Other workflow types

Charan Kumar September 12, 2014

Is ISSUE the only workflow type available or is it possible to create workflows outside of Issues? I am looking to add customized workflows, builds/releases/installations. They are logical workflows, as in, not necessarily scheduled through Jenkins or a CI tool, could be manual copy of files or even configuration changes.

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Norman Abramovitz
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September 15, 2014

I believe you came to the conclusion that you cannot, but only reading through your chit chat, I was wondering if one of these ideas might be useful to you.

If you want to have different workflows for document writers, quality assurance engineers, deployment engineers and software engineers, you could create a subtask issues under the main issue.  Each subtask issue could have a different workflow within the same workflow scheme.    Each subtask has its own issue type.  A subtask cannot have subtasks in the base product.  There are plugins that do allow that.

Getting an issue summary across subtasks is a pain without writing a customized code in the above model.

It is not pretty to switch workflows in the middle by changing the issue type, but it is possible.   There are way too many questions that need to answered when that is done.  I had a single issue where the initial issue type was customer support which was later changed to one of the development issue types.   After development was done the manager would switch the issue type back to the customer support issue type.   You need to have common entry and exit states/statuses to have a chance for this work reasonably well.

 

 

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Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 13, 2014

I'm sorry, that does not make any sense.

Issue is an issue type.  Not a workflow.  And, workflows do not have types.

I think what you're looking for is the ability to say "this issue type uses that workflow", which is done with workflow schemes, but your question is so muddled, I cannot be at all sure.  Could you explain further?

Charan Kumar September 14, 2014

If you don't understand the question ask for n explanation like you did at the end. Do understand that there other tools in the world and nomenclature varies between them. So what makes perfect sense to me, might not for you, which I understand.

 

Tools like Clearquest and Teamtrack provide ability to create types and individual workflow for each type. In JIRA, I only find the ability to create customized workflows for Issue type. I am wondering, if other types can be created and workflows associated with it.

 

I also saw references to a build workflow but couldn't find it in the marketplace, can any info be provided on it?

 

 

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 14, 2014

I answered with a set of statements in order to avoid doing it twice - once in the answer and once explaining why your question is nonsense. Sadly, I'm afraid your follow up is the same nonsense and does not help. The references to other tools is irrelevant and pointless, and you've got exactly the same problem with them. Re-read your question and the response and think about what you mean by "type". This isn't a nomenclature issue, it's either some construct you've got in your head which is nonsense, or your use of English is dreadful in explaining what you mean (which is odd because the rest of what you're saying is clear) CQ and Teamtrack do NOT have an ability to "create types and individual workflow for each type", because, as I said, there is no "type". What they do have is the same as Jira - the ability to create issue types. And workflows. And then associate different workflows with different issue types. You repeatedly mention types, and then *separate* issue types from them. What is a "type"? Anyway, a casual glance at Jira would reveal 6 default issue types and 1 workflow. The administration sections have "add" options for both of those, and "workflow schemes" are used to relate workflows to issue types, and that is on a project-by-project basis. You can also generate a number of workflows if you use the project templates.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 14, 2014

For the build workflow, yes, you're right, it's not in the marketplace. Part of me wants to suggest it might be tied to the Bamboo plugin, but I'm not sure. There is a page on it at https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AOD/Integrating+builds+with+your+issues+workflow#Integratingbuildswithyourissuesworkflow-usebuilds too

Charan Kumar September 14, 2014

Relax Nic, just because you don't get what I am saying, it doesn't mean it's non-sense, I can understand it doesn't make sense to you, and that's perfectly understandable. CQ and Teamtrack DO have an ability to "Create Types" of Records and individual workflow for each record type, I work with them every day, so I have been clued in. In Jira, I see you can create many types of Issues, what if I wanted a workflow for a "Release Approval". Provide it a title, it's own workflow, it's own status model etc. I don't want to create an Issue of type Release, like BUG/TASK etc, but I want something like a button at the top, "Create Release Approval", similar to "Create Issue". I did see Bamboo, but I don't want to use a build tool, I just need a workflow to track builds.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 14, 2014

<sigh> It's not a case of me not understanding, it's a case of you writing stuff that does not make sense. CQ and Teamtrack have nothing that lets you "create types", I'm looking at CQ right now and it's simply not there. They do have issue types and other fields. I think the problem here is that you're using language specific to what's going on in your head without explaining it clearly. As I've already explained, Jira has issue types. Try creating one. You need to be an admin of course, and then put it in a workflow scheme for the project you want to use. Job done. Once you have an issue type, you can hang more configuration off it. It also sounds like you're missing an important point in Jira though - the issue types available are project dependent. You can't "add them to the top bar next to create" because that top bar is global. You can't know what types are available in there until you've selected a project. That's why the button just says "create" - the next questions the project asks are for project and issue type.

Charan Kumar September 15, 2014

<sigh> indeed. Did it ever occur to you that I might be looking for something the tool might not be capable of? I mean, it can happen, right? And that's indeed what you have, inspite of your interesting way of trying to be helpful, fully made me aware of, that I can't use this tool for what I was looking for. Fact check yourself on CQ though, I can't tell you what "record types" in my head translates to in your head, but that's what I am used to calling CQ has ability to add more "types" (or record types) to the top bar...but I digress and this is not the place for that discussion. All the same, thanks for your replies, because it still lead me to the answer.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 15, 2014

Yes, that's why I asked the question. Because you appeared to be looking for something totally unclear. I was looking at a ClearQuest installation yesterday. It has no vague "types". Just issue types as I described. I still can't work out what you're looking at that's separate from issue types in CQ, you've still not explained it.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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September 15, 2014

That's what I said. It's an issue type in Jira terms. Not some arbitrary type that hangs on to nothing.

Charan Kumar September 15, 2014

Trust me, I understand what you are saying. And it doesn't cater to what we need. Thank you for your replies though, without which I couldn't have arrived at that conclusion.

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