Resolution field showing on some issues but not others

[Karen Bottai]

Hello -- I am working with an internal customer (Im the Jira Site admin) and they noticed that RESOLUTION shows on some of his issues and not others.

Here are the things we have done:

• Add resolution to create, edit, and view screens
• Update Automation to select "Done" resolution status on close of issue.
• Moved issues back to "In progress" and back to "Done" (which should have triggered the automation and shown the resolution field drop down next to the Status Dropdown)

Let me know if I am missing anything. Two screenshots provided - one with resolution field, and one without. Same issue type, same screens.

While they are in different statuses, Resolution has shown up on some tickets in the TO DO status as well but not all.

Bonus if you know how to lock down this field so they cannot change it from the drop down.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Karen Bottai,

The resolution field is (and should be) shown only when it is filled out. For Jira, when a resolution is filled out, that determines whether an issue is considered finished or not. This plays together with the statuses in your workflows.

If you use project templates, then the built-in workflows will make sure that resolution gets filled out automatically when your issues reach a done status. That is what you see in your screenshots: a green status is done (and so there is a resolution filled out); a grey status means to do (and so obviously there is no resolution filled out and then the field remains hidden).

As a best practice, do not add the resolution field to screens, except to screens you use in a workflow transition of workflows you customise yourself. Your workflows should take care of this for you.

Hope this helps! 

[Karen Bottai]

I did not want to add it to the screens. We were unable to change it without adding it. So we couldn't set the resolution without adding it. Its been quite infuriating for my whole company since only 3 projects out of the company is required to fill it out. The project in question is our Analytics team, which is not required to fill out the Resolution screen, but they could not get it to be released from their sprint or get a closed date (Resolution date) for their calculation (they needed it for some sort of out-of-jira calculation). 

So what your saying is that if Project Templates are used, they will not show the resolution field? It will be missing? Is there a way to fix that? I know that this project is using Templates for Jira add on. And does fill out all of their issues using templates and/or automations.

In basics, we want the resolution to show on the view/edit screen, but also be able to edit it (for now). I can find a place where the issue status =Done but the resolution field is not showing. 

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Karen Bottai,

That is not what I meant. It looks as if it is not entirely clear what the resolution field in Jira is an how it should be used. And so I made the - possibly wrong - assumption that you use out of the box Jira configurations for your projects instead of manually customizing them in detail. Apologies if I mishit the ball there 😅.

But still: the resolution works together in Jira nicely with status to indicate if an issue is completed or not - and when it is completed, how exactly this happened. If you move an issue to status closed, that could suggest all work on it has been done, but it may just as well be because someone decided to cancel it instead. Resolution is intended to indicate this difference.

As Jira can be used to model work across literally every team or process, you can end up with dozens of status that represented closed. When you then want to perform a simple search for all issues that are open vs closed, you will soon find yourself building queries with long lists of statuses. Resolution offers you the power and flexibility to simply search for Resolution = Unresolved (i.e. all issues where resolution is not filled out, so all open issues) or Resolution != Unresolved (the opposite: all issues that are closed, regardless of their status).

With that in mind, it is essential that a value is filled out for resolution in every Jira project, for every workflow, as soon as an issue is placed in a Done status.

You can either do so by adding a post function to the transition that sets the value for resolution automatically to Done (that way, your users won't even notice this happens). Or you can associate a workflow screen to the transition to a Done status and have the resolution field on that screen. That will allow your users to select the desired transition.

When I mentioned templates in my initial answer, I was referring to the out-of-the-box workflows that come with the project templates that come with Jira Software (e.g. the kanban or scrum project templates). They have this automatic setting of resolution readily built in.

Coming back once more to the field being visible on your screens: the resolution field is present on your view issue screen next to the status dropdown. But it wil only be shown when it has been updated, which should be at the end of the workflow, when work is done and following the 2 possible approaches described above. Setting a resolution on the create or edit screens is not the way to go.

[Karen Bottai]

HI Walter,

This didnt quite answer my question, you gave a best case scenario, which I am well aware of. 

Maybe I will reword it.

Why is it that on some screens/issues the resolution field shows, and on other screens/issues it does not?

The bafflement comes that two exact same issue types and screens (and even the exact same workflow, with post functions enabled)- one shows the field and the Resolution type (such as done, wont do, etc), the other does not. 

Whether or not I use it in the above fashion, is regardless of my question. My troubleshooting made me add it in order to find a resolution to the missing Resolution drop down showing or not showing. 

Does that help clear it up some?

[Karen Bottai]

I will also add that my company is gradually going from Waterfall Practices to Agile practices and not all of them have adopted the idea of "Resolution" so they ask for it to be automatically set. We are in the middle of our Agile transformation and it will take them awhile to realize the value. For now, we are working in the fashion of post functions being set for projects that are more waterfall in nature. 

[Joe Pitt]

The resolution field should NEVER be on any create, edit, or transition screen EXCEPT the transition screen presented when you want the user to select a resolution OR in a post function in the transition to done/closed. NEVER select a default value. Any time the resolution field is presented it is required. Having a default value makes is so the user doesn't need to make a selection. 

[Karen Bottai]

Our Company does not require the Resolution field to be filled out for non-development projects. Actually, they dont need it at all, but it is required for the software project to consider it fully done in a sprint. So your use case is not applicable to us. Thank you for responding.