Potential danger when adding a new status

[Matthew Adams]

We have a workflow that needs a new status. 

Let's say we're adding a step right before Closed (the final state), let's called it Accepted.

I've seen the videos and posts about how to do it and I like that they say clone the existing workflow and edit the new one, and then associate the project with the new one.

My question is, what are the risks?  We have many projects and I don't know if adding a status on one could affect any other project.  I'm not sure if any other project uses my existing workflow but since I don't plan on changing it I'm not sure if there is anything else that could have a cascading affect on other projects.

(There is a horror story of someone editing a custom field and wiping out a lot of existing data.  So everyone here is hesitant to touch any configuration.)

Since it looks like workflows are applied to a project, is it possible to revert back to original one (given the new status was never used.)

Thanks,

Matt

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Sure there are risks but they rarely are disastrous. A bit of care and you will be fine. Inserting a status is quite straightforward. It is more risky (or involved) when you are removing statuses.

1. Check which projects use the workflow you want to edit. If the workflow is dedicated to the one project the risk of change is only to that project and I would contend near zero risk. 
2. If you have more than one project using this workflow then ask yourself if you want the new status for all of the others. If not then copy the current workflow, edit it and then for the one project add the new workflow and reassign the issue types from the old WF to the new one.
3. Given you are adding a new status there will be no prompt from the system of mapping old statues to new statuses.
4. You can alway save a copy of the current WF while editing an active WF which allows you to switch back.

if you have specific questions about how to look into the above JLMK.