Optimize work types

What is work type optimization?

Having too many work types can slow down Jira. As a Jira administrator, you can reduce the number of work types available in your projects by removing work type associations from work type schemes.

How to remove unused work types?

You may remove work types using the Edit work type scheme page. More on that here: .

Alternatively, you can use the work type optimizer to identify and remove unused work types in bulk.

How does Jira decide if a work type is used or unused?

If a work item exists with this work type, then it is considered used. Otherwise, the work type is considered unused.

How to access the work type optimizer?

1. Select Work items.

2. Under WORK TYPES, select Work type schemes to view all your work type schemes.

3. Locate your scheme and click on the Actions … button to open a dropdown.

4. Click Optimize.

5. You should see a page with three possible actions. Some of these actions may not be available depending on your data.

How to remove unused work types from the current scheme

1. Look at the date of the last scan. If there have been any configuration changes between the last scan and now, the usage report may be out of date. Click Update if you wish to generate a new report. It may take up to several hours to generate a report for large projects.

2. In the Remove unused work types from this field configuration scheme section, click the Review actions button.

3. Review the count of Used work types, the count of Work types about to be removed, and the reduction percentage.

4. Click Remove work types.

5. Jira will now remove the unused work types. This operation should complete immediately and you can use your scheme straight away.

What does removing unused work types do exactly?

• This action will modify the current scheme

• The work types remain available in other schemes

• You can associate the removed work types again

How to create a scheme variant

1. Look at the date of the last scan. If there have been any configuration changes between the last scan and now, the field usage report may be out of date. Click Update if you wish to generate a new report. It may take up to several hours to generate a report for large projects.

2. In the Create scheme variant section, select the project that you would like to isolate in its own scheme.

3. Click the Review actions button.

4. Review the count of Used work types, count of Work types about to be removed, and the reduction percentage.

5. Click Create scheme variant.

6. Jira will now create a new scheme. This operation should complete immediately and you can use your scheme straight away.

What does a new scheme variant do exactly?

• This action will create a new copy of the selected work type scheme

• It will associate used work types only to the new scheme

• It will use this new scheme in the project you selected

• The previous scheme will remain unaffected

If you wish to undo this action, change the work type scheme back to the old one in project settings.

How to redefine your work type schemes for all projects

1. Look at the date of the last scan. If there have been any configuration changes between the last scan and now, the field usage report may be out of date. Click Update if you wish to calculate a new report. It may take up to several hours to generate a report for large projects.

2. In the Redefine your work type schemes section, click Redefine work type schemes button

3. Review the count of projects that will be optimized, the count of new schemes that are going to be created, and the work type reduction percentage.

4. Click Create new schemes.

5. Jira will now create several new schemes. This operation may take several minutes to complete.

What does redefining do exactly?

• This action is very similar to creating a scheme variant

• It also creates copies and associates only used work types

• It also leaves the previous scheme unmodified

If you wish to undo this action, change the work type scheme back to the old one in project settings.

There are two main differences:

1. Redefine will optimize every project.

2. Redefine may group several projects under the same scheme.