Adding Status\transition to Simplified workflow?

[boardtc]

My goal is to have a Review and Test column inserted before Done.

Adding a new column/status to the simplified workflow used to be very straightforward, it no longer is as a status is no longer added by default when you add a column :-( The new functionality seem powerful but this basic edit to the workflow should not be so difficult. 

Working on a cloud instance with full admin permissions I have attempted to add new steps\statuses, see below.

There is no way to drag and drop the new step(s), or to edit the existing transition in order to go from In Progress to the new column/status of Review (& then Test) before Done.

The help does not seem to cover this basic functionality either. 

How can this be done? Or is it impossible now without creating a new workflow?

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

@boardtc, let me see if I can jump back in and assist around the cloud side of things. However, the details that Nic provided were very good so unsure if my additions will help but let's see.

How to copy a workflow in Cloud: (note my images are on new UI so your view may be slightly different)

1) click on the Jira Icon to get you to the application admin level

2) selects Settings

3) select Issues

4) Select Workflows

5) for the workflow that you wish to copy in the far right will be COPY

Edit the new workflow. You can do this in the same screen where all workflows are displayed by clicking EDIT. 

Finally, Associate the workflow to project and issuetype(s) you want. You do this via Add Existing (as you show in your recent response to Nic) and then Assign the issue types to the new workflow. Such as...

I sure hope this helps.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Thanks Jack, I'm well behind today!

[boardtc]

Thanks Jack, that enabled me to clone the workflow :-)

So I edited the clone and added 2 statuses and 2 transitions:

I then need to change the transition that goes from In Progress -> Done to In Progress -> Review. But the only transitions available to edit are the 2 I created. How do I make the change?

[Jack Brickey]

So the WF is a bit messy and certainly confusing. I'm sure the issue of not being able to edit transitions is that it is based off the simplified WF but this really should not be the case. Something has gone haywire on your workflow.

At this point I suggest starting clean. Rather than messing with the old WF at all just create a new from scratch workflow. You can do this from the screen where all workflows are shown and just click Add Workflow.

[boardtc]

Thanks, ok I added a new workflow.

New Workflows by default have status Open, this can't be changed to To Do (as it exists already) or can't be deleted. So I created my statuses and transitions. One gotcha was that the transition can't be called "In Progress" as that exists already so you are forced to do a ridiculous "In Progress 1" or whatever. 

Going back to your instructions, I was able to associate this via Add existing. But prior to publishing "The current status of each issue needs to be changed so that it is compatible with the new workflows.". TO DO must  move to Open :-( 

It seems like there is no way to have the To Do status in a new workflow as Open is required :-( I haven't transitioned the states yet unless it's the only option?

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc, this is not true. you can certainly add an existing status to your workflow. You can even replace the "Open" with "To Do".

While you can't "rename" a status to one that exists you can certainly "add" an existing status connect the boxes and delete the ones you don't want. Creating and editing workflows is very easy. Add the ones you want and delete the others. If you have not consumed this documentation I suggest you review.

I also thought I would point you to this video as an example of working with simplified workflows. in case you really do want a simplified workflow. Simply put Simplified workflows are designated by one important trait - EVERY status can be transitioned to from EVERY other status in the workflow. If that is what you want then that is what you should do. However, if you want to control the transitions enforcing an actual flow then simplified is not the way to go.

[boardtc]

Here's what happens when I try and remove Open:

How do I replace Open with To Do? This is what I see when I have To Do added:

[Jack Brickey]

1. first if you don't want to be able to transition to TO DO from all please first delete TO DO and re-add this time not checking the box that say transition from all.
2. at the connection point where the transition connects to OPEN click and drag to TO DO. You should now have the transition you want w/o any transition on OPEN
3. Delete OPEN
4. Continue building WF

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You can't remove a status that has an incoming transition - that would leave it hanging with no end point.  Change the transition's end point by dragging it, then you'll be able to delete the status.

[boardtc]

That was the key :-)

[boardtc]

Close now!

My workflow looks like:

The issue I have is that now when I drag to a column I have 2 statuses, see below. I don't want to have Review and Group Review but as mentioned I'm forced to give a name different to review for the transition which seems to create this additional status?

Note in Workflow for the test project the Scheme is still "Software Simplified Workflow Scheme" though the actual workflow has not changed.

[Jack Brickey]

If your workflow truly looks like that shown I'm unsure why you have "Group Review" status. The transition name has nothing to do w/ the statuses in columns. I suspect the status is in the workflow but just hanging and not connected? In any event simply un-map "Group Review" by dragging it out of the Review column and over the unmapped area.

[boardtc]

@[deleted]brickley, the entire workflow is shown above, there is nothing else hanging around.  This is what is visible in column management, they are not there:

Looking at the text outlay (which I have not edited by ye'r instruction) I see below. I have been forced to use a name other than Review/Test/To Do.

