What's the difference between request types and work types?
Every request type in Jira Service Management is connected to a work type. Request types manage the specific settings of a work type (such as naming, portal customization, and work categories) while work types manage the foundational settings of a work type (such as workflows and fields).
One work type can be used for many different request types. For example, the Purchase work type could be used for both the Request new hardware AND Request new software request types.
However, one request type can only be connected to one work type at a time. For example, the Request new software request type could use the Purchase work type OR another work type, but not both.
Request types
Request types are the types of requests that can be raised in your service project, such as ‘Get IT help’ or ‘Request a new account’. They direct your customers to the right place to submit their requests. You can add your own request types on top of the set of defaults provided by Jira Service Management, and organise them into custom Portal groups to help your customers find the request type they need for their request.
Phrasing request types in a customer-friendly way allows your customers to quickly identify what kind of service or request they need. Learn more about setting up request types.
Customer requests are automatically sorted into the correct queues in your project navigation sidebar by their request type. If you have work categories enabled, service request types will be sorted into Service requests, incident request types into Incidents and so on. Work categories also give your requests specialised features. Learn more about work categories.
If you create a work item without a request type, your requests won’t have access to all Jira Service Management features. Work items with a work type only can be found in Queues.
The fields of a request type come directly from their work type. The request type must have the same work type as the work item it’s connected to. If you change the work type of a work item, you’ll also need to update the request type to match. Learn more about how work types and request types connect.
As you set up a request type, you can choose to include fields that are hidden from your customers in the portal but still make them available to your team to help them resolve the work item. Some fields can only be used on the work item, but not on the request form. Learn more about configuring request types.
Work types
Work types manage the foundational settings of your work items, such as workflows and fields. Each work type maps to a single specific workflow, but can access any of the fields available in your service project. Adding a field to a work type allows any work item with that work type to use that field in work items.
A Jira Service Management administrator can add and delete work types from a service project to represent different types of work that agents do. Each Jira product comes with default work types to suit the needs of your projects and teams. You can customize your work types as needed to suit your team’s way of working.
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