Problem Statement Guide

Write clear problem statements to improve team alignment and accelerate prioritization. Well-defined issues help teams understand tasks clearly, reduce misunderstandings, and deliver better results faster.

A Story Full of Pain

Problem statements used to be our weakest point. We wasted hours arguing about what to do. Many tasks went wrong because of misunderstandings, and our backlog grew with incomplete Issues.

We discovered the root problem when we started prioritizing. We set up Criteria in Ducalis and tried to assign scores to identify which Issues would impact the product most. That's when we realized the tasks themselves were unclear and impossible to evaluate. Prioritization stopped where it started. The team was confused and misaligned. Everyone interpreted tasks differently and assigned completely different scores. None of us could understand what the team was working on.

Scattered scores signal team misalignment

We implemented clear problem statement rules, which we share in this article. We now spend more time on Issue descriptions, but they're clear even without full context.

Clear Issue statements optimize work hours and reduce errors. The fewer questions needed when reading it, the faster and better the job gets done.

General Principles

Project development starts with a problem statement.

An Issue is the key entity of work. It defines what to do, how to test it, and what result to achieve. Issues are typically written by a reporter. Don't ask assignees to write problem statements themselves—they may miss nuances, and their vision may differ.

1. Clear and brief

Anyone on the team should understand the problem without full context. Review the text and anticipate questions team members might have. Answer them directly in the description. Double-check what you've written. Be brief—not a freestyle essay, but more than two sentences.

2. Specific and supported

All references must contain hyperlinks to related materials. Add screenshots when possible. Attach existing files (images, documents, or similar items) assignees may need. Don't make people guess or search for data.

3. Readable

Make text easy to understand. Help assignees spot essential points—avoid dense, unstructured descriptions. Use paragraphs, bullets, numbered lists, bold and italic text. Highlight all essential details.

4. Reasonable

Break large Issues into subtasks for intermediate checkpoints. Otherwise, you may end up with the wrong result. If you can't divide a complex problem into intermediate tasks, consider whether it has a clear endpoint and should exist in this form.

Issue Structure

An Issue must have several required sections highlighted with bold text.

1. Problem

This paragraph describes the problem to solve within the task. Describe it in sufficient detail for assignees to understand what they must do and why. The more clearly you describe the problem, the more likely the assignee will understand it deeply and offer alternative solutions.

2. Result

This paragraph describes the desired result. The more detailed this section, the clearer it will be for assignees to understand what you expect and what results to achieve. For testers, it describes what to check.

3. Solution or Comments (optional)

Use this paragraph when the reporter knows how to solve the problem. Other participants can write their comments here as well.

You can spend significant time selecting Criteria that perfectly meet your product's values and goals. But to evaluate a task by these Criteria, you need a clear picture of how it influences the outcome. Can you do that if you can't fully understand what the task is about?

A well-written Issue saves time on Evaluation, discussion, and implementation, thus cutting costs. Spend more time on the problem description and think twice rather than work twice.

Feel free to use and customize our guide. Share this article if you find it helpful. Let's make work easier for each other.

Bonus

We've built a plugin with a template based on our guide. It automatically adds Problem, Result, Solution sections when you create a new task. Works with Google Chrome + Jira. Get it here for free.