How to implement sequential multi-person approvals in Jira Software?

[오예찬]

Hi !

I’m looking for a way to enforce a specific approval sequence within our Jira workflow. Our organization requires 4 different stakeholders to approve a release before it can be deployed to the production environment:

1. Two QA/Validation Engineers

2. One Scrum Master

3. One Product Owner

The Core Requirement: "The Sequential Logic" The two QA/Validation Engineers must approve the request first. Only after both of them have granted their approval should the Scrum Master and Product Owner be allowed to provide their final approvals. In other words, the SM and PO's approvals should only be valid or activated after the QA stage is complete.

I’ve explored the native Jira approval features but found it difficult to set up this kind of conditional or staged logic where one group's approval triggers the next group's ability to approve.

My questions are:

1. Is there a way to achieve this using native Jira features (e.g., Automation, Workflow Validators, or splitting the process into multiple status transitions)?

2. If this isn't possible natively, could you recommend any reliable Marketplace Add-ons that support sequential or multi-stage approvals? (e.g., Approval Path, ScriptRunner, etc.)

I would appreciate any advice or best practices from those who have implemented similar complex approval workflows.

Thanks in advance!

[Jorge Cammarota]

Hello, the simplest way to solve this natively would be implementing it with Jira Software features. You don't have a multi-stage approval mechanism as rich as Jira Service Management, but you can orchestrate something very close using:

Custom fields (to store approvals)

Workflow Conditions / Validators

Automation Rules

Create custom fields for each role Create fields (for example, of the “User” or “Selection” / “Text” type) to record approvals:

QA Approver 1

QA Approver 2

Scrum Master Approver

Product Owner Approver

Optional: an Approval Stage field (Selection: Pending QA, Pending SM/PO, Approved, Rejected)

Or, alternatively:

A multi-user field QA Validators

A multi-user field Final Approvers

More “approval status” fields (QA Approval Status, Final Approval Status)

The simplest, for workflow validation, is to use user-type and/or single selection fields. I would try this scenario first because it is simple and efficient.

[오예찬]

Hi Jorge,

Thanks for the detailed suggestion!

I appreciate the help, but I'm afraid that approach isn't quite the performance I was looking for, as I’m aiming for a more streamlined and automated process. I'll keep exploring other advanced options or add-ons instead.

Thanks again for your time!

Best regards, Oh Yea Chan

[Teodora V _Warsaw Dynamics_]

Hi @오예찬 

There are apps on the market that could resolve your need, because the native approach suffer some limitations.

I see you are already aware of Approval Path for Jira, which may help you achieve your goal. A possible way of doing it is to create a Group step for your QA/Validation Engineers followed by sequential user steps. Because Step 1 must complete first, SM/PO approvals won’t even be “in play” until QA is done, which is exactly your sequential logic.



Let me know if you are interested in learning more :)

Other possible apps are Herzum Approvals and Workflow Wise, you can check and compare which one would work best.