Creating different workflows under 1 project

Question

Hi there

I'd like to create 5 different workflows under 1 project and have the following questions:

1. The overall question - I'm looking for a step by step manual on how to do this successfully.

Additional questions for understanding:

2. Should I create completely new issue types so as not to affect existing projects?
3. Should the workflows be created under 1/multiple schemes, why?
4. How will 1 workflow know to transition to the next?
5. How to create the different scrum boards associated with each workflow

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Don't think of a workflow as belonging to a team or project.  A workflow represents the lifecycle of an issue, it's entire process.  That would make the idea of "moving between workflows" nonsense, there's no reason to do it.

It may well be that certain teams only work with an issue during part of its lifecycle, and you can adapt your reporting, boards and working processes to that quite easily.

I often use a simple example that would fit as part of your "remits".  Imagine you've got two teams - Developers and Testers, and a workflow of

Open -> in-dev -> ready-to-test -> in-test -> Closed

You can easily set up two boards, one for each team (and this is a good concept in general, however you're doing your workflows - a board is where a team goes to track and update its work.  In fact, if you were to look at Jira Align, you'll find the concept of a team and a board are so tightly entangled, they're the same thing - every board is a team, every team is a board)

The Developer's board

* Open column: Open
* In Progress column: in-dev
* Done column: ready-to-test

The Tester's board

* Open column: ready-to-test
* In Progress column: in-test
* Done column: Closed

This is one workflow, one lifecycle, but with teams looking at different parts of it

Thembisa Ndlamlenze · Answer

Thanks for your answer Trudy.

You're probably right about understanding, we're newish on Jira

We have 1 team with 5 remits (refinement, development, testing, UAT, deployment) who are currently using 1 workflow with 13 statuses and wanted to know if it's possible to break them up so they can focus on their own and to track their own boards.

We needed the testing workflow (defect status) to transition back to the dev workflow (in progress status) if there's a defect raised so it can be resolved by the devs. However, if workflows can't transition into each other we might need to keep the workflow as is.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Thembisa Ndlamlenze

Are you working with a Company Managed project or a Team Managed project?

If you are working with Team Managed projects, those do not currently support having multiple workflows for different issue types in a single project.

The following answers pertain to working with a Company Managed project.

First, when you say 5 different workflows, are you talking also about 5 different issue types in a single project? Within a project, a given issue type can have only one workflow applied to it.

1. First, I recommend you start by reviewing the vendor documentation on Workflows

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/work-with-issue-workflows/

2. No. You can use the same issue types in multiple projects and have different workflows for the issue types on a per project basis.

3. To use these 5 workflows against 5 different issue types in a specified project, you must group those workflows into a Workflow Scheme and associate that Workflow Scheme to the project. A project can have only one Workflow Scheme associated to it.

4. A "workflow" does not provide transitions to another "workflow". A workflow includes a set of statuses that can be set for an issue, and the rules for transitioning between those statuses.

5. Why do you need different scrum boards for each workflow?

I think you may not understand the use of workflows in Jira. Can you please explain the problem you are trying to solve so that we can provide you with better guidance?