Confused on Transition & Status in Workflow

[Vineet Sawhney]

Hi there, I'm a bit confused on Transition and Status in Workflows. Aren't they kinda of repetitive? Do we really need a transition if are checking the box - Allow all statuses to transition to this one? If all conditions can be added to the All to Status link do we really need Transitions then?

See the attached image... when moving a task from Dev to Testing it giving two option... one of them is transition and one is status.

Couldn't find much on this online so posting here. 😀

Thanks in advance.

[Ste Wright · Accepted solution]

Hi @Vineet Sawhney

There are differences between statuses and transitions - even when you can transition all statuses to all other statuses:

Status:

• A status is the state an issue is in at a specific point in the flow of work.
• It has a set of status properties that can be applied to each status in one specific workflow
• Statuses have unique names and categories across all workflows - for example, if you have a status called "Dev Progress" in the status category "In Progress", another user could not create a second "Dev Progress" status in the category "To Do" in your instance

Transition:

• A transition is how an issue moves between one status and others
• It has a more advanced list of properties which can be applied - see Advanced Workflow Configuration for information on properties, conditions, post-functions, etc.
• Transitions can also have screens applied to them - for example, when moving to "Done" a resolution screen can ensure a resolution is entered.
• Transitions can have different names per workflow - so transitions from "To Do" to "In Progress" could be called "Progress Begun" on one workflow, but "Dev Started" on another.

On your board above, this is not related to transitions - it's that two statuses are mapped to the same board column. You can view this as a user, but to change this you'll need to be a Board Admin:

1. Go to Board > Board Settings
2. On the left-hand menu, select Columns
3. You will see that two statuses are in the column "Testing"
4. You could split these into two columns by adding a column and dragging one status into it.

Ste

[Vineet Sawhney]

Hi @Ste Wright thanks for getting back on my Q. I'm attaching the Board and Workflow. What do you see is not correct or maybe repetitive?

Also, If all conditions can be added to the 'All to Status link' do we really need transitions then?

Thanks again.

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Vineet Sawhney 

I'd suggest the complexity of your workflow will be the issue.

The usual issue here would be as @Ollie Guan suggested, which would cover either:

• There is a single transition (in your case Ready for Testing) and the status has "Allow all statuses to transition to this one" checked as well.
• There are two single transitions from Development to Testing (Internal)

^ I can't tell if either of these is the issue for you - I would check:

• Click on the status "Testing (Internal)" and ensure "Allow all statuses to transition to this one" is unchecked if you want users to transition to Testing from "Development" - or vice versa, remove the single transition and allow all statuses to transition to "Testing (Internal)"
• Check there isn't a second transition hidden under the "Ready for Testing" transition - you could also check this by going to Text view and looking for transitions to unique transitions to "Testing (Internal)"

I would suggest simplifying that workflow though - it looks like aside from "Done" and possibly "Testing Internal" all statuses can be accessed from all others (unless you have conditions based on permissions or similar).

Ste

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Vineet - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

When you say "when moving a task from Dev to Testing it giving two option... one of them is transition and one is status." They are actually both Transitions (and therefore Statuses). As Stephen has explained the differences between the two above very well.

So, yes, the problem is that you have two transitions going to the same status - that's not necessary unless you have different conditions on each. And that's why your users see two options when selecting the next step for the card. 

The "All" transition will let the user move to the status from any other status (unless there is a condition to prevent that) which often means that cards can go into and out of the same status multiple times and from basically any other status. 

The direct transition will only allow the card to move from one specified status to another specified status, following a very prescriptive workflow. And meaning you typically cannot move back into that same status later. 

So, it really depends on how you want the issues to flow as to which type of transition you use. 

[Ollie Guan]

Hello @Vineet Sawhney ,

It looks like the following configuration has been made in the workflow:

“Select Allow all statuses to transition to this one in the properties panel for the transition.”

Add a global transition that allows every other status in the workflow to transition to the selected status.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiracloud/working-with-workflows-776636540.html

[shetty]

@Vineet Sawhney 

The visible things on these board are status, transition is the path to/fro status

the reason why it is showing 2 in one column & 3 in other column  because of number of status mapped to respective column

so when you drop the ticket in either of column's options then status will change to the same