How do I reassign the workflow for a Jira project?

[Colleen]

My company has a bunch of software projects that mostly share the same schemes and workflows, except for one of them, for which I'm asked to set the same workflow as the others. This project's workflow is very different from the others. So I see two options, first modify the existing workflow to match the others (which I don't really want to do), or apply the other workflow to this project.

My question is, can I just reassign the workflow, or I will also need to apply the corresponding issue type scheme and workflow schemes that are configured to go with that workflow? If I need to modify those other settings, what order do I go about reassigning the configurations?

I'm also very nervous that I might accidentally modify the workflow that is shared by a ton of projects. Do you have any advice about avoiding such a catastrophe? 

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Colleen,

Switching out the workflows will not case a problem to the existing workflows or affect any projects that are currently using the shared workflows. 

The major thing that will be affected are all of the issues on that single project that you are moving to the new workflow. 

In a nutshell, any issues that are in a status in your current workflow that the same status does not existing in the new/shared workflow will need to be mapped as you migrate to the new workflow. It will probably just default all of the different statuses in the original workflow to a single status in the shared workflow - like the Done status. So BE VERY CAREFUL to change those mappings.

But again, you are not changing anything about the shared workflow so don't worry about that. 

I tend to change out the Issue Type Scheme first and then the Workflow scheme after that. And then the screen schemes and field configuration schemes after that.

Not much info here, but it's a little: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/manage-issue-workflows/

Good Luck!

[Pramodh M]

Hi @Colleen 

You can re-assign the workflow, make sure to match the existing statuses to the new status if any of the status is absent in the new one, which you will get during switching the schemes.

Adding Community link to support the same issue

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Can-I-replace-an-existing-workflow-with-a-different-workflow/qaq-p/749327

Thanks,
Pramodh

[Pramodh M]

Changing other schemes depends on the workflow you have in the project.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>My question is, can I just reassign the workflow

Yes, you can.  But it is a bit complex.

Workflows are associated indirectly with issue types.  It is done with the workflow scheme that you associate to the project.  These say "in this project, for each issue type, use this workflow"

So, the easiest way to make the change is to reassign the workflow - look at the issue type in the project you want to change, and then edit the workflow scheme for that project, changing the current mapping for that issue type from the current workflow to the target.

BUT

If that workflow scheme is associated with any other projects, you will affect them too (assuming they use the issue type you've remapped)

So, you might be better off changing the workflow scheme.  I think this is actually your best option - if you want all the issue types to work the same way in this project as they do in the large group of projects, then yes, absolutely, just swap the project from using its current workflow scheme to the one the others all share.

Finally, you probably do not need to worry about the issue type scheme.  This tells a project "this is the list of issue types you use".  You can see how this would affect your projects via the workflows, but actually, it may not matter - if an issue type is not used in a project, then the workflow scheme has nothing to map the workflows to, so it's irrelevant!  But you will need to check the impact if you're changing workflow schemes (or just swap the new project's issue type scheme to match the others in the group!)