[Jack Brickey]

are you sure the workflow that is shown is the one that is active? To be sure try this - go to a specific issue shown on the board and navigate to the view issue screen. To the right of the status there should be a View workflow link. Please select it and compare the workflow.

Note: be sure to pick an issue that results in the "two status" behavior in your review column.

[boardtc]

It's active, test transition issue above opens the pasted workflow.

It's now maddeningly complex to achieve something that was once so simple. It appears not to have been fully tested even at this point.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

In your view of the "Review column", you have "Review" and "Group Review".  The next picture, of the board columns, is of the configuration of a different board, one that is for a project using a workflow that does not have a "group review" status in it.

[boardtc]

We are talking about the board setting of a board which is using the group project workflow, I will outline the steps now:

1. group project workflow
2. Board settings, shows the above cut and past column management
3. Active sprint for the board shows review & group review.
   • Does it matter that sprint was active when workflow was changed?
4. Tested on another board in same project and the extra statuses do not show for review & test but In Progress has Group In Progress also :-(
5. Further looking at all 9 boards in the project, sometimes the group review and group test are appearing too :-(

[Jack Brickey]

so i'm going to suggest some WF cleanup here. I'm unsure what you ultimately want it to look like but what is in place is confusing/unnecessary and may be resulting in issues but unsure. What I mean is that IF you want to be able to transition from any status to any other status then stick w/ the "ALL" transition approach. However, IF you want to restrict transitions from to any/all Statuses then go w/ the specific transitions. Below, represents two possible workflows for you to consider. You really should not mix an "all" and direct transition method between two statuses. Certainly it is common to have some status w/ "all" but you should not then add a direct transition to that same status as it is redundant. I hope this makes sense. Ultimately, if you want I can probably spend 30m on a screen share w/ you at this point.

[Jack Brickey]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-, as you pointed out something isn't making sense. Unsure where the "Group Review" status is coming from here. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The only thing I can think of is that we're looking at the config for a different board.

Even if the project had multiple workflows and we're looking at one workflow that has it and another that does not, the group review status would appear in the review column in the config.

[boardtc]

@Jack Brickey If you are unsure what I want it to look like then something has got lost in the noise, to go back to my extremely simple requirements: I want 2 extra columns, Review and Test in that order. Things can move back and forth, I'm unsure about the workflow terminology you are using.

I can do a screen share sure, does it suit now? How do I initiate it? 

[boardtc]

@Nic Brough (Adaptavist)I outlined the steps above to show I wasn't looking at a different board. Those group statuses do not show in the config at all for none of the 9 boards in the project using the workflow. 

Does the text view above not provide a clue?

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc, i understand you basic requirement. My point was on your preference in the workflow behavior. This is why I suggested the two workflows for you to choose from. If I can be of further assistance please do an @mention of my name w/ your question and I will chime in.

cheers,

j

[boardtc]

@Jack Brickey I can do a screen share sure, does it suit now? How do I initiate it? I'm not overly concerned about workflow.

I want to assign this workflow to 7 active projects but I need to make sure these dodgy group statuses are gone first.

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc,

see info below. i will join shortly. if you haven't use gotomeeting previously you may need to download something so click the link and it will direct you.

 <deleted>

[boardtc]

I've joined, can you see me?

[Jack Brickey]

Problem Resolved...here is what we found and did.

The reason there was both the Review and the Group Review was because of the two transitions (All and Group Review). The reason there are choices in those scenarios is that if you have two different transitions into a status it is either a mistake OR because you want two different treatments when executing the different transitions.

In this case Tom only needed a single transition. We modified the WF as below:

[boardtc]

Thanks for the help Jack!

The key for my understanding was that the All in the diagram with the arrow indicates that it is a global transition that allows every other status in the workflow to transition to the selected status.  To aid understanding I suggest the documentation is updated to add the diagram to the workflow designer section where is talks about global transition:

One confusing thing is that is still says simplified workflow scheme though we created a workflow. When you publish the workflow it uses the schema name as the message about what's being published. I suggest that this is changed to avoid confusion. I don't think the assigned schema should still be Simplified Workflow Scheme when you have created a new workflow and published it.

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc, you are welcome and glad we go this finally closed off. :-) Just to be clear, if not already I, and the rest of the Community, don't work for Atlassian. Occasionally you will see an Atlassian member chime in and if so they will have "Atlassian Team" badge by they name. To that end, you may wish to submit your documentation suggestions to Atlassian directly via the support site. BTW, you can and may wish to change the name of the workflow.  When you create or copy a WF it comes w/ a 'standard' name. I always rename to something meaningful to me. 

