Create basic workflows in Jira
10 min
Intermediate
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:
- Differentiate the workflow editors
- Create a workflow
Explore the workflow editors
Workflow editors enable admins to create, move, reuse, and delete statuses and transitions for a workflow, as well as add conditions, validators, post functions, and transition screens.
There are three kinds of workflow editors in Jira.
The new workflow editor combines all workflow configurations into a simple view with a header bar and a sidebar. We recommend you use this editor as it has the most streamlined editing process and the most configurations in one place.
👇 This is the new workflow editor.
The old workflow editor is a previous version of the workflow editor. To edit parts of the workflow, you can use the buttons at the top of the editor and click on them to see more options. Not all project templates support the old workflow editor.
👇This is the old workflow editor.
The text workflow editor is a simplified editor available through the old workflow editor. Instead of the diagram view, you select the text view. You’ll see a list of workflow steps that you can configure. Each step represents a single status, but you can rename them without renaming the status.
👇 This is the text editor, available through the old workflow editor.
You can choose which workflow editor to use by either clicking Switch editor or More actions (represented by •••). You should see an option to switch to the new or old editor, depending on the editor you’re currently viewing.
When you edit a workflow, you aren’t updating the live workflow - you’re creating a draft. Your changes apply to the live workflow when you publish the workflow.
Create workflows
Copy an existing workflow
In most cases, you’ll want to create a workflow by copying an existing workflow and customizing it. If there are workflows similar to what you need, this will save you time.
When creating a new team-managed project, you can share all settings with an existing project, including workflows. But you can’t copy individual workflows within an existing team-managed business or software project.
To copy an existing workflow:
- In a team-managed service project, in project settings, navigate to the request type whose workflow you want to copy. Click Edit workflow, then More actions (represented by •••), then Copy to another request type.
- In Jira administration, in the sidebar, click Workflows. Next to any workflow, click More actions (represented by •••), then Copy.
Create a new workflow
When you create a project, work types and request types will already have an associated workflow. You’ll mainly modify these or copy and modify other workflows to use instead.
However, Jira admins can create an entirely new workflow.
To create a workflow:
- In the upper-right corner of Jira, click Settings (represented by a gear icon).
- Under Jira admin settings, select Work items.
- In the sidebar, under Workflows, select Workflows.
- Click Add workflow, then Create new.
- Name your workflow and add a detailed description so Jira admins know when to use it.
- Click Create.
👇 Watch this video to see how to create a workflow from Jira administration.
You can also import workflows you exported from other sites or Atlassian Marketplace.
Configure workflows
Edit statuses
Basic workflows usually have three to four statuses.
👉 For example: The simplified workflow has four statuses: To Do, In Progress, In Review, and Done.
Jira admins add statuses in workflow editors, while configuring a workflow, or in Jira administration, by configuring the Status system field. Company-managed projects use these statuses. Team-managed project admins create statuses only for their project.
To edit a status in a workflow:
- In the new workflow editor, click a status. These are gray, blue, or green boxes.
- In the side panel, you can change the status's name, category, properties, and transitions.
To add a status in a workflow:
- In the new workflow editor, in the top navigation bar, click To-do status, In-progress status, or Done status to add a status of that category.
- Select an existing status or create a new one by entering an unused name.
- Click Add.
- Drag your status to the correct place in your workflow.
Edit transitions
A transition is a one-way link that defines how work moves from status to status. If you want a work item to move back and forth between statuses, you need to create a transition in and a transition out. A global transition enables users to move work to that status from any other status.
Every workflow starts with the Create transition because all workflows begin when a user creates a work item.
You can reuse transitions in your workflow. This is particularly useful when you configure advanced behavior for a transition, like conditions, validators, and post-functions.
To edit a transition in a workflow:
- In the new workflow editor, click a transition. These are white ovals with arrows going out of them.
- In the side panel, you can change the transition’s name, from statuses, to statuses, events, rules, and properties.
To add a transition in a workflow:
- In the new workflow editor, you can either click Transition in the top navigation bar, or select a status and, in the side panel, click Create transition (represented by +).
- Select a from status and a to status.
- Enter a name.
- Click Create.
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next lesson
Create complex workflows in Jira
- Use triggers to automatically transition work
- Use conditions to determine whether a transition occurs
- Use validators to check criteria during a transition
- Use post-functions to act after a transition executes
- Use properties to add detailed behaviors to your workflows
- Let’s explore an example