumbersome to get to and maintain, and of course often others did not have permissions to do this...I did, so I managed them.

Is there a better way to do this?

[Mary from Planyway]

Hi @Michael Craig 

Yes, Jira provides several ways to tag tasks with customer or client names and streamline the process. Here are a few approaches that could make it easier to handle and maintain client-specific filtering:

1. Custom Fields:

• You can create a custom field, like "Client Name", and add it to the relevant screens or issue types.

• Benefits: It’s easy to search and filter tasks by the client. Jira’s Query Language (JQL) allows you to query this field and create filters like Client Name = "Company Y".

• Drawbacks: As you mentioned, managing the list of client names manually can be cumbersome, especially if it’s large or frequently changes.

2. Jira Automation:

• Use Jira Automation to automatically populate the "Client Name" field based on conditions. For example, you could have a rule where when an issue is created or updated, Jira looks at certain criteria (like project name, issue type, or tags) and auto-fills the "Client Name".

• Benefits: Automation reduces the manual work of entering and maintaining this information, ensuring consistency and saving time.

• Drawbacks: Might require some setup time and can be complex depending on the rules you need.

3. Labels:

• Another method is using Labels to tag the tasks with client names. You can create labels for each client (e.g., client-company-y) and use these labels to filter tasks.

• Benefits: Labels are quick and easy to add, and you can search and filter by them in Jira’s search bar. It’s also a great way to categorize tasks across multiple projects.

• Drawbacks: Labels might not be as structured or formal as custom fields, and you could run into problems with inconsistency in naming conventions.

4. Components:

• If you’re working within a specific project or set of projects, you can use Components to categorize issues by client. Components are part of the project settings and are visible to users across the project.

• Benefits: Components are project-specific, making them useful when you have separate projects per client, and they integrate well with Jira reports and filters.

• Drawbacks: This approach may not scale well if clients span multiple projects, but it’s helpful when working within a single project or several projects related to specific clients.
  
  If you like this idea, you may get interested in visualizing this data on the timeline to showcase to stakeholders. This can be done with Planyway for Jira like this:
  
  

5. Third-Party Jira Apps:

• There are Jira apps in the Atlassian Marketplace (such as Insight Asset Management or Jira Misc Workflow Extensions) that allow for more advanced customer and client management, such as better tagging, reporting, and client-specific data management.

• Benefits: These apps can be very powerful and offer enhanced functionality compared to native Jira tools.