Identifying Teams with No Stories Matching Specific Label (Without ScriptRunner or API)

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Hi Atlassian Community,

I'm trying to identify teams in Jira that have not created any stories with a specific label (let's say the label is called "Important").

Here's my situation:

• I need to find teams that haven't used the "Important" label on any of their stories.
• I'm not working within Jira Cloud.
• Unfortunately, I don't have access to ScriptRunner or the Jira API within my organization.
• Teams are identified using a custom field called "Team" (a single select field).

I've tried using JQL queries in dashboard gadgets, but I'm struggling to find a solution that directly lists the teams that are missing the label. The best I can do is create a JQL query like this:

project = YOUR_PROJECT AND issueType = Story AND labels = Important AND "Team" = "Team A"

...and then repeat that query for each team, which is very manual.

I've also experimented with the "Two-Dimensional Filter Statistics" gadget, but it only shows me teams that do have stories with the label, not the ones that are missing them entirely.

Is there a way, using only standard Jira features (JQL, dashboard gadgets, etc.), to efficiently identify the teams that have not created any stories with the "Important" label? Any suggestions or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Igor Pertsovsky -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Based on what you described, please try using this JQL:

project = YOUR_PROJECT
 AND issueType = Story
 AND ( 
      labels NOT IN (Important)
      OR labels IS EMPTY 
     )
 ORDER BY Key ASC

And use that on a dashboard with the Pie Chart gadget, selecting your Team field.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Thank you for the suggestion. I used it in the DB and it looked very promising but when I test it, I see team that do have stories with the label in those projects but they are still in the chart. what can be the reason? this is my real filter:
project in ("DM-Shared Services ART", "DM-Claims ART", "DM-Financials and C&R ART", "DM-Policy ART", "DM-Pricing and UW ART") and issuetype in (Story, Spike) and labels not in (Codeupdates) and fixVersion in ("PI SHSE 2025.2")

[Bill Sheboy]

Labels are case-sensitive.  Do you have other variations of that label which are not exactly "Codeupdates"?

If not, please post a image of Jira for the JQL search, showing that exact JQL, and a work item with that exact label value?

Please also note: as you are not also testing for EMPTY, the JQL you describe will always have at least one label, even when it does not match Codeupdates.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Thank again. The filter above is the exact one I used in gadget. 
Now it shows 4 teams and all of them have at least 1 spike or story with label "Codeupdates" see the image of such spike

[Bill Sheboy]

My apologies if I was not clear: please show the actual search view with the JQL which returns issues, including the one you show.

And, did you check for other variations of capitalization of the label value, perhaps from earlier entries? 

There is known defect for that symptom described here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-74345

If it is that one, you may need to work with your Jira Site Admin to ask Atlassian Support how to resolve this: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

[Igor Pertsovsky]

hat is the issue: the search returns all stories that have no Label "Codeupdates" , 500+ in this case, but not the ones with the label. So the teams are not supposed to be in the results but they are. Also no labels "codeupdates" in lower case.

[Bill Sheboy]

In that case, please work with your Jira Site Admin to ask the Atlassian Support team for assistance solving this.  The community members will not be able to access your site data to help.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

what should I ask them? Usually the queries work fine for me.

[Bill Sheboy]

Okay, I am confused by your response...

You originally noted some JQL queries were not working as expected and now you are indicating they are working fine.  Apparently there is no problem so solve, so please disregard my suggestions.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Until the JQL that your suggested, I wasn't aware  that I had issues with JQL queries :)
The JQL query works  and does not return any issues that have "Codeupdates" label. 
Once in the Pie Chart gadget, it shows the teams that have no issues in the filter JQL. Have you noticed anything weird in the JQL? Is it possible the issue with the gadget?

[Bill Sheboy]

You appear to be using Jira Server (or Data Center), correct?  If so, there are several things which could impact the behavior of JQL: upgrade problems, history problems, etc.  If you check with your admin they may know if others are seeing unusual search results.

If you are using Jira Cloud, the image you show of that Pie Chart gadget does not seem to be the built-in one.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

This is not cloud, we use our own servers still. I will contact our Jira support
Thank for your help!

