Unresolved Issue After End Date

[Chris Waller]

Hi All, I am new to JIRA so please be patient with me.

I have been asked to sort a few problems out with JIA and as I currently have 880 instances where the resolution field is displaying "Unresolved Issues"

Is there anyway I can change this to something other than Unresolved?

Thanks

Chris

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi Chris, welcome to the community. 

let’s start with a bit of understanding around the resolution field. What can be quite confusing especially when you get started is that there are statuses and status categories and resolutions. Below I have tried to provide a little bit of background on this but I encourage you to leverage Atlassian documentation for much more detailed information.

• Statuses - these represent the current state of an issue within your workflow. The most basic workflow might have something like To Do and Done statuses but workflows can get much much more complicated in some organizations with many different statuses.
• Status Categories - regardless of how many statuses you have they will always fall into one of three categories: To Do (grey), In Progress (blue), and Done (green)
• Resolution - this is a system field that IMO should always be set when transitioning an issue into a Done status-category status. This field should also be cleared anytime you transition out of the Done status category status. This field has different values that can be configured at a system level not a project level.

Now let’s discuss how to set and clear the resolution. First is important to note that for TMP projects this really isn’t configurable as of yet so what follows is associated with CMP projects. 

There are two primary methods of setting the resolution field, both involve configuration of the workflow.

1. you can add a post function to every transition into a done category status. The post function will set the resolution to a specific value such as “done“.
2. You can add a screen to a transition that exposes the resolution field so that the user transitioning the issue into the done status can select which resolution value they want e.g. done, won’t do, cannot reproduce, cancelled, etc. along with this methodology you typically add a validator to the transition requiring that this field be updated.

In either case again recall that you should clear the field on any transition out of these done statuses.

Finally, and likely more to your specific 880 problem, if you have your project configured such that issues in the done status cannot be edited then you can’t simply set the resolution on those issues individually or using bulk edit. In this event there are two options:

1. use bulk edit to transition issues out of the done status back to in progress then bulk edit and set the resolution. If you used the post function method above then the bulk edit using the Transition will set the resolution automatically. If you used the user defined method you will need to edit the issue using bulk edit and select the value. You will the need to the use bulk edit to transition back to your done status.
2. implement a “one-time” correction workflow method. In this scenario edit your workflow and create a recursive transition exiting your done status and re-entering your done status. Then add a post function to this recursive transition and set the resolution field. Publish and save this workflow and then using bulk edit transition issue with this recursive transition. Personally I like this method when I have a scenario like yours.

hope this all makes sense and helps.

cheers!

[Chris Waller]

Jack,

Apologies I meant to write to you yesterday Thanking you for the information above. I did read your comments and whilst they were very instructive, I think at this moment in time I probably don't have the correct permissions and the knowledge to carry out the instructions to complete the task. I will have to pass on the instructions to someone in our hierarchy to sort the problem out. Perhaps it should be the person that set up the project in the first place, however, I am very grateful that you were wo prompt in your response.

Thanks again. 

[Airbus Driver · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can follow the instructions provided in Bulk edit resolutions in Jira server . Eventhough the link says Jira Server, it also applies to Jira Cloud.

[Chris Waller]

Airbus Driver,

Thanks for your take on this. Again, I might have to pass it on to a manager in my command chain to have a look and they may have the permissions to be able to amend what is clearly incorrect. As I have only recently started looking at JIRA it might just be a little out of my comfort zone at the moment and therefore a little reluctant to run something that has the potential to change a lot of data.

As I have a bit of time on my hands, is there a way this can be changed manually, so I can see where the changes have been made. I don't want to change anything inadvertently that might have a knock on effect on something else.

[Airbus Driver]

Hey @Chris Waller

It can be changed manually by adding the 'Resolution' field to the 'Edit Issue' screen, however, this is not recommended. We usually never recommend doing this since the resolution field should only be set using a post-function or through a transition screen.

If you want to edit an already closed issue which has no resolution set (and if you don't want to do it using the bulk method), you can add the 'Resolution' field to the 'Edit Issue' screen, then manually change the resolution for all the issues and then remove the 'Resolution' field from the 'Edit Issue' screen.

Try it on a sample issue first and then when you're comfortable with it, do it on the affected issues.

[Chris Waller]

Airbus Driver,

Thanks again for your help. I will talk with my manager and see which they think is the best way forward. I thought it would be best to leave all the ones that are finished with alone. It is only the ones in progress that are displaying Unresolved that might need further action. As I currently don't have permissions to enable me to do this I will need someone within the organisation with the correct powers to grant this. Again, thanks I will escalate this to my manager.