How to Turn Off Transitions Showing in the WorkFlow Dropdown on issue screen.

Question

Jira,

I have a fairly simple workflow. I have some statuses that have "Allow all statuses to transition to this one" set ON.  So I create an issue. I set it to In Progress. When I then look at the workflow dropdown on the Issue page, I am seeing not only the statuses that I can jump to but also the transitions names - this appears to be caused by us using "All all statuses to transition to this one" The transition flow is correct. but we want to find a way to NOT show these transitions names that jump to a status - we just want to see the status names that this status can jump to. Is this possible?

Mark Gordon · Answer

Nic,

Thanks, I think there was a bit more to it. In our particular structure, about 90% of the status es have the property of "Allow All Statuses to Transition to This one". What we found was that  we had advertently went ahead and did another transition flow to the statuses. Thus, it was redundent. So, we removed the drawn transitions and left the ALL for the ones. The drop downs now look exactly like we need.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Yes, the transitions link the status.  You can't show the status in the workflow because a status is a status.  An indication of where an issue is in the workflow.  To change status you need do something to the issue - a transition.

You can't just have status in a workflow because that gives you nothing to hang a process on, it's just a label.  Equally, you can't just have a set of transitions, because you haven't got anything to transition between

If you want a simple visualisation of this, try drawing a flow chart of your process.  Without any arrows linking the boxes.

What you could do is name your transitions the same as their end status.  It's over-simplistic, and you're going to run into places where it won't work unless you are mapping quite simple processes.  It won't work for a lot of places, that's why the system is the way it is - most of us need the flexibility.

I prefer a more verbal touch though, I tend to try to set up status where I can say "The issue is X" and transitions that people would use in sentences.  So "the issue is open", "the issue is resolved", "the issue is under the cat".  Then I try to have transitions that are clear verbs telling the user what to expect - "Re-open", "Resolve", "put under cat"

Mark Gordon · Answer

Nic,

It was my understanding that the flow of the status was the transitions. I was thinking that the statuses would be the only thing to show in the workflow drop down. If someone would be in a status of In Progress and they can go to Resolve or Assign, I would think that Resolve or Assign would be the only thing that would show in the workflow dropdown - not the actual transition names that flows thru the movement to those statuses. It seems illogical to have both. That is the reason for  my question. We are seeing all of it, which you seem to indicate is expected. I am wondering why that makes sense.