How to View History of Issue Updates and Status Changes in JIRA ?

Introduction

An important part of effective project management in JIRA is the ability to track the history of issue updates and status changes. Reviewing this information provides valuable insight into task progress, facilitates collaboration, and allows teams to keep track of activities. JIRA provides extensive functionality that allows users to easily view and review the history of updates and status changes for each issue. This feature helps Teams analyze the timeline of events, track changes made by team members, and understand how things have evolved. In this guide, we'll explore how to view issue updates and status change history in JIRA so that teams can have a clear and transparent view of their project's progress.

About Jira Issue History

JIRA, a widely used project management tool, provides a detailed history of the lifecycle of each issue, recording updates and status changes as it progresses. JIRA's issue history is a valuable resource for teams, providing insight into task progress, facilitating collaboration, and ensuring transparency. Here are the main aspects of the JIRA issue history:

• Update timeline: JIRA Issue History displays a chronological timeline of all updates to an issue. Each update is logged with the date, time, and user responsible for the change. In this way, teams can track the order of changes to an issue and provide a complete picture of its evolution.
• Field level changes: JIRA saves the changes made to the individual fields of the publication. Whether it's a change to a summary, description, indicator, priority, or another custom field, the history log records old and new values, highlighting updates to each field.
• Comments and attachments: In addition to field-level changes, JIRA also tracks comments and attachments related to the issue. The history log contains all comments added by team members, facilitating collaboration and providing context for task progress.
• State transitions: JIRA's issue history records status changes as an issue evolves through the different stages of its lifecycle. Every transition from state to state is recorded, allowing teams to understand the timing of state changes and track overall task progress.
• User actions: JIRA's issue history also reflects the activities of individual users. Whether it's updating a field, adding a comment, moving a state, or making another change, the history log assigns the action to that user.
• Granular visibility and filtering: JIRA provides detailed visibility into issue history and filtering options. Users can filter the history log based on specific criteria such as period, user actions, field changes, or state transitions.
• Integration with workflows and notifications: JIRA issue history is tightly integrated with workflows and notifications. When a state transition or update occurs, JIRA can automatically trigger workflow actions, send notifications to relevant stakeholders, and update issues.

How to View Jira Issue/Ticket History

To view the Jira issue/ticket history:

1. Log in to Jira: Open a browser and navigate to your Jira instance. Enter your login information to access your Jira account.
2. Go to the desired project: Find the project that contains the issue you're looking at and click on it. Then find the number/ticket you are interested in and click on its title or key to open it.
3. Access Information: Once an issue/ticket is opened, you will be redirected to the issue details page. This page has comprehensive information about the issue like its summary, description, delegation, status, and more.
4. Show the History tab: Look for the "History" or "Activity" tab, usually located near the problem information. Click this tab to access the problem history.
5. View problem history: The History tab displays a chronological list of all updates, comments, and status changes related to the issue. Each historical record represents a specific event or change, along with the user who acted, the date and time of the update, and all related information.
6. Expand the sections for more information: Some history records may have additional information hidden by default. Click on an entry to expand it for more information. It provides additional information such as old and new values of fields, added comments, or submitted attachments.
7. Filtering and sorting history: You can filter and sort the history to narrow down the data if necessary. Jira often provides options to filter history based on certain criteria, such as time period, user, or field changes. This allows you to focus on relevant updates and easily track specific changes.
8. Export history (optional): Depending on your needs, you may have the option to export the problem history. Jira often provides an export function to generate reports or save historical data for further analysis or review.

Steps to View History

1. Log in to your Jira account and navigate to the project that contains the issue or ticket you want to view.
2. Locate the specific issue or ticket you are interested in. You can use the search functionality or browse through the project's issue list.
3. Click on the issue or ticket's key or title to open it and access its details.
4. Look for a tab or section labeled "History," "Activity," or "Comments." This tab is typically located alongside other tabs such as "Details" or "Description."
5. Click on the "History," "Activity," or "Comments" tab to view the history of the issue or ticket.
6. The history section will display a chronological list of all the updates, comments, and status changes that have occurred for the issue or ticket. Each entry in the history will include information such as the date and time of the change, the user who made the change, and a description of the update.
7. Expand each entry in the history to view more details about the specific change or comment. This may include information about the modified fields, the previous and current values, and any additional comments or attachments associated with the change.
8. If you want to search or filter the history entries, look for filtering options or search functionality provided within the history tab. This allows you to narrow down the displayed entries based on specific criteria, such as a particular date range, user, or keyword.

How to Export Issue History

1. Log in to your Jira account and navigate to the project that contains the issue or ticket you want to export.
2. Locate the specific issue or ticket you are interested in. You can use the search functionality or browse through the project's issue list.
3. Click on the issue or ticket's key or title to open it and access its details.
4. Look for an option or button that allows you to export the issue or its history. The availability and location of this option may vary depending on your Jira configuration and user permissions.
5. Click on the export option, which might be labeled as "Export," "Export to CSV," or similar.
6. Choose the format in which you want to export the issue history. Jira typically provides options such as CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or Excel.
7. Select the specific fields or information you want to include in the export. This allows you to customize the exported data according to your needs. You may choose to include details such as dates, comments, status changes, and more.
8. Specify the destination for the exported file, such as your local computer or a designated location within Jira.
9. Click the "Export" or "Download" button to initiate the export process.
10. Once the export is complete, you can access the exported file in the specified location. Open the file using the appropriate software (e.g., Microsoft Excel) to view the exported issue history.