[boardtc]

@Jack Brickey I am dumbfounded! I am completely stunned that you did a screensharing session with me out of goodwill and not it being part of your job!!

Wow, that is amazing, mind boggling to me.

I have got a Karma King T-shirt off Atlassian in the past and I see that they only give virtual badges now :-( They can no longer afford t-shirts and goodie bags even:-( I was just going to ask @Nic Brough what's the story here, can Atlassian compensate the likes of Jack but hang on Nic is not compensated by Atlassian either then? Do Atlassian know how blessed they are to have community folks like ye. Serious respect!!!

Regarding documentation update suggestions, tbh I am sick to death of commentating on and raising jira tickets against Atlassian products, stuff can have hundreds of votes over decades and they could not care less.

Regarding workflow renaming I gave my workflow a specific name that 100% means something to me and indicates what it's for but the issue here is the parent scheme name not the workflow.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I've got a cupboard full of backpacks and hoodies, plus 3/4 of my t-shirts are Atlassian or Adaptavist.  I've also been able to attend Summits and tours at reduced rates (the last summit and the team tour tomorrow were free).  So we do get some stuff!

[Jack Brickey]

LOL to all! Just glad to help and I am always learning which is a good thing. My cupboard is much smaller than Nic's as it should be. :-)

[boardtc]

@Jack Brickey perhaps I should open a new issue but the workflow shown above is causing an issue and stories can't be moved to done :-(

Any thought about what might have been missed?

[Jack Brickey]

This would be odd. First verify the active workflow for WOR-130. Go into the view screen for tha issue and click on the view workflow link next to the status. If it is the same as the simplified WF then which statuses can it be transitioned to? Do other issues have the same problem?

[boardtc]

Thanks Jack, sorry for not going into more detail.

1. Clicking on the example I gave opens the Workflow you helped me with, where the simplified workflow was cloned with 2 columns added:
2. My WOR test project and the 7 projects I have rolled out all use this workflow. A user of one of the rolled out projects reported the problem and I reproduced it in the test WOR project

[Jack Brickey]

That isn’t the workflow we worked out. you should have the one without any transitions between the  statuses. Rather the one that has “All” to each status. This allows you to transition an issue from ANY status to any other status. The one you show above would only allow you to move to Done from Test since there is only one transition to Done. I suspect you have the WF we created in the Inactive area of WFs. Simply add that WF to the projects you want and assign any/all issuetypes to that workflow. Ultimately delete the other one. 

[boardtc]

Yes, this is the one we worked on, I only worked on the one clone. Maybe something was not saved. I double checked there and I have nothing in inactive (aside from the old simplified workflows). This is live with a lot of users.

Do I need to delete the 2  transitions from ToDo and Test then?

[Jack Brickey]

Yes. Make the change and publish. You will need to add the All transition to Done first. 

[boardtc]

Phew :-) Done and published for all. Thanks once more Jack!!

[boardtc]

@Jack Brickey a user has reported another issue with the workflow which I just tested and confirmed. Jiras moved to done are not being marked as status Done:

This is affecting the burndown. Previously with the default simplified workflow the Resolution was "Done" when the Jira was moved to Done.

Any ideas how we can fix this?

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc,

this is a different issue and you should create a new thread but the short answer is that you need to require the Resolution in the transition to Done status. There are quite a few threads that provide the detail on how this is done. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, there's a few holes in this conversation and I think it might be easier to start again, as you suggested.  I'm going to go back to basics and go one step at a time because I can see that some of these concepts are not explained well for you.

• Jira has workflows.  A workflow is a representation of a process, and has two main components, status and transition.  A status is "where issue is in the process" and a transition is "move between status"
• In a project, you can tell Jira to use different workflows for each issue type.  Or you can tell it to use one for all of them.  And you can vary it by project.  This is done with workflow schemes which gather together one or more workflows and tell the project which one(s) to use for each issue type.
• Boards are a view of issues.  These are divided into columns.  A column is a collection of status that the issues selected by the board might go through.  Very often, this is a 1:1 relationship.  You have a workflow with 7 status, so you have a board with 7 columns.  But it does not have to be done this way, you can put many status in one column, or even leave a status out so it is not in any column.  Columns do not have any special names, you can call them what you want.  e.g. "Status of 'Closed' is in column 'Mr Flibble'"
• A Board administrator can set up whatever columns they want for their team, and map all available status for the project(s) the board is looking at.
• Only Jira admins can edit workflows and add (and remove) status.  Board admins just use what is there.
• Jira 7.3 introduced the ability for Project admins to add and remove status from a previously configured workflow, if it is not shared with other projects.  But not change anything else about it.

