Provide a timeline/log of decisions/changes to an issue within the description so user's do not need to read the entire discussion thread to gain context

Everyone can contribute. Help move this issue forward while earning points, leveling up and collecting rewards.

• Close this issue

Problem to solve

Issues change over time as they evolve from initial creation, through discussion and design, to development, and then to close. Often times, decisions or major pivots are decided within the comments, and the information isn't propagated back to the issue description unless an individual does it manually.

This creates a scenario where a user cannot understand the issue, and it's historical evolution by just reading the issue description. They must read the entire discussion thread.

We can look at this from two view points :

As a reader of an issue, I need to be able to quickly read an issue's description and current state So that I can understand it and it's history, and make decisions without needing to read the entire discussion thread

And:

As a user of an issue, I need to be able to surface/highlight a decision or important change to an issue from the discussion, So that I can easily update the description/issue to reflect the decisions made and 'why' they were made without a ton of manual work or copy/pasta*

Intended users

Since this relates to Issues and understanding their current state/historical context, it applies to multiple personas:

• Parker (Product Manager)
• Delaney (Development Team Lead)
• Sasha (Software Developer)
• Presley (Product Designer)
• Devon (DevOps Engineer)
• Sidney (Systems Administrator)
• Sam (Security Analyst)
• Dana (Data Analyst)

Proposal

Initially I have been thinking of an option (via a button) to 'promote' a comment within the discussion to something that is displayed similar to the 'show history' option within the discussion area:

I like the vertical layout of the timeline with the person who made the change, timestamp, etc, but I believe these important changes should be prominently displayed within the issue rather than under a drop down.

Possible items worthy of displaying in this view:

• Product changed target customer from 'y' to 'z' after validation work
• Product changed package the feature will be offered in from 'y' to 'x' after market research
• Engineering has decided to build this with 'z' framework/language/etc due to constraints
• Split the work into multiple MVC's due to size and complexity
• Moving to different milestone due to interrupt work

Recent Real World Example: