Jira Action Items

What Are Jira Action Items?

Jira action items were introduced by Atlassian in late 2024 to allow you to include checkboxes in Jira  rich text Jira fields (Description, Comments, custom paragraph fields.).  Similar to Confluence action items, users can create Jira action items by:

• Selecting the checkbox icon in the text formatting menu

• Typing a pair of square brackets “[ ]”

• Using the  “/ action Item” slash command

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‍What Are the Advantages and Limitations of Jira Action Items

Action Items are good for spelling out steps on an issue when you don’t want, or need, to create a subtask. However, Action Items currently have some important limitations:

• They do not work with Jira automation

• They are not repeatable / reusable

• They cannot be converted into issues or subtasks

• They cannot be enforced with a workflow validator

• Their completion state is not searchable

Checklist / Action Item Use Cases

Organize Work on Issues

Action items will work well for making a simple to-do list on an issue. However, if you need a different set of steps for each status of a workflow, combine Checklist with automation to change or append checklist items.

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Agile Processes

Agile development processes such as Definition of Done work great with a checklist. To ensure consistency and hold all teams to the same standards, you’ll want to apply the Definition of Done across multiple issues projects: easily done with Global checklist or a default checklist template.

Plan Work

Since Checklist for Jira items can be converted into a separate issue or subtask in a single click, they can be used for keeping a backlog under control. Simply create one Epic issue with a checklist on it. Then when the team ready to start work on that epic, convert the checklist items into issues.

QA and Compliance

A checkbox is a great tool for enhancing QA and accountability. Checklist for Jira adds enforcement by allowing you to validate for checklist completion.

Search for assigned Items or Issues with Incomplete Items

Checklist for Jira supports JQL Expressions that make it easy to find issues with checklist items waiting to be completed. There is also an Assigned items page and a dashboard gadget so users can quickly find items assigned to them.

Jira Action Items vs Checklists for Jira Feature Comparison