Creating New fields in Jira

[Sam]

Hi all,

One of our team want custom fields in Jira. They almost need 10 new custom fields for their project. Is it a good practise to create custom fields and creating more custom fields will impact any performance on Jira? Suggest me. Is it ok to create custom fields.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, but keep a lid on them - reuse them where possible and keep the names generic to enable re-use (e.g. if they ask for "Process XYZ Start Date", don't do it.  Just say "Start Date", and you'll be able to use that field in other places when someone asks for a date field for something else).  Don't let the users do silly things like have fields for any type of status, and make sure their workflow matches their process

[Joe Pitt]

I suggest managing JIRA through change controls. It will do a couple things; 1. Give you an idea of how much time you are spending maintaining the tool and 2. Document what you've done and who asked for it and why. As @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- said, reuse the fields to keep them to a minimum. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Definitely.  I usually use a Jira support project to log requests and updates in.

[Sam]

Thanks guys.

But a team asked for different fields specifically used only for their project.  So i can go ahead and create the custom fields for them. 

[Joe Pitt]

I would ask why only for their project. Unless they have something special that no one else does why restrict it? How do they justify no one else should use it. I've had lots of requests for fields that are very similar to existing fields. Remember, if they can't see a project an existing field is used in they may not know it exists. Keep in mind, users aren't trying to make your system easy to manage. 

[Sam]

Other projects can also use them. They are not restricting the fields only to their project. My exact question is can we create like 15 new custom fields. And will that affect on any performance of jira. Can you say so that i can create and explain my team that it is okay to create custom fileds