issue type schemes best practices

[Eldad Dayagi]

I just opened a new project, it got its own default issue type scheme with all the standard issue types (epic, story, bug, task, sub task).

Do I have to worry about other projects being affected if I for example add another issue type to the issue type scheme of this newly opened project? I am guessing the answer is no and that this is isolated to that new project.

Also, let's say that I'll leverage an existing issue type scheme from another project, what should I do with the issue type scheme that was created for my project?

Remove it? What is the best practice? What do others do usually?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Eldad Dayagi 

First let us confirm that you are working with a Company Managed project. Schemes apply only to Company Managed projects and new Company Managed projects can be created only by full Jira Administrators. Are you a full Jira Administrator?

You will want to absolutely confirm that the Issue Type Scheme assigned to your new project is actually assigned only to that project.

A Project Administrator can see which Issue Type Scheme is assigned to their Company Managed project from the Project Settings > Summary page.

A Jira Administrator would be able to navigate to this page:

https://<yourCo>.atlassian.net/jira/settings/issues/issue-type-schemes

On that page you can find the same Issue Type Scheme and review which project(s) are shown in the Projects column. If it shows only one project then the scheme is not currently shared with multiple projects.

In that case, any changes you make to it will affect only your project and not any other project.

If you opt to change which Issue Type Scheme is associated to your project, so that it shares a scheme that is already used by another project, then you can freely delete the scheme that was automatically created.

Do be aware that if you change your project to user an Issue Type Scheme that is already used by another project, then you may need to make other changes too. If that scheme includes additional Issue Types, you may also need to update your Issue Type Screen Scheme it those issue types require screen other than the ones in your current scheme. You may also need to update you Workflow Scheme and your Field Configuration Scheme.

[Eldad Dayagi]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill . Yes, company managed project and I have admin rights.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes and no.

You will want to check that the (potentially) new issue type scheme is only used by the new project.  If it is, then changes to it will not affect anyone else.  If it is the default issue type scheme, then it could affect other people.

By default, Jira is a bit confused - it tends to create new schemes for everything, so you can do what you want, but it also tries to do a lot of sharing.  (As an Atlassian admin, I want to push everyone down the sharing route - you don't want to have to try to look after 2000 schemes for 2000 projects, burn it down to under 10 of each type of scheme if you can.  I've been paid a lot of money for cleaning up the mess that the current "new schemes for every project" makes.  And you're going to have "fun" unless you turn off "anyone can create team-managed projects" - they're not yet ready for organisations that have more than 2-3 teams)

[Eldad Dayagi]

Yes, that's what I didn't understand, why it keeps creating more and more schemes, it has the potential of making the Jira instance overloaded with unwanted schemes.

Thanks @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Hi @Eldad Dayagi ,

The best practice I would suggest is: 

1. Always create template projects.
    Create related workflows, screens and other schemes and map to the template project. 

2. When you have a request for creating new project, create project with shared configuration using the template. By doing this, no new schemes will be created when a new project is created. 

Regarding the new schemes created while creating a project, when you map existing scheme to the project, the new scheme will fall under inactive schemes. You can delete them. 

[Eldad Dayagi]

@Rilwan Ahmed Thanks for the tips on how to create a project better next time.

In the screenshot you referred to workflow schemes and I was referring to issue type schemes, it doesn't seem that this Active/Inactive kind of separation exists for issue type schemes as it does for workflows but anyway it's also good to know so thanks again,

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Hi @Eldad Dayagi ,

You are right. For issue type schemes, there is no Active/Inactive.

The schemes show which projects it is assigned. If not assigned, then project column will be blank. Action menu will have delete link in it.