JIRA Ticket Hygiene Skill

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when the user:

• Asks if a ticket is "ready", "complete", or "well-defined"
• Asks about ticket quality or completeness
• Wants to review a ticket before sprint planning
• Asks "does this ticket have enough information?"
• Wants to validate tickets meet team standards
• Asks about missing fields or requirements

Hygiene Checklist

Required Fields (Must Have)

• Title: Clear, actionable, under 100 characters
• Description: Detailed context (recommend > 100 characters)
• Acceptance Criteria: At least 2 clear, testable criteria
• Story Points: Set for Stories, Tasks, and Bugs (use scale: 0, 1, 3, 5, 8, 13)
• Assignee: Someone owns the ticket
• Component: Assigned to track by area
• Activity Type: Must be set for capacity planning (see Activity Types below)

Recommended Fields

• Labels: At least 1 relevant label
• Epic Link: Connected to parent epic (for Stories)
• Fix Version: Target release identified
• Priority: Explicitly set (not just default)

Quality Checks

• No ambiguous language ("maybe", "probably", "TBD", "possibly")
• Technical approach outlined or referenced
• Dependencies identified and linked
• Not a duplicate of existing ticket
• Scope is achievable in one sprint

How to Check a Ticket

Use jira-cli to fetch ticket details:

jira issue view TICKET-KEY --plain 2>/dev/null

For JSON output with all fields:

jira issue view TICKET-KEY --json 2>/dev/null

Output Format

When analyzing a ticket, provide:

Ticket: TICKET-KEY

Summary: [Ticket title]

Hygiene Assessment

Overall Score: X/7 Required Checks Passed

Verdict

• READY FOR SPRINT - All required fields present, good quality
• NEEDS MINOR FIXES - 1-2 issues to address
• NOT READY - Multiple critical issues

Recommended Actions

1. [Specific action to fix issue 1]
2. [Specific action to fix issue 2]

Activity Types (Sankey Capacity Allocation)

Activity Type is required for sprint/kanban capacity planning. Tickets without an Activity Type appear as "Uncategorized" and cannot be properly allocated.

Reactive Work (Non-Negotiable First)

Core Principles (Quality Focus)

Proactive Work (Balance Remaining Capacity)

Priority Order

1. Non-Negotiable: Achieve SLAs for Escalations & CVEs
2. Core Principles: Reduce bug backlog, ensure quality/stability/reliability
3. Then Balance: Set up for long-term success by balancing remaining capacity between Future Sustainability and Product Work

Red Flags to Highlight

• Descriptions under 50 characters
• "TBD" or placeholder text in any field
• Story points of 13+ (must be broken down)
• No acceptance criteria at all
• Vague titles like "Fix bug" or "Update feature"
• Tickets open > 30 days without progress
• Missing Activity Type (appears as Uncategorized in capacity planning)

Integration with Commands

This skill complements the /hygiene-check command:

• Command: Bulk audit of sprint tickets
• Skill: Deep-dive on individual ticket quality