Jira glossary

New to Jira, or onboarding someone who is? These are the words you will hear every day. In a typical week, a team plans a sprint, pulls stories from the backlog, estimates them in story points and moves them across the board. Hover over (or tap) the underlined words to see their definitions.

Work items

Work item (issue)

A single piece of work tracked in Jira, such as a story, task or bug. Atlassian renamed issues to work items in 2025, so you will see both names.

Work type (issue type)

The kind of work item, such as Epic, Story, Task, Bug or Subtask. Each work type can have its own fields and workflow.

Epic

A large body of work that is broken down into smaller work items and usually delivered over several sprints.

Story (user story)

A piece of functionality described from the user's point of view, small enough to finish in one sprint.

Task

A piece of work that needs doing but is not described as a user-facing feature.

Bug

A problem that stops something from working as it should.

Subtask (sub-task)

A smaller step inside a work item, tracked separately so it can have its own assignee and status.

Parent

The work item above another in the hierarchy. An epic is the parent of its stories, and a story is the parent of its subtasks.

Work item key (issue key)

The unique ID of a work item, made of the project key and a number, such as WEB-123.

Summary

The one-line title of a work item.

Assignee

The person currently responsible for doing the work.

Reporter

The person who created or reported the work item.

Watcher

Someone who is notified when a work item changes, without being responsible for it.

Label

A free-text tag for grouping work items, including across projects.

Component

A named part of a project, such as Mobile app or Billing, used to group work items and route them to an owner.

Priority

How urgent a work item is, for example Highest, High, Medium, Low or Lowest.

Work item link (issue link, linked work item)

A relationship between two work items, such as blocks, is blocked by, relates to or duplicates.

Clone

A copy of a work item, usually linked back to the original.

Projects and planning

Project

A container for related work items, with its own key, people, settings and boards.

Company-managed project

A project whose workflows, fields and permissions are set up by Jira admins and can be shared with other projects.

Team-managed project

A project the team configures itself. Its settings apply only to that project.

Backlog

The ordered list of work waiting to be done. Work at the top is done next.

Sprint

A fixed period, usually one to four weeks, in which a team finishes an agreed set of work.

Sprint goal

A short statement of what the team aims to achieve in a sprint.

Story points (story point)

A relative estimate of the effort or complexity of a work item, used instead of hours.

Estimate

The expected size of a work item, in story points, hours or another unit your board uses.

Velocity

The average amount of work a team completes per sprint, used to plan future sprints.

Rank

A work item's position in the backlog or on the board, which sets the order work is done in.

Version (release)

A named set of work items shipped together, such as 2.4.0.

Fix version

The version in which a work item is, or will be, delivered.

Affects version

The version in which a bug was found.

Timeline (roadmap)

A view that shows epics and their work on a calendar, for planning dates and dependencies. It used to be called the roadmap.

Plans (Advanced Roadmaps)

A Jira Premium feature for planning work across several teams and projects. It was previously called Advanced Roadmaps.

Boards and reports

Board

A visual view of work items as cards that move through columns representing their status.

Scrum board

A board for teams that work in sprints, with a backlog and sprint planning.

Kanban board

A board for continuous flow without sprints, often with limits on work in progress.

Column

A stage on a board. Each column is mapped to one or more statuses.

Swimlane

A horizontal row on a board that groups cards, for example by assignee, epic or query.

WIP limit (work in progress limit)

The most cards allowed in a board column at once, so work does not pile up.

Quick filter

A button on a board that narrows the cards shown, based on a JQL query.

Burndown chart

A chart of the work remaining in a sprint over time.

Cumulative flow diagram (CFD)

A chart of how many work items are in each status over time. Widening bands show bottlenecks.

Workflows

Workflow

The statuses a work item moves through and the transitions allowed between them.

Status

Where a work item is in its workflow, such as To Do, In Progress or Done.

Status category

One of three groups every status belongs to: To Do, In Progress or Done. Reports use it to tell finished work from unfinished work.

Transition

A move from one status to another. Transitions can have conditions, validators and post functions.

Resolution

Why a work item was closed, such as Done, Won't Do or Duplicate. A work item with no resolution counts as unresolved.

Search, dashboards and admin

JQL (Jira Query Language)

The query language for searching work items, for example: project = WEB AND status = "In Progress".

Filter (saved filter)

A saved JQL search that you can share, subscribe to, or use on boards and dashboards.

Dashboard

A page of gadgets that shows charts and lists from your Jira data.

Gadget

A single chart or list on a dashboard, such as a pie chart or a filter's results.

Custom field

A field your admins add alongside Jira's built-in fields, such as Customer or Region.

Screen

The set of fields shown when a work item is created, edited or transitioned in a company-managed project.

Permission scheme

A reusable set of rules for who can do what in a project, such as create, edit or delete work items.

Notification scheme

Rules for who is emailed when something happens in a project.

Automation rule

A no-code rule made of a trigger, optional conditions and actions. For example: when a bug is created, assign it to the component lead.

Jira Service Management

Request type

A kind of request customers can raise in a service project, such as Get IT help or Request new hardware.

Portal (customer portal)

The website where customers raise and follow their requests.

Queue

A list of requests for agents to work on, defined by a filter.

SLA (service level agreement)

A time goal for handling requests, such as a first response within 4 hours. Each request shows a countdown to its goal.

Agent

A licensed team member who works on requests in a service project.

Customer

A person who raises requests through the portal or by email. Customers do not need a Jira license.

Incident

An unplanned interruption to a service, or a drop in its quality.

Problem

The underlying cause of one or more incidents.

Change (change request)

A planned addition, modification or removal that could affect a service.