For your two new columns, all you need to do is get an admin (Jira admin, OR a project admin, if the workflow is not shared) to add the status.  Then get a board admin to map them on the boards.

Simplified workflows are a whole other thing.  I don't want to go there unless we have to.  Could you check over this first essay and see if you now know what to do?

[boardtc]

Thanks for that Nic, unfortunately none of my questions have been answered however :-(

I am using Jira cloud and I have full admin rights. Is it possible to do what you suggest? I am under the gun with this config - it was meant to be setup this week :-(

(I have 5 columns rather than 7).

You suggested to copy the workflow and edit that, I asked how to copy it and showed the options available to me:

which does not give the copy option mentioned in the doc regarding cloning, why is this?

A confusing thing is that the help starts with:

Going in via issues does not show workflows, anyway the cog icon is not visible in Jira cloud, what I see is:

As regards editing the cloned workflow then, see the issues I have had above when adding a transition, they will go away when the workflow is a copy, i.e. not active?

Good news a workflow can be shared across projects! That will be the final thing to work out how to do once the above is done.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Just as a quick check - have you checked that the board no longer has "simplified workflow" set on it?

If it is still simplified, you need to remember that all your changes can be removed without warning, and you can't use any post-functions, validators or conditions that are provided by anything other than core Jira.

[boardtc]

Hi there Nic :-)

In Workflows after editing the workflow is still says "Software Simplified Workflow for Project X". The name does not appear to be editable ?

It also says "Generated by JIRA Software version 1001.0.0-SNAPSHOT. This workflow is managed internally by Jira Software. Do not manually modify this workflow." !

I just want to add the 2 columns! Before it was so easy to do with the statuses were created by default when you added a column.

When I go into column management for the board it says simplified workflow on it. When I click on that I get "There currently exists an active workflow 'Software Simplified Workflow for Project X'. This conflicts with the Software Simplified Workflow management. Please rename or remove the existing workflow before attempting to convert project X."

Where do you suggest changing the name?

Note that I have 7 boards to setup it would be great to be able to set these statuses\transition/workflow up once and use on all 7 boards.

Any advice is much appreciated

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That makes sense. 

It sounds like you have simplified the workflow, which creates a new workflow with the name you are seeing, and then de-simplified it by changing the workflow scheme, so that the board no longer sees it as simplified, it's back to a normal Jira workflow. 

It has kept the simplified name, despite not being a simplified workflow any more.

This is fine to do, as you're not editing a simplified workflow, but the hangover name is a bit of a pain.  You have to disassociate the workflow from the projects using it to edit it.  In real life, it's easier to copy it, rename the copy (and make other edits you want) then apply it back to the project.  I'd add in your two new status at the point of editing.  Once you've applied it back to the project, your board admin will be able to create new columns and map the status in.

[boardtc]

Thanks.

First, I am the board admin. 

My only goal is to add 2 additional columns (Review, Test) and to be able to move issues forward and back (from Reviews / Test it might go back to In Progress). Currently, to clarify, this is not working.

Maybe I need to start afresh, Is there one place that explains how to work through all the complexities ye have added to something which was so straightforward (I see this was changed in 7.3). For example, how do I copy a workflow? When I go into workflow I see:

My 7 boards are actually in 7 different projects. It sounds like I will need to do this for each project?

[Jack Brickey]

@boardtc, you indicate you want a new "column" but think you mean row. I always find it easier personally to edit the workflow in diagram mode. There you can simply add status and connect the status with transitions. Have you attempted this? Note you may not be able to edit the workflow if active and shared in which case make a copy, rename, edit and then associate the new workflow to the project/issuetype.

[boardtc]

I have not tried that yet, but to clarify, my Scrum board has 3 columns by default and I want to add 2 additional ones. I'm unsure why you are mentioning rows? Does that make more sense?

[Jack Brickey]

Ok so that is what I was wondering. The reason I mention rows is that in your image above you are showing the workflow (not scrum board) and the rows align to statuses.

So the columns in the scrum/kanban boards are simply a way to organize/view/manage your issues. If you want to add columns then go to the board>board settings>columns and simply add your columns. Then you need to map the new statuses to these columns. Status and transitions are created/managed in the workflow editor and board settings are managed on the individual board. It looks like you already have the statues you want in the workflow (Review/Test) so they simply need to be mapped (drag/drop) via the board settings.

[boardtc]

Thanks Jack. In Text View I removed the 2 new steps.  Moving to Diagram view as you suggest I added the 2 new statuses. They were then available on my column settings to move to the the new columns and thus making the columns visible :-) But I can't move issues to these columns without a transition.

So I edit the Software Simplified Workflow and add a transition so an issue can be moved from In Progress to Review. I get the message that you can't add a transition on a draft but one can only add a transition when editing a workflow & thereby creating a draft!