Setting up properly for versioning

[BILL SCHWARTZ]

New to Jira - trying to understand the correct way to keep track of issues associated with versions we release.  We start sprints under a board using what will be our next version number, and add issues to it.  When we complete the sprint, we would like to have the issues saved as a released version but that is not apparently how it works.  We need to understand the relationship between a board, a project, a sprint and a version.  Can anyone provide a simple answer to how the structure works so that we can release versions and have the set of issues involved listed under that version?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

There is no direct relationship between a sprint and a version.  Most people will create one though

some will put a version on an issue to indicate that they plan to fix it in a particular release, and then use it to help guide them on what to take into a sprint

many will put the same version on all the issues they complete in a sprint, in order to say "this is what the sprint delivered

There's nothing wrong with either of those, they are both useful for reporting and planning, but Jira doesn't have a way to do either.  The humans have to do it.

For the other stuff:

• A project is a container for issues
• A board is a view of a set of issues
• A sprint is a time box, built in the context of a board (but may show up in other boards)
• A version is a field value for grouping issues together for a release.  It's a project entity, only existing in the project it is a part of

[bduncan]

The Atlassian documentation on releases helped us get going:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/enable-releases-and-versions/

The difference between server and cloud are negligible, but from the Releases section you can view released and unreleased versions / you can track progress on a given release.