Eriksen Labs

Jira task template

What needs doing, why, and how anyone can tell it is done. For work with no user story and no bug behind it.

Free to copy Standard team style

The template

Change it in the generator

Task

[Verb] [what]

Priority
Jira’s default
Labels
None

Description

What needs doing

[The work, and what is different when it is done.]

Why

[The reason, or the request or issue it comes from.]

Notes

  • [Links, access needed, or people to talk to]

Done when

  • [What must be true when this is done]
  • Whoever asked for it has been told
Show it as Markdown 
### What needs doing

[The work, and what is different when it is done.]

### Why

[The reason, or the request or issue it comes from.]

### Notes

- [Links, access needed, or people to talk to]

### Done when

- [ ] [What must be true when this is done]
- [ ] Whoever asked for it has been told

When to use it

Use it for work the team has to do that users would not notice as a change: an upgrade, a renewal, a migration step, a clean-up.

If the work changes something for users, write it as a story. If it starts from something broken, it is a bug.

What each section is for

What needs doing
One or two sentences. If it needs more, it is probably more than one task.
Why
Six months later, the reason is the part nobody remembers.
Notes
So the person who picks it up does not have to ask.
Risks and rollback Detailed
For changes to running systems: what could break, and the way back.

Sections marked Detailed are not in the template above. Switch them on in the generator, where you can also edit the text and the checklist.

Want this to appear automatically in Jira’s Create dialog?

Issue Templates & Create Defaults for Jira fills in the summary, description, checklist, labels and priority from a template when someone opens Jira’s own Create dialog with one of the issue types you choose. Each field it fills carries a note saying where the text came from, and once someone writes their own summary or description, the app leaves the form alone.

To take a template from this page into the app with its formatting, paste it into an issue’s description, then, as a project or Jira administrator, choose Save as template from the issue’s ••• menu.

Submitted to the Atlassian Marketplace and awaiting approval.

About the app Documentation

Other templates

Or build your own in the Jira issue template generator, and see what Jira Cloud does on its own.