Workflow and fieldsCustomise JIRA to work the way you do

If there is one thing that most teams have in common, it's change. Customising JIRA to fit your development process or business practices is just as important as being able to adapt to changes as you evolve over time.

Start with the basics

Out of the box, JIRA comes with a default workflow to get you started. The basic steps of this workflow are perfect for bug tracking and most development tasks.

Standard issue types include bugs, features, improvements and tasks. Modify these or create custom issue types by associating any combination of fields to match the context of your workflow process. Create custom fields to capture any type of data that you may want to search or report on later.

Auto-assign new issues to project or component leads to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

We are really excited how JIRA boosts our productivity and simplifies our internal workflow. — Daniel Groezinger of Ahnenforschung

The default workflow includes these 5 steps with configurable transitions between them.

Associate any combination of fields with a particular issue type.

Create custom issue types and associate them with specific projects.

Automatically assign issues to project or component leads.

Adapt your workflow as you evolve

It's easy to configure multiple workflows in JIRA to reflect your organisation's unique needs. Define custom workflows for different departments, projects and even specific issue types. Edit active workflows on the fly without disrupting work that is in progress.

There are several plugins available to help you visualise and modify workflows in JIRA.

Case study

Macadamian originally rolled out JIRA on a per project basis, to groups of 2-10 people. When they opened it up to customers, adoption was rapid and viral with customers having expressed great satisfaction. Learn more...

All available workflow actions are displayed with each issue depending on the step.

Edit any workflow to add or remove steps and configure transitions.

Plugins like the JIRA Workflow Designer help visualize your workflow.

Make workflows work for you

Tailor your workflow to match the way you work with granular controls at each step in the process. Define any of the following actions for each transition from step to step:

Conditions: these determine if an issue can commence the transition from one step to the next (e.g. is the user a member of the authorised group?)
Validators: once the above conditions are met, validators check to ensure that any required fields are entered during the transition
Post Functions: these are automated events triggered immediately after validation (e.g. email the project manager)

Typical applications of these controls include:

Get email notifications when a transition occurs
Perform permission checks to ensure that the person making the transition is allowed to do so
Allow only the creator of the issue to close it.
Trigger an action in a program associated with JIRA, such as FishEye or Bamboo.
Modify the details of the issue being transitioned automatically - (e.g. mark an issue as "pending approval" and automatically change the assignee to be the boss).

Workflow transitions control the how issues move from step to step.

Add conditions to control when certain transitions can be performed.

Validate input parameters before transitioning the issue to the next step.

Create a series of actions to be executed after any transition using built-in or custom post functions.