Simplifying JIRA and using common schemas and common date fields

[Symantha Gates]

We have a JIRA instance with 20 schemas and wide field usage of date fields. We would like to "get the genie back in the bottle" so to speak and set some definitions around common fields to be used. For example, we don't need a dozen due date fields, maybe one or two will suffice. The issue seems to be that we have allowed too much customization and also may no longer be aware of what we can do as JIRA admins to create a more consistent experience and get people to populate common date fields. In other applications, I have seen people admin with the approach of a base set of expectations and then allow customization on top of that. Is that a potential option with JIRA Cloud? If yes, what are some best practices to achieve it? 

[Gareth Blake-Coggins]

@Symantha Gates We have recently had to do something similar in our own instance. The way we tackled it was:- 

1. Developed new categories for each of our projects for example;

  a. Research & Development

  b. Operational etc etc 

2. Identified which projects should go under each Category and assigned them as such.

3. Developed new workflows / screen / issue type / Field configuration schemes for reach category.

4. Migrated each project to the new workflows and schemes. 

This allowed us to define new fields, remove the many duplicate fields we had and also meant that each project had the same defined fields, issue types and hierarchy's based on their category. 

Hope that helps 

[Symantha Gates]

Yes ! Thank you, that is good to hear. So by creating categories you could then apply some structure at each category level? I like that. I can see how that would be super useful and we could also consolidate to some common workflows as well.