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Ticket ownership

Overview

Constructor's ticket ownership model is designed to be flexible. You can designate a single ticket owner to make that person clearly accountable for the work. Optionally, you can add additional collaborators so they know what's on their plate too.

Key concepts

Ticket owner

A ticket can have at most one owner. Think of the owner as the person who is accountable for ensuring the ticket moves forward.
The ticket owner will:
  • Have their name appear clearly on the ticket
  • See the ticket listed in their "My work" view
  • Be notified about changes to the ticket (if they've enabled notifications)

Ticket collaborators

In addition to an owner, a ticket can have additional collaborators. Think of collaborators as team members who have some work responsibility on the ticket but aren't primarily accountable for ensuring it moves forward.
Ticket collaborators will:

Common patterns

There are many ways to use ticket owners and collaborators. Here are some examples. We recommend adopting a pattern that matches how your team likes to work. You can always change as your team evolves.

No owner

For some teams it can make sense not to bother designating ticket owners or collaborators at all! Typically these are very small teams with just one person per role, e.g., just one designer and one developer. It's clear who's responsible for a ticket based on its stage on the board. If this sounds like your team, go right ahead without any shame! You can start designating ticket owners in the future as your team grows.

Single changing owner

In this pattern, you designate as the ticket owner whomever is currently responsible for moving the ticket forward. The owner changes as the ticket moves across the board. For example, while the ticket is in design, you would designate a designer as the owner. When the ticket is ready for development, you would change the owner to a developer.
This pattern tends to work well for teams of any size.

Single persistent owner

In this pattern, a ticket is assigned a single owner, and the owner isn't changed as the ticket moves through the board.
This pattern can be useful for teams with multiple PMs, each of whom is responsible for driving a subset of the team's tickets. You can designate additional collaborators for designers, developers, testers, or other individuals involved with the work.

Ad hoc

In this pattern, just do what makes intuitive sense for your team! It's OK not to have a fully consistent, principled model. Go ahead and designate a single owner that changes as a ticket progresses, but add the occasional collaborator when it makes sense and helps your team stay on top of their work.

Step-by-step

Changing the ticket owner

To change a ticket's owner:
  • While on the ticket's page: Select a team member from the dropdown at the top of the page.
  • While on the board: Hover over the ticket's card, click the ellipsis menu, and choose Make me owner to quickly make yourself the owner.

Adding and removing collaborators

To add collaborators to a ticket, visit the ticket's page and click the "plus" button to the right of the owner name at the top of the page. You can add as many collaborators as you like.
A ticket must first have an owner before you can add collaborators.
To remove a collaborator, visit the ticket's page and hover over a collaborator's avatar, then click Remove.