HELP!: I need to know how to best organize data to avoid multiple custom fields.

[Jeff Ravatt]

I'm new to Jira and to the company, I am working for.  They have Jira set to track reviews of items which require multiple rounds of revision.  For each item in each round, there are multiple points of data that have to be recorded, though not every item requires the same number of revisions.  Sometimes it's just one round, sometimes it goes up to five or six rounds.  

Currently, on a sheet in the review section, they are using one tab for each round of review, whether it is needed or not.  This is leading to tons of duplicated custom fields as they are using 1 custom field for each type of data, for each round of revision.  For example, a sheet might have the following fields: 

  TAB_01: Fix_01, Cost_01, Description_01, Repairman_01;

  TAB_02: Fix_02, Cost_02, Description_02, Repairman_02;

  TAB_03: Fix_03, Cost_03, Description_03, Repairman_03;

  TAB_04: Fix_04, Cost_04, Description_04, Repairman_04;

  TAB_05: Fix_05, Cost_05, Description_05, Repairman_05;

  TAB_06: Fix_06, Cost_06, Description_06, Repairman_06;

    (They are actually more complex, but you get the idea)

They are using this same modality in multiple places in the Jira setup leading to 7 or 8 times as many custom fields as they should need.  The repetition in fields rubs the programmer in me the wrong way and it feels like it is crippling the efficiency of our DB.

If this were a normal setup I'd do a one-to-many relationship between the issue and a second table containing the information for each round of fixes.  But I haven't found any custom fields that describe a one-to-many relationship.  How can I do something like this for my company in Jira?

Suggestions?

-Jeff 

As a footnote, I have come into this project after it has been this way for a couple of years, so major DB changes run the risk of data loss.  I have to try to avoid that.  =)

[Lachlan]

Hi @Jeff Ravatt 

This sounds like a great use case for the ProForma plugin.

It allows forms to be very easily added to new and existing Jira issues over multiple stages. Creating ProForma forms is much easier than Jira custom fields. And it comes with other powerful features like workflow validators which prevent issues from changing status until a particular form is completed. 

If you would like to evaluate for free you can try ProForma Lite

Regards,

Lachlan

[Jeff Ravatt]

I was hoping for something that wasn't plug-in based, but I will look at the software.