Working With Issue 🐞 Tracking List In SharePoint

This article is the 43rd part of my SharePoint series. Here are my previous articles.

1. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part One - Introduction
2. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Two - Web Application
3. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Three - Site Collections
4. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Four - Subsites
5. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Five – SharePoint Lists
6. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Six - Power Of Versioning
7. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seven - Lists Advanced Settings
8. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eight - Validation Settings in List Settings
9. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nine - Audience Targeting
10. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Ten - Rating Settings
11. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eleven - Form Settings in List Settings
12. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twelve- Save the list as a template in List Setting
13. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirteen- Permission Settings in List Settings
14. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fourteen- Enterprise Metadata and Keywords
15. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fifteen - Retention Policy Under Information Management
16. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Sixteen - RSS Settings in List Setting
17. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seventeen - List Columns in SharePoint
18. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eighteen - Multiple Lines Of Text Column Type in SharePoint
19. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nineteen - Number and Choice Column Type in SharePoint
20. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty - Currency and Yes No Column types in SharePoint
21. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty One - Person or Group Column types in SharePoint
22. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Two - Date and Time Column types in SharePoint
23. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Twenty-Three – Look Up Column Type in SharePoint
24. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Four - Hyperlink or Picture Column Types in SharePoint
25. Learn SharePoint In Series -Part Twenty-Five - Calculated Column in SharePoint
26. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Six - Task Outcomes and External Data Column Type in SharePoint
27. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Seven - Introduction to Managed Metadata Column Types
28. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Eight - Introduction to Site Columns
29. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Nine - Editing and Deleting Site Columns
30. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty - Column Reordering in SharePoint
31. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-One - Indexing in SharePoint Lists and Libraries
32. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Two - Introduction to SharePoint Views
33. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Three - Creating a SharePoint List View
34. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Four- Editing and Deleting a SharePoint List View
35. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Five - Standard View and Datasheet View
36. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Six - Gantt View in SharePoint
37. Learn SharePoint In Series - Calendar View In SharePoint
38. Learn SharePoint In Series - Contact List in SharePoint
39. Learn SharePoint In Series - Announcement List in SharePoint
40. Learn SharePoint In Series - Link Lists in SharePoint
41. Learn SharePoint In Series - Promoted Links In SharePoint

In the previous article, we saw every detail of the Discussion Board List template in SharePoint. Now, in this article, we are moving one more step ahead and learning about the Issue Tracking list template provided by SharePoint. In this article, we will see what the Issue Tracking list is in SharePoint and how this can be helpful in your scenarios. We will cover the following points.

• Background
• Introduction to Issue Tracking Lists
• How to create an Issue tracking List?
• How to add issues to the Issue Tracking List?
• How to respond to the issues?
• Summary

Background

Issues are something that we don’t want to have in our product but there is always a case where an issue is faced and reported. So, consider that you have a software firm and you have a team of Project Managers, Developers,and QA. Now, the scenario is that you are a project manager and you want to track the developer’s work and QA’s work and software status. So, the process that is mostly followed is&

• The developer develops the code
• Submits the software to QA
• QA tests it and reports the issues to the PM and the Developer via email
• PM and Developer keep track of issues and fix them.

There is nothing wrong with this pattern. But what becomes complex is that PM doesn’t get updates on the actual status of the issues and to get the latest updates, he/she has to contact the developer or dig into all the emails. In order to solve this common problem, Microsoft SharePoint provides a list template that helps to track the issues. Let’s explore Issue Tracking further.

Introduction

Issue Tracking List is a template provided by Microsoft SharePoint, using which we can create an Issue List to be used to track the issues related to any project or any other stuff. Issue Tracking lists help the users to track down the issues, check the status of the issues, track who is responsible for these issues, and much other stuff.

Issue Tracking list can be used at the Help Desk System or any other customer support system where a customer has to report the issues with the product. It also helps the user to maintain the status of the issues like active or closed etc. Let’s check how we can create the Issue Tracking Lists.

How to create an Issue Tracking List?

In order to create an Issue Tracking list, please follow the below-given steps.

Step 1. Open the Site Content page by clicking on the "Settings" icon and then clicking “Site Contents”.

Step 2. This will open the "Site Contents" page. Click on the “Add an app” icon from this screen.

Step 3. Search for the “Issue” in the search box and then click on the “Issue Tracking” icon link.

Step 4. Give the appropriate name to the list and hit the “Create” button.

Step 5. Your issue tracking list has been added.

Step 6. Click on the list icon to open the list. When you hit the link, you will have the following screen.

Here, you can see there are 3 Views available by default. The names of the views are

1. All Issues: Here, all the issues will be listed without any filters.
2. Active Issues: Here, only those issues will be listed which are currently active.
3. My Issues: This will list all the issues that are assigned to the currently logged-in user.

How to add an issue to the Issue Tracking list?

In order to add a new issue to the Issue Tracking list, click on the “new item” link on the list.

When you click on “new item”, it will open an issue addition form.

Let’s understand each field shown in the form.

Title

Title of the issue you are reporting.

Assigned To

This is a People Picker field. Here, you can select the person to whom you are assigning this issue.

Issue Status

This is a choice field with default values as Active, Resolved, and Closed. If we try to understand the use of these values - When a QA assigns this issue, he/she will make this “Active”. If a developer has resolved the issues, they can mark this as “Resolved”. Once the QA verifies if the issue is really resolved, then QA or PM will mark this as “Closed”. You can always change these values as per your requirements.

Priority

This is also a choice field. This helps to define the priority of the issue. It has default values as High, Normal, and Low. A user can select any of the suitable options. You can always change these values as per your requirements.

Description

This is Multiple lines of text field. In this, the user can describe the details of the issue.

Category

This is again a Choice field. Here, the default values are Category 1, Category 2, and Category 3. You can always change these values as per your requirements.

Related Issues

Sometimes, what happens is that one issue is related to another like issues of the menu bar can be related to the issues with Master Page or any such relations. So, this field allows the user to define the related issues.

Comments

This is Multiple lines of text field. In this users can add comments related to the issues. Now most of us will have a question like, if a user can add a comment in the Description column also, then why do we have this additional Comment column? The answer is logical. It is like the one who is adding the issue to this list will explain the issue in the Description field, but when a user solves the issue, they can use this comments field.

Due Date

This is a Date and Time field. This is used to provide due dates for the issues. Once you have entered the data, just hit the “Save” button and your issue will be added.

How to respond to the Issues?

Consider you have got an issue, then just open the issue list and click on “My Issues”.

Here, you will see the issues assigned to you. Click on (...) and then “Edit Item”.

It will open up the edit form. Just change the Status to “Resolved” or “Closed” and hit “Save”. And now your issues are resolved. So now when you click on “Active Issues”, you will not find any issues listed.

Summary

So, in this article, we have seen the basic details about Issue Tracking lists in SharePoint. We have seen how to create the Issue Tracking list, how we can add items to the issue list, and how we can edit the issues in the Issue Tracking list.

If you have any comments related to this article or any SharePoint concept, please let me know in the comment section. In the next article, I will explain the details of SharePoint Survey Lists.