Key Jira Issue Fields

A Jira issue represents a task, bug, story, or epic in a project.

Each issue contains key fields that provide detailed information about its nature, progress, and responsibility, including:

  • Assignee (who is working on it)

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  • Reporter (who raised it)

  • Priority (urgency)

  • Labels and Components (categorization)

  • Fix Version (when it's expected to be resolved)

Interview Answer

"In Jira, every issue contains multiple key fields that help define the what, who, and when. For example, the Assignee shows who is working on the issue, while the Reporter is the person who raised it. The Priority helps the team understand the urgency, and the Fix Version indicates when it's expected to be resolved. Fields like Labels and Components help categorize and filter issues efficiently. These fields not only improve clarity but also support reporting and tracking."

The Use of Labels

Labels in Jira are custom tags or keywords you can add to issues to categorize, group, or filter them more efficiently.

Labels are not predefined—users can create and assign them freely as needed.

How Labels Work

  • You can add multiple labels to a single issue.

  • Labels are case-sensitive (BugFix ≠ bugfix).

  • Labels are shared across the entire Jira instance.

  • Teams can define their own naming conventions (e.g., team-qa, client-A).

Example Scenario

While testing a web application, you find a bug on the checkout page related to payment failure.

When creating the Jira ticket, you might add labels such as:

  • checkout

  • payment

  • high-priority

  • release-3.2

Now your team can quickly find all payment-related bugs for that release using filters.

Interview Answer

"Labels in Jira act like flexible tags. I use them to categorize issues based on functionality like UI, API, or payment, or to track critical issues with labels like urgent. They're useful for filtering, reporting, and collaboration, especially across teams. For example, if I want to find all UI bugs from Sprint 12, I can filter by UI and sprint-12 labels."

Linking Issues (Relates To, Blocks, Duplicates)

In Jira, linking issues shows relationships between different issues (tasks, bugs, stories) and helps track dependencies, blockages, or duplicates.

Linking helps visualize how different parts of the project or sprint are connected and aids collaboration across teams.

Relates To

A general link indicating two issues are related but not necessarily dependent.

Example:

Feature X relates to Bug Y.

Blocks / Is Blocked By

One issue cannot be worked on or completed until another is resolved.

Example:

Task A is blocked by Task B.

Task A cannot proceed without Task B being finished.

Duplicates / Is Duplicated By

One issue is a duplicate of another, helping identify and merge similar issues.

Example:

Bug 101 duplicates Bug 102.

Cloners / Is Cloned By

One issue is a clone of another.

Useful for tracking tasks completed in parallel or separately.

Example:

Story 101 is cloned by Story 102.

Causes / Is Caused By

A causal relationship where one issue causes another.

Example:

Bug 202 causes Bug 203.

  1. Navigate to the issue.

  2. Find the Issue Links section.

  3. Click Link.

  4. Choose a link type from the dropdown.

  5. Enter the issue key (e.g., ABC-123).

  6. Click Link.

Example Scenarios

Blocked Issue

Task A (implement new feature) is blocked by Bug 105 (critical bug found in the feature).

Link Task A to Bug 105 using:

  • blocks

  • is blocked by

Duplicate Issues

Bug 102 (UI bug on homepage) is a duplicate of Bug 101.

Link Bug 102 as:

  • duplicates → Bug 101

Interview Answer

"In Jira, linking issues is essential for managing dependencies and ensuring smooth project flow. For example, if a critical bug is preventing a task from being completed, I would link that bug to the task as 'blocked by'. Similarly, if two issues are essentially the same, I would link them as duplicates to prevent duplicate work. This way, everyone on the team is aware of relationships between issues and can work on resolving them in a proper order."

The Meaning of "Resolution"

Resolution in Jira refers to the final state or outcome of an issue.

It explains why or how the issue was closed or completed.

Where You See Resolution

It appears when an issue is moved to:

  • Done

  • Closed

  • Resolved

This helps the team know what happened after completion.

Example

A tester logs a bug saying:

Submit button not working.

The developer fixes it.

When the issue moves to Resolved or Done, the Resolution is set to:

Fixed

If the bug is actually the same as an existing ticket, the Resolution becomes:

Duplicate

Why Resolution Is Important

It helps with:

  • Reporting and filtering.

  • Understanding how issues were closed.

  • JQL queries.

Example:

project = "MyProject" AND resolution = Fixed

Interview Answer

"In Jira, Resolution is used to describe the final outcome of an issue when it's closed or marked as done. It tells us why the issue is no longer active—like whether it was fixed, marked as a duplicate, or cannot be reproduced. It's important for accurate reporting and clarity in issue tracking."

