Can you delete JIRA stories?

[Jim Constant]

Does anybody here have JIRA configured to NOT allow the deletion of stories? My company does and I think it's causing problems for me.

For example, my latest sprint report shows a story created in error that I then changed to Completed with a resolution of Duplicate. But that story's points are being counted in the velocity which, of course, skews the velocity numbers and all the charts that depend on it.

If I can't delete stories that are created in error, is there a way to close them without any impact on velocity?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Most of us do - it's good practice to stop people deleting issues because you can only recover them by restoring a backup!  At best, deletion rights for issues need to be limited to people who fully understand that it really does mean delete.

I'd try reducing the story estimates to 0 before closing them.  Or move them to another project (like a dustbin).  Or persuade your admins that you can be one of the select few who won't delete the wrong thing!

[louis.blythe]

Thanks! This was helpful.

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]]

Deleting stories is restricted using project permissions. Your Admin can help you with that.

I am afraid you will have to remove the story from Sprint or remove the story points on the ticket, if you want it to be reflected in the velocity chart. Both will be captured as a scope change in the reports.

[Joe Pitt]

As @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- said it is a bad idea to delete any issues. I have a close transition only the project admin can use that sets the resolution to Deleted and has a required field to select the reason for deleting the issue.

Unlike some systems, being an admin doesn't give you all rights. If the permission scheme needs to allow deleting issues. 

[Shivany Sahay]

Hi

I understand , its not a good practice to delete stories, but it does create a mess. I have the admin rights, but am still not able to delete.

Is it a feasible solution to create a different project like "Thrash" and move the non-required stories and sub-tasks there?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Very much so.  As I mentioned before, I usually take one of two approaches.

The most simple is just to close the issues, with a resolution that makes it clear what has happened.  Not required, deleted, duplicate, unwanted - does not really matter what words you choose, but it should be clear why it's been killed off.

The other one is a "trash" project.  You will want to think about the fields and screens it uses - make sure all custom fields are in it and shown, it'll need all issue types, and possibly a workflow that has all status in it (but not necessarily any transitions, other than one that takes issues to "closed" and sets a resolution) or a workflow that only has open and closed.  I would probably set the permissions so that users can create issues, but little or nothing else.  If they don't have "browse" then issues will vanish when moved into it.  If they do need to still be able to see them, then you probably want to allow browse, move (i.e. undelete) and the transition to resolve/close issues.

[Jim Constant]

Thank you, Nic and Jobin.