Changing the linked category of a workflow step

[Angie Elliott]

I added a step to a new workflow, and somehow it linked to the wrong category. So now instead of showing a status of In Progress, it shows a status of Awaiting 3rd Party, which is the actual name of the step I created. How can I fix that?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Angie Elliott 

I think there is a misunderstanding about terminology.

An issue can have a Status value. Every Status value belongs to a Status Category.

Jira has only 3 Status Categories and they are color coded:

Category	Color
To Do	Grey
In Progress	Blue
Done	Green

A "step" and a "status" in workflows are essentially the same thing.

Besides "steps" (or "statuses") workflows include Transitions. The Transitions between Statuses can have different names than the Statuses.

Given the above, can you rephrase your question and provide a screen image to illustrate your problem?

[Angie Elliott]

I am using the terminology that the Jira UI shows, which is Linked category. But I will describe the issue from the start:

1. I made a copy of an existing workflow and renamed it to reflect the new workflow for the project I created.
2. I navigated to Project Settings > Workflow > Edit > Add Status to  add a new status of Awaiting 3rd Party to my new workflow.
   
   
3. 
4. The workflow looked like this:
   
   
5. 
6. I clicked on the status to edit, and it had linked to the Category of In Progress
7. 
8. I did not select this category, it just did it.

There are other workflows with a status of In Progress. The problem is that the status of In Progress in other workflows has now changed to Awaiting 3rd Party. Can someone please tell me how I resolve this and correct the other workflows to show a status of In Progress on the boards again? Thank you!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Angie Elliott 

As I said, there is a Status value and a Status Category.

"In Progress" can be used as a Status Value as shown here:

"In Progress" is also the name of a Status Category under which all Status values that equate to work is in progress are group. A Status value assigned to the "In Progress" Status Category shows up as a blue (vs. gray or green) lozenge, as shown above for both the "In Progress" and "Awaiting 3rd Party" Status values.

You can change the Status Category to which a Status Value is assigned here:

If you change the Status value (Name) itself in the above dialog, then everywhere that previously showed "Awaiting 3rd Party" as a selectable Status gets changed to reflect the new name.

Based on the first image I copied above, you had at that point two Status value; In Progress and Awaiting 3rd Party, both included in the "In Progress" status category.

There are other workflows with a status of In Progress. The problem is that the status of In Progress in other workflows has now changed to Awaiting 3rd Party. Can someone please tell me how I resolve this and correct the other workflows to show a status of In Progress on the boards again? Thank you!

This suggests that you may have made another change that you did not detail - naming editing an "In Progress" Status value and changing its Name to "Awaiting 3rd Party". 

A Jira Administrator can review all the Status values/names and their associated Status Category by navigating to the gear icon (Jira Administration) and selecting Issues, then finding the Issue Status option. From there each Status value can be edited to change its Name and Category. Note that if you make a change there, that will be reflected in all project workflows that use that Status.