Workflows in Jira Align

[Raj Iyer]

Can I have multiple workflows in Jira Align? We are looking to integrate Jira Align with our existing Jira instance. We have about 4-5 different workflows used by our team. I have heard that Jira Align can only support a single workflow. One of our workflows have a status of Done to indicate that the team have completed their part and that is their definition of done. There is UAT that is outside of the team that is also part of the workflow. Our workflow is something like this:

Open->Backlog->Dev->Test->Done->UAT->Closed

Another workflow is:

Open->Backlog->Dev->Test->UAT->Closed

Trying to find out if it is possible to have multiple workflows include one where there are 2 different states that indicate various level of Done in the process.

[Mark Cruth · Accepted solution]

Hi Raj!

Great question! In Jira Align you can map different workflows (it will make things more complicated for your admins as they will need to manage more mappings than an organization that has a single workflow). To map multiple workflows, follow the steps below for each applicable issue type (e.g. Stories, Features).

Jira to Jira Align Mapping

When you sync Jira Workflow Steps to Jira Align States (Administration > Connectors > Jira Settings > State Mapping Tab), you'll want to ensure all applicable workflow states are mapped (note that you can't have a single Jira workflow state mapped to multiple Jira Align steps, which means whichever Jira Align step you map the workflow state of "UAT" to it will need to be the same for each workflow. Here's a quick screenshot:

Jira Align to Jira Mapping

Additionally, if you're bi-directionally syncing your data from Jira Align to Jira, you'll need to do the same state mapping on each individual Jira Project that is integrated. To do this go to Administration > Connectors > Jira Settings > Manage Projects tab and click on the "State Mapping" link on each integrated Project and map the Jira Align states to the appropriate Jira workflow step. Here's a quick screenshot:

I recommend trying this out in your test environment to make sure it's mapping the way you want it to and the data is flowing as expected. Hope this helps!

Mark

[Raj Iyer]

Hi Mark,

Really appreciate the detailed response along with screen shots. This is very helpful and also make me feel better that we are going with a tool that may be too constrained. I am a Lean Portfolio Manager within the organization and also an agile coach.

I was told by our Jira team (who in turn were told by the consultant they hired) that Jira Align can only have a single workflow so all the teams will have to switch to that workflow. We will have our teams in Jira and all the team level projects and stories will reside in Jira. The Epics and Features will be in Jira Align with a bi-directional connectivity between Jira and Jira Align.

I was extremely concerned when I was told that all the teams have to use a single workflow and we can not have a workflow with both Done and Closed status. We have teams that have no control over UAT and UAT can sometimes take a month or 2 for the actual users to validate. In order for teams to be able to get credit for their work, they came up with a definition of done where the story is accepted by PO but release can happen only after UAT. That worked very well from a metrics perspective.

I would like the teams to keep their existing workflow and not be forced into changing their practice to accommodate Jira Align. I don't like the idea of a tool dictating how teams should work. Your response helps me understand that we can continue to have multiple workflows in Jira. As I understood, Jira Align will have a single workflow but multiple Jira workflows can be mapped to the single JA flow and in some cases multiple statuses in Jira flow may map to a single JA status. I see this as very similar to how we have multiple statuses mapped to a single column in scrum/kanban board.

Thank you very much for all the info. I will see what solution our Jira Admins and vendor are proposing (I didn't like the first option where they were suggesting closing a story and opening another one just for UAT). I will suggest this to them and hope they can make it work.

Thanks,

Raj 

[Mark Cruth]

Hi Raj! 

You are definitely not alone in your situation (e.g. UAT taking a long time, teams operating from different workflows), so we try to be as flexible as possible with the tool. On the topic of Done and Closed, make sure to ask the consultants you're working with about turning on Delivery States in Jira Align. This is some additional functionality in the tool that allows you to map states after the Jira Align "Accepted" state...basically representing that situation where you could be Done with something but that there may be additional work steps an items goes through (e.g. deployment/UAT) before you consider it officially closed. 

Take care!

Mark

[Rae Gibbs · Accepted solution]

@Raj Iyer You are correct in that JA can only support a single workflow for a team.  It is possible to use process steps in JA that match a workflow in Jira.  In the example given above, they are almost the same with the exception of Done that could just be skipped over if not used.  These process steps can be mapped to the JA states (that are out of box and cannot be changed).  You can then also set up bi-directional sync of the process steps with the Jira statuses via the connector.  Keep in mind, that at the story level, when a resolution is set in Jira, this will mark the story as accepted in Jira Align.  However, it is possible to have multiple process steps map to the Accepted state.  For example, the story could have a state of Accpeted in JA but have a process step of either Done, UAT or Closed.

[Raj Iyer]

Rae,

I am highly appreciative of your response. This is very helpful. I already love the community and its members for a quick response and also providing me with insights that I am already loving. I feel much better already reading through your response.

[Rae Gibbs]

No problem!  That's what we are here for!

[Claire De Cort]

Hi Raj, just a note of warning that having multiple states and steps mapped quickly becomes an major admin headache (been there, done that) so I would advise to simplify and standardise as much as possible. After much trial and error, we have standardised on the SAFE workflow for features and portfolio Epics across all Jira projects that are integrating with JA (with only a couple of agreed exceptions.) Having said that JA does not really like having more process steps than it's standard states so we do find syncing issues arising that need to be managed. 

Thx,

Claire

[Rajesh.Kumar]

Hi Clare thanks for the nice information.

I was following same steps but but one of the Jira status used in Jira work flow "Getting ready" for Bug and Story is not populated in the dropdown list in Jira align for state mapping.

Could you please suggest a possible reason/resolution for this.