JQL to find issues pending approval but missing approver

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Hey community,

I have a number of workflows including approval steps. Unfortunately there are many different user picker fields used in the various workflows and many of these are set using automation. From time to time issues get stuck because the used approver field in the approval step is empty.

In order to fix these I want to be able to filter them. I have come up with this initial JQL:

approvals = pending()

This gives me all issues waiting for approval. But I cannot add another clause checking if the relevant "approver" field is empty. There are JQL functions like "pendingBy()" but these require a user added. If I could use "IS EMPTY" with this JQL function things should be sorted but this operator is not supported, something like this:

approvals = pending() AND pendingBy() IS EMPTY

I could set the "approver" field mandatory in the transition to the approval step but that does not guarantee that it is not cleared while in the status

Any ideas how to check if the used approver field is empty or not in this situation?

Cheers,

// Svante

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Svante Gustafsson Björkegren 

Do you have different approver user picker fields used across workflows in a single project? 

I think you will have to call out the approver user picker fields explicitly in the JQL, but I haven't any research on JQL related to approvals.

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Hey Trudy,

Thnx for your response. Yes we use different "approver" fields across a workflow.

The main reason for this is that for some workflows we have up to three approval levels and the approvers for each step is set when the issue is created. E.g. Manager, Manager's Mgr and Mgr x 3. Therefore we have three different approver fields.

I am quite sure now that there is no way to easily filter out these issues. My workaround so far is an automation that sends an email as a reminder to the approver if the approval has been sitting for 3 days. In case the approver field is empty, this automation reports an error and I will get a notification about it. Not a clean solution but it works for now