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 
I was talking to my Jira support and it seems a bit challenging because the filter is correct. It find stories that have no "Codeupdates" label, 46 of them and this is what presented in the Pie chart when I limit to one team. But, that team also has 1 story that has "Codeupdates" label and technically I don't want to see it in the Pie chart.  
How can I work  around that because many team are in the same situation?

[Bill Sheboy]

What did the Jira Support team suggest when you asked them?

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Same. The filter and Gadget produce the expected results. 
Can rich filter Pie Chart gadget an be used in in this case?

[Bill Sheboy]

I do not know as I am not using Jira Server (or Data Center) to test that gadget.

And, if the Atlassian Support Team stated the JQL had the correct results showing a specific issue with the label (when that was the opposite of the query), something seems incorrect.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Are JQL queries and gadgets work different in local server and cloud setup?

[Igor Pertsovsky]

I think I might be missing something. When I have a JQL that looks like that:
project in ("DM-Shared Services ART") and issuetype in (Story, Spike) and labels != Codeupdates and fixVersion in ("PI SHSE 2025.2") and team = 3815
it returns 46 issues that none of them has "Codeupdates" labels. 
So the JQL filter is correct.
When I add it to Pie Chart gadget, it is showing that team and 46 stories count. So far so good. I actually, don't want to see that team in the chart because the same team has 1 story with"Codeupdates" label. I only need to see teams that don't have any stories with "Codeupdates" label.
Can I achieve the desired result  using this filter and Pie Chart gadget or need to look for something else?

[Bill Sheboy]

Are JQL queries and gadgets work different in local server and cloud setup?

Yes, both supported JQL and dashboard gadgets are different between Cloud and Server / Data Center products.

And, Server may have additional JQL query result differences when the database has maintenance problems, such as from indexing being out of date.

Can I achieve the desired result  using this filter and Pie Chart gadget or need to look for something else?

I honestly do not know.

You originally asked about finding issues that did not have a specific Label value.  I provided a JQL query to do this in my first post, and that query does not appear to work for your situation or perhaps your Jira site's data.  Thus I would not know what to suggest further...which I why I asked what the Atlassian Support team suggested.

Please talk to your Jira Site Admin about next steps to solve this.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Thanks. But my original request was "Identifying Teams with No Stories Matching Specific Label (Without ScriptRunner or API)" not issues. This is in the title. 
I appreciate your help. 

[Bill Sheboy]

As a reminder: JQL searches for issues meeting some criteria.  It cannot search for other things, such as a Team, or for the absence of issues.  It is not a generic SQL.

If you modify my original suggestion to check for an assigned Team:

project = YOUR_PROJECT
 AND issueType = Story
 AND Team IS NOT EMPTY
 AND ( 
      labels NOT IN ("Codeupdates")
      OR labels IS EMPTY 
     )
 ORDER BY Key ASC

This should return the issues without the label "Codeupdates" (or no labels) and with a Team assigned.  Using that in the Pie Chart gadget would show the Teams with their issue counts.

What this will not find is any Teams which have no issues at all.

If that JQL still returns issues with the label "Codeupdates", there appears to be a problem with the site's data preventing the query from working correctly.

[Varsha Joshi]

Hi @Igor Pertsovsky 

Welcome to the community

Have you tried - project = YOUR_PROJECT AND issueType = Story AND labels Not In (Important) - this should get you list of teams from your custom field that have not used the label

project = YOUR_PROJECT AND issueType = Story AND labels = Important AND "Team" Not In (list from Query1) should verify it for you.

Hope this helps.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Hi @Varsha Joshi 

Thank you for your reply. Please help me understand the  (list from Query1) part? 

[Varsha Joshi]

Oh I just meant the first Query - "Have you tried - project = YOUR_PROJECT AND issueType = Story AND labels Not In (Important) - this should get you list of teams from your custom field that have not used the label" - just lazy to type it again :-) 

I should have labelled it in my reply. Sorry for the confusion.

[Igor Pertsovsky]

Hi @Varsha Joshi , so do I need to use an excel in between or there is a better way?

[Varsha Joshi]

You would have to get the teams list from the Query 1, probably need to export the results depending on the number of search results.