berkly

Guide · Jira Cloud

Add checklists to Jira issues for definition of done

Acceptance criteria and QA steps should live on the work item — not in a spreadsheet, Confluence page, or a second product your team never opens. Tick items as you go; everyone looking at the issue sees what is still open.

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01 — The gap

Why “done” drifts without a checklist on the issue

Jira statuses say where work sits. They do not prove that acceptance criteria were met, that QA signed off, or that release readiness steps actually ran. When DoD lives in a wiki or a team chat, people skip steps under deadline pressure — and the next incident review asks why the obvious checkbox was missing.

02 — What buyers usually want

Definition of done, QA gates, and release readiness on the work item

  1. Acceptance criteria as checkable steps next to the description — not a pasted wall of text that nobody ticks.
  2. QA / review gates visible to anyone opening the issue: tests run, edge cases covered, accessibility spot-check, docs updated.
  3. Release readiness before Done — changelog note, feature flag, monitoring, rollback path — so “ready to ship” is a list, not a gut feel.
  4. Reusable templates for story, bug, and release types so every new issue starts with the same bar.
  5. Progress on the issue itself — checked items stay visible so you know what shipped, not only what remains.

03 — How to put DoD on the issue

A practical path for Jira Cloud teams

  1. Agree a short definition of done (5–12 steps). Longer lists get ignored.
  2. Turn that list into a checklist template for stories / bugs / releases.
  3. Add the checklist on the work item when the issue is created or when it enters In Progress / In Review.
  4. Require open required items before moving to Done (team habit, or workflow rules where you already use them).
  5. Keep checked items visible after Done so audits and retros can see what was actually completed.

04 — Tooling

Work Item Checklists for Jira

Work Item Checklists for Jira is a Forge app for Jira Cloud. Checklists live on the work item — tick items as you go, use templates for lists you reuse, and keep done/still-open progress visible. Intended design: compute on Atlassian Forge, customer data stays in your site / Forge storage — no external egress path. It is not a separate workflow engine or Gantt product; advanced process automation still belongs in Jira workflows / Automation.

Marketplace listing: Work Item Checklists for Jira (may still be in Atlassian review — the Marketplace URL is the source of truth). Product docs: /apps/checklists-for-jira. Support: info@berkly.nl.

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