Custom Fields

A custom field in Jira is a user-defined field you can add to an issue screen to collect additional information that's not available in the default fields.

Jira comes with built-in fields like:

  • Summary

  • Description

  • Priority

  • Assignee

When you need extra information specific to your project, business, or process, you use custom fields.

How to Create a Custom Field

(Requires Jira Admin access.)

Navigate to:

Jira Settings → Issues → Custom Fields

  1. Click Add Custom Field.

  2. Choose the field type.

  3. Give it a name and description.

  4. Add it to the appropriate screens:

    • Create

    • Edit

    • View

  5. Save and publish.

Custom Field Types

  • Text field (single-line/multi-line)

  • Number field

  • Select list (single or multiple)

  • Checkbox

  • Date picker

  • URL field

  • User picker

  • Labels

How Custom Fields Help

  • Customize Jira to match business workflows.

  • Improve data tracking.

  • Support advanced JQL filtering.

  • Provide the foundation for reporting and dashboards.

Interview Answer

"Custom fields in Jira are additional fields we create when default fields are not enough to capture all required information for an issue. For example, in one of my projects, we needed to track the Root Cause of every bug, so we created a custom text field and made it mandatory when resolving bugs. It helped our team improve analysis and prevent similar defects."

Cloning an Issue

Cloning an issue in Jira means creating a duplicate of an existing issue with most fields pre-filled.

This is useful when you want to reuse issue details without creating a new issue from scratch.

Step-by-Step

  1. Open the issue.

  2. Click the More or ... button.

  3. Select Clone.

  4. Fill in clone details.

  5. Click Create.

A new issue is created with the same content.

What Gets Copied When You Clone

Copied Not Copied / Optional
Summary Issue Status (resets)
Description Time Tracking / Log Work
Components Comments (by default)
Labels History / Audit Logs
Fix Version / Affects Version Assignee (optional)
Environment Linked Issues (optional)

Interview Answer

"In Jira, cloning helps quickly reproduce an issue for a similar task or bug. I use it when a new task has requirements that are almost the same as an existing one. I just go to the issue, click the 'Clone' option, make necessary edits (like updating the summary), and create the copy. This saves time and ensures consistency across tickets."

Watching or Following an Issue

In Jira, watching an issue means subscribing to receive notifications about any changes or updates made to that issue.

Examples include:

  • Comments

  • Status changes

  • Field updates

Why Watch an Issue?

You may want to watch an issue if:

  • You're not assigned to it but interested in its progress.

  • You're a team lead or stakeholder monitoring a critical issue.

  • You're part of QA verifying the fix.

Method 1 – From the Issue View

  1. Open the issue.

  2. Find the Watchers section.

  3. Click Start Watching This Issue (or the eye icon).

The icon changes color to indicate you're watching the issue.

Method 2 – Add Other Watchers

If you have permission:

  1. Click + Add Watchers.

  2. Start typing a teammate's name.

  3. Select the user.

How to See Who's Watching

Click the watcher count (for example, 3 Watchers).

A pop-up displays everyone currently watching the issue.

Interview Answer

"In Jira, if I want to stay informed about an issue's progress without being directly assigned, I use the 'Watch' feature. This helps me receive email notifications about changes such as status updates, comments, and resolutions. It's especially helpful when I'm reviewing a bug fix as a QA engineer or tracking a feature for my project."

FAQs

1. What are the key fields in a Jira issue?

Fields like:

  • Assignee (who's working on it)

  • Reporter (who raised it)

  • Priority (urgency)

  • Labels and Components (categorization)

  • Fix Version (target release)

improve clarity and support reporting and tracking.

2. What is the use of labels in Jira?

Labels are free-form, case-sensitive tags shared across the Jira instance.

They are used to categorize, group, and filter issues.

Examples:

  • checkout

  • payment

  • release-3.2

Open the issue, use the Issue Links section, click Link, choose a link type (Relates To, Blocks, Duplicates, Clones, Causes), enter the target issue key, and save.

4. What is the meaning of "Resolution" in Jira?

The final outcome of a closed issue—for example:

  • Fixed

  • Duplicate

  • Cannot Reproduce

It is used for reporting, filtering, and JQL queries.

5. What is a custom field in Jira?

A user-defined field added to issue screens to capture information that default fields don't, such as Root Cause.

Creating one requires Jira Admin access.

6. What gets copied when you clone an issue?

Summary, Description, Components, Labels, Fix Version, Affects Version, and Environment are copied.

Status resets, while Time Tracking, Comments, History, and optionally Assignee and Linked Issues are not copied.

7. How do you watch or follow an issue?

Open the issue and click Start Watching This Issue (or the eye icon) to receive notifications.

If you have permission, you can also add other watchers.