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JSM Tips & Tricks - Workflow Approver from Assets

Hi all,

Welcome to the next installment in my JSM Tips & Tricks series.

One of the more powerful features of Jira Service Management (JSM) is its native Asset Management capability, built on an integrated CMDB (Configuration Management Database). In JSM, this module is simply called Assets.

Assets allows you to define multiple schemas—such as systems, software, hardware, and more. Each asset object can have custom attributes that describe and help manage it. A common use case is adding an owner field (typically a user picker) to identify who is responsible for a specific item.

So now, imagine you have a well-maintained asset database containing servers, applications, hardware, etc., each with an "Owner" attribute. That owner is the go-to person for any incidents, issues, or changes involving the item.

But here's the challenge:
In the default Change Management workflow in JSM, how do you dynamically identify the affected asset, extract its owner from the Assets database, and automatically assign that person as the approver during the approval step?

That’s exactly what this article will walk you through.


You can use Asset Management combined with Automation to dynamically pull a user from a group or a specific person.

For example, your Asset table can include users who belong to certain LDAP groups. With the right setup, you can leverage automation rules and smart values to reference and act on these users easily.

A common use case would be an attribute like "Business Owner" within an object—such as a Software Asset Item—which identifies the responsible user linked to that asset.

image.png

To test the setup, I created a few asset objects with designated Business Owners, assigning myself as the owner of the NoSQL Database item.

image.png

Next, in order to identify which asset object to reference within the change ticket, we need to create a custom field of type Asset.

When configuring the custom field, I set the objectType to Software Asset Item, named the field SW for short, and applied the necessary configurations.

NOTE: I named the Schema Testing-Nadon

 

image.png


Now, let’s review the workflow approval step. I’m using the default Change Management workflow provided by the Advanced IT Service Management template. This workflow includes a status called "Authorize", which represents the approval phase.

By default, the Approver source is set to Approver Groups. However, since we’re assigning approvers at the individual level in this case, I’ve updated the configuration to use Approvers instead of groups—although using groups remains an option if needed.

I recommend always using either the Approvers or Approver Groups fields for every approval step within a workflow—even if there are multiple approvals in the same process. Since both are standard fields, they can be configured dynamically based on the workflow's needs before entering the approval status.

In my typical setup, I populate these fields using Automation or a Post Function prior to the approval step.

Let’s walk through an example using Automation:
You can create a rule that triggers when the issue transitions into the Authorize status. Within this rule, you can populate the Approver field using a smart value that references the asset selected in the custom field we previously created (named SW). This approach allows you to dynamically pull the approver from the linked asset's attributes.

image.png

Now it's time to test the setup—and just like that, it works! Once the SW Asset field is linked to the issue, Automation automatically retrieves the Business Owner defined in the associated asset and sets them as the Approver.

Below is a look at the issue creation process and how it behaves after transitioning to the Authorize status.

image.pngimage.png

NOTE: During the approval step in the workflow I did remove the Exclude approvers from lists so that I could be both Approver and Reporter

Have fun and feel free let me know if you want assistance with anything Jira!

…Robert Nadon

7 comments

Richard Scholtes
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July 15, 2025

Really good example for the existing synergies! Will probably put this on my "why this is so cool" presentation if you don't mind.

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Caity Belta
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July 15, 2025

Love this @Robert Nadon ! Thank you for taking the time to create this write-up

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Tomislav Tobijas
Community Champion
July 16, 2025

Nice one @Robert Nadon ! Cheers for sharing! 🙌

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Rune Rasmussen
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July 17, 2025

We are currently building something similar to this.
What we're finding is that building your Assets Schema and filling in all the right information takes a significant amount of time.

A way to expand on this concept can be to have your Business Owner be an object as well.
This Business Owner object would then have a User Attribute where you can select a user or group.
That User Attribute could be called "Responsible Employee".
You can reference values from Object Attributes in Smart Values using dot-notation.
{{object.Business Owner.Responsible Employee}}.

With that you could change the the approvers for multiple Software Asset Items without having the update them all individually.

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Kinga_Getint
Contributor
July 17, 2025

Such a cool idea to start a series dedicated to JSM tricks! 

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Brita Moorus
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July 17, 2025

Thanks for sharing this, @Robert Nadon! ✨

I actually set up something very similar just last week: a two-step approval for access rights requests. The first approver is the requester's direct lead (pulled from Assets), and the second is the owner of the access right itself - also stored in Assets. It's been working really smoothly, and seeing your example makes me feel like I'm on the right track! 😊

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