Add, edit, and delete a work type
A work item represents an action that has to be done. That action can be a task, a bug, a feature request or any type of action your organization might need to work with. Work items are the core of the Jira applications since all the team collaboration happens around the work items and their organization.
As a Jira administrator, you can create new work types to represent different pieces of work for your teams. Work types live within a work type scheme, which you can then associate with one or more projects. Learn more about work types.
This page describes adding work types to use in company-managed projects. If you're looking for information about team-managed project work types, check out how to set up work types in team-managed software projects or set up request types in team-managed service projects.
You must be a Jira administrator with the Administer Jira permissions to add, edit, or delete work types in company-managed projects. Learn more about global permissions.
Add a new work type
Your new work type will be added to the default work type scheme. You can configure this and any other work type schemes to group your work types and associate them with one or more projects. Learn more about work type schemes.
Select > Work items.
In the left column, go to Work types > Add work type.
Enter a name and description for your new work type.
Choose between a standard or sub-task work type.
Standard work types are placed above the epic level (commonly Initiative and Legend) whereas Sub-task work types are underneath the Story level alongside subtasks.
Select Add.
Edit a work type
Select > Work items.
Click Work types.
Find the relevant work type and click Edit.
Edit the work type name, description, or avatar, and click Update.
Translate a work type
Select > Work items.
Click Work types.
Find the relevant work type and click Translate.
Select one of the installed language packs and click View.
Enter translations for each work type name and description (which will override any existing translations, if any, in that language pack) and click Update.
Delete a work type
Before deleting a work type, we recommend searching for all work items of that type and bulk editing them to select another existing work type. You can then delete the original work type without affecting existing work.
Select > Work items.
Click Work types.
Find the relevant work type and click Delete.
Was this helpful?