Simplified workflow unavailable when previously in use

[Andrew Berry]

Today I went to delete a status from my Kanban board, and I noticed that it now says "Software Simplified Workflow unavailable". However, we've not made any changes that would disable the simplified workflow for this project. Following the docs on simplified workflows, I've validated that:

1. The board filter limits to a project (we only have one project anyways)
2. There is only one workflow scheme ("Software Simplified Workflow...")
3. The existing workflow has at least one outgoing transition for each status (there's only the statuses created through the board itself, so the workflow is just a basic set of statuses)

That leaves "Your workflow only uses post functions, validators, and conditions that are provided by Atlassian – and not any of which provided by add-ons". As far as I can tell, there are only the default settings for these in the workflow. There's nothing from addons, and our team hasn't (intentionally) customized any of these things.

Is there a way I can get the details of exactly why we can't turn the simplified workflow back on?

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for reaching out.

Analyzing your description, I believe there are some specific points that can be blocking a simplified workflow from be applied to your project.

Please, check the following details to make sure your project is all set to use a simplified workflow:

1 - Make sure that your workflow scheme is configured with a single workflow for all issue types, under project settings > workflows:

2 - You must make sure that your issues are free to move to any statuses in your workflow. That being said, flag all the statuses of your workflow to "Allow all statuses to transition to this one":

Let us know if you are able to turn on your simplified workflow after those steps.

[Andrew Berry]

Thanks, we had both of those settings set.

I figured this out from an unrelated change - it looks like filter conditions from the board can disable the simplified workflow. We had:

AND "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-123)...

in our filter, and for another reason we removed it. That turned the simplified workflow back on.

Is this a bug, or should the docs be updated indicating what types of filter conditions can disable the simplified workflow? 

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for your answer.

Could you please provide us the whole filter query you are applying for your board? 

In fact, the parameter AND "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-123) do not specify a project in your filter query, since issues from other projects can be linked to ABC-123.

Explaining better, even if your board is returning only issues from a single project at this moment, the system will not be able to identify which projects are applied to the board if your filter query allow the possibility to add issues from other projects. You can confirm that with the following sentence at the bottom of Board settings > General:

We can't show the projects on this board, because the board's filter doesn't specify any. Your users may have trouble managing issues and sprints on this board. Try including some projects in the filter to fix this.

This behavior is intended to avoid some complications, like the deactivation of the whole simplified workflow in case an unware user links an issue from a different project to ABC-123.

That being said, the following query would allow you to enable the simplified workflow:

project = ABC AND "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-123)

Let us know if this information makes sense.

[Andrew Berry]

Actually, looks like I was wrong in my query - it was an OR, not an AND.

project = ABC AND issuetype != Initiative AND "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-403) ORDER BY Rank ASC

works fine.

project = ABC AND issuetype != Initiative OR "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-403) ORDER BY Rank ASC

disables the simplified workflow.

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for confirming it.

Indeed, the query "OR "Epic Link" in linkedIssues(ABC-403) ORDER BY Rank ASC" provides the filter with the possibility to return issues not related to the project board, not allowing you to use the simplified workflow.

Let us know in case you have any other questions.

[Andrew Berry]

Of course! Thanks for pointing that out. In our case, we only have one project, so I assumed it didn't apply - but I see it's a query validator, not a results validator.

It'd be a nice UX improvement if these sorts of things could be flagged in the board config.

Thanks!