Is it possible to automatically assign all issues which move from "in progress" to "testing" to a user?

Question

We would like to have one person in charge of all testing, so we want to make them the default assignee whenever a developer moves an issue from in progress to testing. Is there any way to do this? If so, I would appreciate a blow-by-blow of what the steps would be to do this. Thanks!

Mark Symons · Answer

For the type of changes that we are talking about (tweaking assignee or adding a postfunction to an existing transition) there is no need to deactivate the workflow.  Use the "Create Draft" function and then "Publish" once you are happy.  The linked page explains the limitations of Draft Workflows.

I use my dev server to test changes and also go through a change control process before publishing changes on the live JIRA (and carry out the act of publishing outside normal working hours) but have never had any problems that required a roll-back.

Molly McCleary · Answer

This seems like a good solution, but what do you do if it's an active workflow...deactivate it, add the post-function, then reactivate it and hope that no one tried to do anything while it was inactive?

Mark Symons · Answer

Dieter is spot on to advise creating your own workflow and then modifying that... allowing you to roll back to use the default workflow as a comparison if things ever go wrong.

The specific post-function for assigning an issue to a named user (your person in charge of testing) is:

"Update Issue Field"

..with "assignee" being one of the fields that you can update.

One tweak on assigning to a particular tester is to assign to a dummy user (say, "Test Queue") such that individual testers can then assign specific issues to themselves (or have them assigned).  A bit like "In Progress" but without using a separate step.

It's also possible to automatically assign to different testers depending on the project using the "Assign to role member" Post-function in the JIRA Miscellaneous Workflow Functions plugin:

https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/JMWE/JIRA+Misc+Workflow+Extensions+Documentation#JIRAMiscWorkflowExtensionsDocumentation-Assigntorolemember%28newin1.2%29

...whether this is useful for you would depend on factors such as the size of your test team, etc.