Work items

A work item is one piece of work: a story, a bug, a task, a request. Each one has a key such as WEB-42, a title, a status, and fields such as an assignee, a priority and a due date. Items live in a project, and the project’s channel members can see and work on them.

Types and levels#

Every item has a type. The built-in types are Epic, Story, Task, Bug, Chore, Subtask, Request, Incident, Deliverable and Campaign, and project admins can add custom types for the whole organization. Which types a project uses depends on its template and its settings.

Each type sits at one of three levels, and the levels make a hierarchy:

• A subtask always has a parent item, and a standard item can sit under an epic. The parent must be in the same project.
• An epic can be linked to an initiative, which groups epics across projects. Initiatives live in the Work hub and have their own keys.
• You can turn a subtask into a standard item, and back. See The item view.

Statuses#

Each type follows a workflow: the statuses its items move through, such as To do, In progress, In review and Done. Every status belongs to one of four categories, Not started, Started, Done and Cancelled, which My work, reports and notifications use across projects whatever the statuses are called.

A project’s workflow may limit which moves are allowed, keep some moves for project admins, or require fields before a move. When a move needs fields, the app asks for them first.

Fields#

• Assignee: one person. Others can follow the item by watching it. You can assign only people in the project’s channel; when you pick someone who isn’t, the app offers Add to #channel and assign.
• Priority: Urgent, High, Medium, Low or No priority.
• Labels, Estimate (story points or a t-shirt size, when the project uses estimates), Start date and Due date.
• Sprint and Fix version, when the project uses sprints and releases.
• Epic or Parent, and Initiative on epics.
• Reporter: who created the item.
• Any custom fields the project has. Naming someone in a project member field doesn’t notify them.

You can also give an item to your own agent. See Working with agents.

Create an item#

From a project’s view#

• Select New item in the view bar (on wider windows), or press C on a computer.
• Select Add item at the end of a board column, or, on phones, at the end of a List group or a Backlog section. The item starts in that column’s status or that section’s sprint.
• On the Calendar, tap an empty spot on a day to create an item due that day (on a computer or the web).

Quick add asks only for a title and a type: type the title and press Enter. Select More fields for the full form, with the status, assignee, priority, dates, estimate, sprint, fix version, labels, description and custom fields. Fields marked as required must be filled in before you can create the item.

From inside an item#

• Add subtask in an item’s Subtasks section: type a title, then press Enter.
• Add item in an epic’s Items in this epic section.
• Create linked item in the item’s actions menu creates a new item already linked to this one.

From a message#

Open a message’s menu and choose Create work item. The form is filled in from the message, with a link back to it. See Items in chat.

Offline#

You can create items without a connection. Until the item reaches the server, its key shows as WEB-…, and it gets its number when it’s sent.

Keyboard shortcuts#

On a computer and on the web, these keys work in a project’s views: