Resolved vs Closed - What is the purpose of two 'final' states in the default workflow?

[Rob McElroy]

BACKGROUND

• I am modifying the default workflow for one of our projects.
• In our old issue tracking sytem we only had one final state for an issue, that was closed.

QUESTION

1. Why does JIRA's default workflow come with two statuses the appear to be final? Resolved and Closed feel the same state to me and my users.
2. Is the only difference between closed and resolved is a closed issue cannot be edited without re-opening the issue?
3. If I decide to remove the Resolved status for my new workflow will that break anything in JIRA?
4. What about default reports in JIRA, are any of them specificially looking for the Resolved status?

Thanks!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

The answer isn't an easy one, but basically, it's up to you how you use it (or remove it)

>Why does JIRA's default workflow come with two statuses the appear to be final? Resolved and Closed feel the same state to me and my users.

They aren't both final - in the overwhelming majority of cases, an issue tracker is used with three basic phases.

1. It's broken (Open, reopened and in-progress)
2. I think I've fixed it (Resolved)
3. Yes, it's fixed, never look at it again (Closed)

The fact your users thing resolved and closed are the same implies you have a very simple setup and probably don't really need "resolved". Time to create a new workflow :-)

>Is the only difference between closed and resolved is a closed issue cannot be edited without re-opening the issue?

This is the bit that's up to you. You can actually remove the "do not edit" flag. You don't have to use "closed", or "resolved". You could have a workflow of "new", "in progress", "fixed" if you wanted, the names are not actually horrendously important.

>If I decide to remove the Resolved status for my new workflow will that break anything in JIRA?

Possibly. It'll ask you to move existing "resolved" issues to a new status (closed in your case) but you'll only actually break something if you ignore my next answer

>What about default reports in JIRA, are any of them specificially looking for the Resolved status?

No, but it's good you've asked. Jira doesn't really care about the resolved *status*, but it *really really really DOES* care about the *resolution FIELD*. Whatever you do to your workflow, think carefully about the resolution because Jira sees it as a flag. If it has a value, then the issue is resolved/closed/done/ended whatever. If it's empty, then the issue needs some form of action. The trick here is threefold:

1 For any transition going to a status that you think of as "closed", make sure that you either

1.1 Use a workflow post function to set a resolution automatically. OR

1.2 Put the resolution on the workflow transition screen so the user has to fill it in

2 For any transition going into a status that you think of as "open", use a post-function to clear the resolution

[Rob McElroy]

Hi Nic -

Thank you for the excellent information. I have removed the resolved status, but was not aware of the Resolution field and its importance! I will modify the workflow appropriately!

Thanks again!

Rob

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That resolution info caught me out over and over when I first started hacking workflows in Jira. The docs have improved a lot since I started, but it's still not that obvious!

I hope the scribblings help out and same you at least a few users saying "why is this closed issue returned in the 'unresolved' report?"

[Kiran Srinivas · Accepted solution]

To reiterate the above solutions in short, RESOLVED is when the issue/bug is fixed and pending testing by the person who raised it. CLOSED is when the issue/bug is tested successfully.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

For the default workflow it is, but some people change that.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hi, Resolved for us is a status, where a solution is implemented, but not yet passed the test stages. If an issue has passed all the tests and can get into the production stage, the issue is closed. I think, most reports do not check the status resolved, but the existence of a solution set ( fixed, for example). Best regards Thomas

[Brian Finamore]

Hi @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- thanks for the helpful answer above.  At this point I've read enough threads and docs to understand the conceptual difference between status and resolution, and your answer above was very helpful in that it indicates that JIRA does see resolution as a distinction from a final workflow step, and uses it for "stuff". 

However, I'm still not clear on what functional benefits result from maintaining the resolution field if, for all intents and purposes, we just care about "done" or "not done".  Is resolution useful because many of JIRA's built-in reports reference the resolution by default?  Couldn't you, for example, have a dashboard widget that just reports on a status (e.g. Done) % instead of the resolution field % and effectively have the same insight?  Does anyone have more examples of the benefits of being diligent with the resolution field vs the "final" workflow status?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, because Core Jira uses the resolution for everything to do with seeing an issue as "done", you should always consider the resolution in your workflow.  Strikeouts, created vs resolved gadgets, version reports, everything looks at resolution.

[Aaron Ko]

A very old message chain, yet not yet "resolved" (sorry for the pun).  I'm not new to this, yet still the old argument exists, why can't I just report on status of "closed" or "done"?   

Well, back to one of the main points (somewhere in this chain).   RESOLUTION is a flag, 1 or 0, True or False, Boolean value.  Those from hard core computer science backgrounds should be familiar.  The "Status" FIELD is NOT a Boolean value (NOT 1 or 0).  

There are 2 states for Resolution 

* Resolution is NULL

* Resolution is NOT NULL

There, 1 or 0, True or False.  Now of course, Resolution "value" can be anything "Done", "Fixed", "Duplicate", "Won't Do", etc.  Those are still TRUE, 1, YES.   

The other benefit of the Resolution FIELD is the automatic setting of "Resolved Date", users can not manually change this, which is a good thing for auditing.  

I hope that explains it to some who are still confused.  As to why JIRA has confused us with Closed and DONE statuses (technically, you can change the statuses to anything you want), I'm not quite certain.  

Here is my "Admin" point of view:  giving user too many choices is a BAD THING.  Don't give them too many choices, it's a waste of their time.  I give my son 2 shirts to pick from in the morning, that's it.  Don't give them too many "statuses".  

[Alex Benedek]

Thx

[Phil Burke]

Ok, completely confused... I was under the impression that it was two different states as per the suggestion of most contributors above so I had the following plan.

- Mark completed when issue was (suspected) fixed.

- Closed after I was satisfied and had invoiced the customer (no need to revisit).

This would assist with invoicing at the end of the month however I have just gone to do exactly that and noticed that all my 'resolved' issues are now 'closed'. I definitely marked them as resolved with the above plan in mind.

I deleted my 'resolved' queue thinking that I needed to do it again. Now my 'resolved' queue is empty.

Is it possible that 'resolved' automatically becomes 'closed' after a given time. Other than basic customisation, my setup is completely default.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Status is an indicator of where an issue is in the process flow.  You can call a status anything you want.  Jira's default workflow has "resolved" and "closed" as two different status because that's how Mike and Scott wanted to work at the time.

Resolution is a separate field, and can also have many values.  It does not show where something is in a flow, but Jira does use it for the simple question of "does it need any more attention?".  If the resolution is empty, the issue needs attention.  If the resolution is filled in, then the issue is resolved and does not need any attention.

Neither status nor resolution change automatically, unless you have automated something to make it do it.  They are only changed by people interacting with the issues.

[Phil Burke]

Thanks for the reply. That is exactly how I expected it to behave and it now seems to be working. Will have to see how it goes... perhaps my memory fails me, though I am sure I was only marking things as 'resolved' and not 'closed' through February.