Developer English guide
Jira Vocabulary in English: How to Read and Write Tickets
August 14, 2026
Learn the essential Jira vocabulary in English: epics, stories, sprints, backlogs and more. With real examples for development teams working in English.
Key Takeaways
- An epic is a large feature. A story is a smaller unit of work. A subtask is a step within a story.
- The sprint backlog is what the team commits to this sprint. The product backlog is everything else.
- Story points measure relative effort, not hours.
- Blocked means something is stopping progress. Blocker is the highest priority level.
- The board shows all tickets and their statuses at a glance.
Why Jira vocabulary matters
Jira is the most widely used project management tool in software development. If you work on an English-speaking team, you read tickets, update statuses, and write comments in English every day. Knowing the exact terms makes you faster and more confident.
Jira terms from A to Z
A large body of work that can be broken down into smaller stories. Epics usually represent a major feature or goal.
“We need to break this epic into smaller stories before the next sprint.”
A short description of a feature from the perspective of the end user. Format: 'As a [user], I want [goal] so that [reason].'
“The story is ready for development. Let's assign it to someone.”
A smaller piece of work within a story. Subtasks help break down work into individual tasks for different team members.
“I created three subtasks under this story: design, implementation, and tests.”
A fixed time period (usually 1 to 4 weeks) during which the team completes a set of work items from the sprint backlog.
“We're halfway through the sprint and already at 70% of our capacity.”
The prioritized list of all work items for the product. Managed by the Product Owner.
“The product backlog has over 200 items. We need to groom it this week.”
The subset of product backlog items selected for the current sprint. The team commits to completing these items.
“The sprint backlog is locked. No new items unless we remove something.”
The average amount of story points completed per sprint. Used to plan future sprints.
“Our velocity is 42 points per sprint. We can plan accordingly.”
A chart showing remaining work versus time in a sprint. The line should go down (burn down) as work is completed.
“The burndown chart shows we're behind. We need to cut scope.”
The conditions a story must meet to be accepted as done. Written by the Product Owner and agreed on with the team.
“The acceptance criteria are missing. We can't start development without them.”
A shared agreement on what it means for work to be complete. Typically includes code review, tests, and deployment.
“According to our definition of done, we still need to write tests before closing this.”
A relative unit for estimating effort or complexity. Common scales: Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13) or T-shirt sizes (S, M, L, XL).
“I'd estimate this at 5 story points. It touches the auth layer.”
The person responsible for completing a ticket. One person per ticket is the norm.
“Who is the assignee for this bug? It's been open for three days.”
The person who created or reported the ticket. Usually the one who found the bug or requested the feature.
“The reporter marked this as critical. Let's take a look.”
A status meaning the work is actively being worked on. The assignee has started but not finished.
“I moved the ticket to In Progress this morning.”
The final status. Work meets the definition of done and no further action is needed.
“The PR is merged and the ticket is Done. Moving on.”
A status meaning the work is planned but not yet started.
“There are 12 tickets in To Do. Let's prioritize before the sprint starts.”
A status or flag meaning the work cannot proceed because of an external dependency or unresolved issue.
“This ticket is blocked. We're waiting on the API from the backend team.”
The urgency level of a ticket. Common levels: Blocker, Critical, Major, Minor, Trivial.
“Set the priority to Blocker. This is stopping the release.”
The highest priority level. A blocker stops the team from shipping or working. Also used as a noun: 'I have a blocker.'
“This is a blocker for the release. Everyone drop what you're doing.”
The release version in which the issue will be (or was) resolved.
“Set the fix version to 3.2.0. We want this in the next release.”
A free-text tag used to group or filter tickets across the board.
“Add the 'security' label so we can filter these tickets easily.”
A subsystem or area of the product used to categorize tickets. Examples: Frontend, Backend, API, Auth.
“Set the component to 'Auth'. This affects the login flow.”
Moving a ticket from one status to another. Transitions are defined in the workflow.
“I can't transition the ticket to Done without a reviewer approval.”
The set of statuses and transitions a ticket can go through from creation to completion.
“Our workflow has five stages: To Do, In Progress, In Review, QA, and Done.”
The visual interface showing tickets and their statuses. Two types: Scrum board (sprint-based) and Kanban board (continuous flow).
“Pull up the board. I want to see what's blocked.”
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Written by
Roxana LafuenteLingua-e's founder
Roxana Lafuente is a software engineer with 8+ years of experience. At the beginning of her career, even though she had already passed the First Certificate in English, she still froze every time she had to speak up in the daily standup. That was a gap nobody was fixing. After 2,000+ standups, she figured out what actually builds fluency: practice that looks like your real work. She built Lingua-e so other developers wouldn't have to take the long road to feel confident working in an international development environment.