Jira Done vs Closed vs Resolved: the difference

The short answer

Done means the work has finished. It is the last status in Jira's simpler workflows and boards, and it is what you see on most new software boards.

Resolved and Closed come from Jira's more traditional workflow. Resolved means a resolution has been made and is awaiting verification by the reporter. Closed means the work item is considered finished and the resolution is correct. In that workflow, Resolved is the step before Closed.

So when a colleague asks you to "close the ticket", move it to the last status on your board, whatever that status is called. If you are unsure which one that is, ask once.

Atlassian's definitions

Atlassian lists Done among its default statuses, and Resolved, Closed and Reopened among the statuses specific to Jira.

Two styles of workflow

The simple style: To Do, In Progress, Done

New software boards start with three columns: To Do, In Progress and Done. Teams add statuses between them, such as In Review, but the last one is still Done. One step finishes the work.

The traditional style: Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed

The traditional workflow separates two moments:

1. The person doing the work says it is finished: Resolved.
2. The person who asked for it confirms it: Closed.

If the confirmation fails, the ticket goes to Reopened and back into work. This can suit teams where the reporter, such as a customer or another department, has to agree that the problem is gone.

Why both count as finished

Jira groups statuses into status categories, chiefly To Do, In Progress and Done. Done, Closed and Resolved can all sit in the Done category, which is shown in green. Boards and reports use the category to decide what counts as complete. Atlassian's help for kanban boards, for example, says they use the status category to decide whether a work item is complete, and that any status in the Done category counts as complete.

On a scrum board, Jira also looks at the columns: Atlassian's sprint help says a work item counts as complete once it is in the last column of the board. That is why Atlassian recommends mapping statuses such as Done, Blocked or Cancelled to the rightmost column if they mean the work is over.

Do not confuse status and resolution

Jira also has a separate Resolution field, which says why the work ended: Done, Won't Do, Duplicate, Cannot Reproduce. So a ticket can have the status Closed and the resolution Duplicate. Filters treat a work item with no resolution as open, even if its status is Done or Closed. The status vs resolution guide explains why that matters.

What to do on your board

• Use the last column your team uses. If your board ends in Done, Done is "closed". If it ends in Closed, use that, and do not stop at Resolved unless your team asks the reporter to confirm.
• Leave a comment when you close something. One line on what happened, such as "Released to production by Tom today", saves the next person a question.
• Do not close work someone else is verifying. In a Resolved and Closed workflow, the confirmation step belongs to the reporter or tester.
• Reopen instead of creating a copy. If closed work turns out to be broken, reopening keeps the history in one place. If your workflow has no Reopened status, ask your team how they handle it.

Practise closing a ticket

Closing a ticket is a small task that is easy to get half right. Agile Board Practice has a workplace task where a colleague emails that a fix is live, and you find the ticket, move it to Done and comment that it was released before you reply, with feedback on each step.