Common vs. Global Transitions

[Grigory Salnikov]

Hello,
Can someone, please, clarify what is the difference between common and global transitions in a workflow?
Let's assume we have a workflow with 6 differrent statuses (s1 - s6)
Am I right saying that:
T1:   s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6 > s6   is a global transition,
T2:   s1, s2, s3, s4, s5 > s6   is a common transition,
T3:   s1, s2 > s6   is also a common transition, and
T4:   s1 > s6   is your regular transition?

Thank you in advance.

[Thomas Schlegel · Accepted solution]

Hi Greg,

I've never heard of global transitions, to be honest.

In Jira workflows, you can create a single transition between two status. That's what you described as a regular transition.

A regular transition can be reused, if the target status is the same, this is what you described as a common transition.

If you check this at your workflow status:

You create a shared transition from every other status to this one. That's what you described as global transition. 

[Grigory Salnikov]

Ok, thank you, just as I thought :)

I never manged to find such a side-by-side comparison that's why I raised this question. The tricky thing here is that transition T2 in my example is not a global one, but a common, because there is no transition from the status s6 to itself.

Glad we made this clear.

[Johannes Rudolf]

Haven't heard of any of them neither until my ACP-100 exam during which I was quite confused as I had the choice between both of them when it comes to a transition which may be triggered by every one from any status within a workflow. Now I know better. :-)

[Grigory Salnikov]

Yes, it's pretty much common in the documentation nowadays. Though there's no such a word in JIRA itself, as far as I know. When you check "Allow all statuses to transition to this one" you create a global transition.

[Brant Schroeder]

Greg,

A Global transitions allow any status in a workflow to transition to a particular status. A common transition allows for multiple statuses in a workflow to transition to a particular status.  

[Grigory Salnikov]

Thank you :)

[Matt Doar]

Global transitions include a transition to the same state

You can also define global transitions that just return to the same state

s1 > s1

s2 > s2 

etc

[Grigory Salnikov]

If a transition moves issue from a status back to the same status, wouldn't it be just a regular transition? 

I think that it would be a global one only if there's only one status in a project.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Is "Global transition" a fixed phrase in Jira? I've never heard this before.

[Federico Rava]

does anyone figured out if it's possible to do the global transition but viceversia?
s6>s1, s2, s3, s4, s5

That would be great!
Thank you

[Akshar Nair]

ACP-120 Exam notes:

Create Transition: First transition in the workflow, result is that a new issue is created

Global Transition:  Configured as All -> Status (specific)

Common Transition: Re-use a transition to go from multiple statuses to one. Similar to global transition. Conditions, validators are post-functions are re-used

Self-reflecting Transition: A transition to itself. Can be used to update issues, send out notifications etc.