A Jira workflow is a set of statuses and transitions that an issue goes through during its lifecycle. It’s a visual diagram or a roadmap for tracking the progress of tasks, providing a clear view of the path an issue takes from creation to completion.
Here are key components of a Jira workflow:
- Statuses: These are the steps in your workflow that an issue will transition through. Common statuses include “To Do”, “In Progress”, and “Done”, but you can create custom statuses to suit your process.
- Transitions: These are the links between statuses. They allow movement of issues from one status to another. For example, an issue might transition from “To Do” to “In Progress”.
- Assignees: At each stage of the workflow, an issue can be assigned to a particular team member.
- Resolutions: These are the ways in which an issue can be closed. Examples of resolutions include “Fixed”, “Won’t Fix”, “Duplicate”, etc.
Workflows in Jira can be customized to match your team’s process. For example, you might have a simple workflow for a small project with statuses like “To Do”, “In Progress”, and “Done”. But a more complex project might require additional statuses like “QA Testing”, “Code Review”, or “Awaiting Customer Feedback”.
You can also add conditions, validators, and post functions to transitions to control how and when an issue can be moved:
- Conditions control whether a user can perform a transition. For example, you can add a condition that only allows the assignee of an issue to move it to “In Progress”.
- Validators check that any input to a transition is valid before the transition is performed. For example, a validator might require that a certain field is filled in.
- Post Functions carry out any additional processing required after a transition is performed. For example, a post function might update a field or send an email notification.
By designing workflows that reflect your processes, you can ensure that your team works more efficiently and consistently.
