I inherited a project from a previous team member and now I’m trying to figure out how to add multiple assignees to one Jira ticket. Our development team does pair programming regularly and we need to track the hours both developers spend on each task. Is there a way to assign more than one person to the same issue so we can properly log our time? I’ve been looking through the settings but can’t seem to find the right option. Any help would be great since we need to keep accurate records of who worked on what.
Jira doesn’t support multiple assignees by default - I hit this same issue when my team started collaborating more. We created a custom field called “Additional Contributors” to track other team members on the task. For time tracking, both devs can still log work on the same ticket even with one official assignee. The work log shows who logged what, so you’ve got proper records. Some teams create subtasks for each developer, but that gets messy fast. The custom field approach has worked great for us this past year.
We encountered a similar challenge with pair programming a few months ago. To address this, we kept the original assignee while adding the second developer as a watcher. This way, both team members can log their time even though only one is assigned. The work log accurately reflects contributions from each developer. It’s also worth checking with your Jira admin about the “Collaborators” field, which may be available as an add-on. Additionally, we’ve been noting both developers’ names in our time log comments, such as “Pair programming with John”, to maintain clear accountability in reports.
Honestly, the easiest fix we found was just switching the assignee back and forth while working. Sounds clunky but it works. When dev A logs time, they assign it to themselves. Then dev B takes over and reassigns it. A bit of extra clicking, but your time logs stay accurate and you don’t need custom fields or admin help.