Activating Workflow

Creating a workflow scheme

To create a workflow scheme (and assign a workflow to it):

1. Log in as a user with the JIRA Administrators global permission.
2. Select Administration > Issues > Workflows > Workflow Schemes (tab) to open the Workflow Schemes page, which shows a list of all existing workflow schemes in your system.
   Keyboard shortcut: g + g + start typing workflow schemes
3. Click the Add Workflow Scheme button to open the Add Workflow Scheme dialog box.
4. In the Add Workflow Scheme dialog box, type a Name and (optionally) a short Description for the new workflow scheme.
5. Click the Add button and the Assign Workflows & Issue Types page for your new workflow scheme is displayed.
6. Click the Assign Workflow button and the Assign Workflow to Scheme: <name of your workflow scheme> page is displayed.
   
   1. In the Issue Type dropdown list, select an issue type that is relevant to your workflow.
      You can also select All Unassigned Issue Types to associate your workflow with all issue types that do not have a specific association in this workflow scheme.
   2. In the Workflow dropdown list, select the name of your new workflow.
   3. Click the Add button.
7. Repeat the previous step until your new workflow has been associated with all the relevant issue types.
   You can choose different workflows for some issue types if you wish.

Once a workflow scheme is fully defined, you need to associate it with one or more projects (see below) so that the scheme's workflows are actually used by your JIRA system.

Assigning multiple workflows to a workflow scheme

A project can only be associated with one workflow scheme (see below). Hence, to allow a project to use different workflows (i.e. for different issue types), assign these workflows to a given workflow scheme and then assign that workflow scheme to the project (below).

To assign additional workflows to a workflow scheme:

1. Log in as a user with the JIRA Administrators global permission.
2. Select Administration > Issues > Workflows > Workflow Schemes (tab) to open the Workflow Schemes page, which shows a list of all existing workflow schemes in your system.
     Keyboard shortcut: g + g + start typing workflow schemes
3. Locate the workflow scheme you want to assign an additional workflow to and click the workflow scheme's Assign link under the Operations column.
4. Click the Assign Workflow button and the Assign Workflow to Scheme: <name of chosen workflow scheme> page is displayed.
   
   1. In the Issue Type dropdown list, select an issue type that is relevant to the appropriate workflow.
      You can also select All Unassigned Issue Types to associate your workflow with all issue types that do not have a specific association in this workflow scheme.
   2. In the Workflow dropdown list, select the appropriate workflow.
   3. Click the Add button.
5. Repeat the previous step until your new workflow has been associated with all the relevant issue types.
   You can choose different workflows for some issue types if you wish.
6. Go back to step 3 for each additional workflow you want to assign to the workflow scheme.

Once a workflow scheme is fully defined, associate it with one or more projects (see below).

Modifying a workflow scheme

You can modify a workflow scheme, in the following ways:

• Change the name and/or description of a workflow scheme
• Change the associations between workflows and issue types in a workflow scheme
• Copy a workflow scheme
• Delete a workflow scheme

To modify a workflow scheme:

1. Select Administration > Issues > Workflows > Workflow Schemes (tab) to open the Workflow Schemes page, which shows a list of all existing workflow schemes in your system.
   Keyboard shortcut: g + g + start typing workflow schemes
2. Locate the workflow scheme you want to modify.
3. Modify your workflow scheme as follows:
   1. To change the workflow scheme's name and/or description:
      1. Click the workflow scheme's Edit link under the Operations column.
      2. Modify the Name and Description accordingly and click the Update button.
   2. To change the workflow scheme's associations between workflows and issue types:
      1. Click the workflow scheme's Assign link under the Operations column.
      2. To delete an association between a workflow and issue type(s), click the Delete link against the relevant association between issue type(s) and workflow.
      3. To create an association between a workflow and issue type(s), follow the Assigning multiple workflows to a workflow scheme procedure (above) from step 4.
   3. To copy a workflow scheme, click the workflow scheme's Copy link.
      The copied workflow is given the name Copy of <name of copied workflow scheme>
   4. To delete a workflow scheme, click the workflow scheme's Delete link.
      You will be asked to confirm the deletion.

Please Note: It is not possible to modify an active workflow scheme. An active workflow scheme is one that is currently associated with one or more projects. Instead:

1. Copy the active workflow scheme.
2. Modify your newly copied workflow scheme (which will be inactive).
3. Associate all the relevant projects with the copied and modified workflow scheme (see below).
   At this point, your copied/modified workflow scheme will be active.

Associating a workflow scheme with a project

To associate a workflow scheme with a project:

1. Log in as a user with the JIRA Administrators global permission.
2. Select Administration > Projects and from the dropdown menu, select the name of the project of interest. Otherwise, choose your project from the Projects list or Project Categories. The Project Summary page is displayed.
   Keyboard shortcut: g + g + start typing projects
3. On the left of the Project Summary page, click the Workflows tab (or in the Workflows section, click either the name of the current workflow scheme or the More link). The Workflows page is displayed, indicating the current workflow scheme used by the project.
   Screenshot: The project's 'Workflows' page
   project-workflows-select-workflow-scheme.png
4. Click the Actions dropdown menu and choose Select a scheme (or Use a different scheme). The Associate Workflow Scheme to Project page is displayed.
5. Select the relevant workflow scheme from the Scheme list and click the Associate button.
6. Follow the wizard, which will guide you through migrating all the project's issues to the new scheme's workflows.

Please Note:

• You can associate a single workflow scheme with more than one project although, only one workflow scheme can be associated with a given project. See Assigning multiple workflows to a workflow scheme (above) for details on how you can make project to use more than one workflow.
• Be aware that the issue type scheme associated with a project defines what issue types are available to that project. Hence, if an issue type (defined in the same project's workflow scheme) is not defined in the project's issue type scheme, then that issue type's workflow will not be used. Of course, this situation will change if that issue type is subsequently added to the project's issue type scheme.

Dissociating a workflow scheme from a project

A JIRA project must always be associated with a workflow scheme, since all issues must move through a workflow, even if that workflow only consists of a single 'Create Issue' transition.

All JIRA projects whose workflows have not yet been modified (in any way) or that have not yet been associated with a different workflow scheme, use JIRA's system workflow 'jira' via the default workflow scheme.

Hence, 'dissociating' a workflow scheme means re-associating your project's workflow with JIRA's default workflow scheme.

To dissociate a workflow scheme from a project, i.e. associate the project with JIRA's default workflow scheme:

1. Log in as a user with the JIRA Administrators global permission.
2. Select Administration > Projects and from the dropdown menu, select the name of the project of interest. The Project Summary page is displayed.
   Keyboard shortcut: g + g + start typing projects
3. On the left of the Project Summary page, click the Workflows tab (or in the Workflows section, click either the name of the current workflow scheme or the More link). The Workflows page is displayed, indicating the current workflow scheme used by the project.
   Screenshot: The project's 'Workflows' page
   project-workflows-select-default-workflow-scheme.png
4. Click the Actions dropdown menu and choose Use a different scheme. The Associate Workflow Scheme to Project page is displayed.
5. Select the Default workflow scheme from the Scheme list and click the Associate button.
6. Follow the wizard, which will guide you through migrating all of the project's issues to the JIRA's system workflow 'jira'.