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In Atlassian JIRA, what is the difference between the fields "Fix Version" and "Release Version History", and when should you use what? I cannot seem to find any definitions and recommended usage of these fields online.

This distinction is very much useful for me, especially for Epics, that span across fix versions. For example, if my Epic feature is being released in phases, e.g. 1.2.0, 1.2.1, 1.2.4 and 1.3.0, then should I:

  1. add each release version number to "fix version" after every release, or to "release version history", or both?
  2. If I add to only "release version history" while the Epic is in progress, then, when closing the Epic, should I update "fix version" only with that last release version number, or update "fix version" with ALL previous versions?

(Side note: I realize that maybe I am not creating Epics correctly, that an Epic should ideally be rolled out in a single release (version)? If that is the case, please do correct me.)

Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩
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Krishnan
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1 Answers1

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JIRA was originally a bug tracking system and I believe that "Fix Version" was used to indicate which version you planned to fix a bug in.

For example, a team releases version 1.1 but then a bug is reported. They raise the bug in JIRA and give it a Fix Version of 1.2 as they want the bug to be fixed in the next release.

As JIRA is now a full-blown agile project management tool, a lot of fields aren't used for their original purpose. It is really up to you to use them how you see fit. You can even add custom fields if the standard fields aren't what you want.

Ask yourself:

  • What information do we need?
  • What will this information be used for? Reporting? Analysis of trends?
  • Can we leverage the existing JIRA fields, or do we need to create a custom schema?

Epics are just large stories. If you are releasing every sprint then often an epic will span several releases. If you are releasing less frequently then you could aim to fit epics in to releases, but there are no hard and fast rules about this.

Barnaby Golden
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  • Thanks for your answer. I am just looking for one ore more opinionated approaches/answers to use those two fields effectively, and hence need to understand the difference. For e.g. JIRA has "Releases" where we define fix versions. If you FixVersion of a Jira Issue to a release, say 1.1, then it starts appearing in that 1.1's release notes. The same does not happen if you set the "Release version history". – Krishnan Jul 04 '18 at 13:46
  • Sorry, I don't think I can help further with this. I have never altered the "Release version history" field. I assumed "Release version history" was intended for system use rather than as a user updated field. – Barnaby Golden Jul 04 '18 at 15:49