How to configure a conditional approval based on majority of group and required users

[Alex Smyers]

Hi all!

I'm trying to verify if there is any way for me to set up a conditional approval. 

I have a group of 12 and will need a majority approval before transitioning. I planned to use "a specific number of people" with 7. However, a specific set of 3 people must approve before the approval can be considered complete, if one of the 3 doesn't approve, or declines, the status will not be approved. From testing with previous approval workflows, I know conditions and validators will be ignored when using approval steps, so that's out. 

Is this possible with out of the box Jira? I did find the following suggestions, so I am thinking it's not, but I want to be sure I'm not missing something. 

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-8120 https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-5851

[Kai Krause · Accepted solution]

In JSM, implementing a conditional approval workflow with the specific requirements you've outlined—where a majority must approve alongside mandatory approvals from a specific subset of individuals—is complex and often isn't feasible with out-of-the-box functionality alone.

Current Limitations

1. Approval Steps: As you noted, the approval steps in Jira Service Management (JSM) do not allow conditional logic or validations inherently within their settings. Once you set an approval step based on a group or individual, every approval must be completed before transitioning can occur.

2. Validators and Conditions: Conditions and validators are indeed ignored in approval steps, as you have experienced. This means that you won't be able to enforce the logic of needing both a majority and specific approvals directly through standard approval mechanisms.

Out-of-the-box JSM does actually not support the specific conditional approval logic you need (majority approval from a larger group with mandatory approvals from a subset). Your best bet will likely involve a combination of workflow adjustments, potential automation, or utilizing third-party plugins to enhance the approval process.

So you did not miss something.

BR
Kai 

[Beata Lewandowska]

Hi Alex,
Not really sure about the out-of-the-box solutions, but you could easily get this done using some approval apps. I’m using Approval Path for Jira. You can set the approval definition in three ways:

1. Ask for approval of the 3 specific people. Create a group of the remaining 9 people. Since you need 7 people to approve in total, 4 people from the group have to approve. You can make all those approvals run in parallel (or in a certain order if you prefer). Then you can run the issue transition.

2. Create a group of those 3 crucial people. The approval threshold is 3, rejection threshold is 1 (so if one of those 3 people rejects, the role approval is rejected). Then, as before, from the remaining 9 people create another group, and you need 4 people to approve (approval threshold set to 4).

3. If all 12 people are within one group, you can ask for personal approval of the 3 crucial ones, then ask for group approval (approval threshold is 4), but exclude the 3 mentioned people from the group vote, to avoid asking them for the second approval.

Here’s the link to the app in case you want to do the same: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220490/approval-path-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview Hope that helps! ;)