How to create approver groups for workflow status transition?

[James Mehlman]

I have created a change management project that will require 1 user of a certain group to approve the change before we can implement it. I understand how to set up approvals in the workflow and see where I can set it to a single user or multiple users, but i have no idea how to create the specified group of individuals to define the group. 

Any help would be appreciated! 

[Christof Cuypers]

Hi @James Mehlman 

By default, as you know your service project comes with an Approvers field for adding individual approvers, and an Approver groups field for adding groups of approvers.

To add users to the existing 'Approver Groups' - field: 

1. Go to Settings > Issues
2. Select Custom Fields from the left-hand menu
3. Locate the 'Approver groups' - field
4. Click on the breadcrumbs icon in line with the field's name (3-dots icon on right-hand side)
5. Select Contexts and default value
6. On the next screen, select the hyperlink Edit Default Value
7. Add the appropriate users/groups and save it

To add a new custom field for approvals:

1. Go to Settings (*gear icon*) > Issues.
2. Select Custom fields > Create custom field.
3. Select Advanced. [To add individual approvers, select User Picker (multiple users). To add groups of approvers, select Group Picker (multiple groups).]
4. Select Next.
5. Name your field, and add a description if desired.
6. Select Create. You’ll be taken to the Screens page.
7. Check the box next to <yourprojectkey> Jira Service Desk Screen and any other screens where you want this field to appear.

After you’ve done all of that, go back into your service project workflow to your desired approval step.

1. Next to Approver source, select where you want your approvers to come from. (Note: If you don’t see the custom field you want to get approvers from, make sure its Applicable context is set to Global).
2. Select Next.
3. Select the statuses to transition to if the issue is approved or declined.
4. Under Exclude approvers from, select the fields you want to exclude approvers from. Any users that appear in the fields you select here will not be able to approve issues that use this workflow.
5. Select Add.
6. At the top of the screen, select Publish draft.

[Harrison Ponce]

Just to add on to this. Currently there is no way to use a subset of groups from the directory or from "Teams" - it's sort of all or nothing. For us, we made approver groups with a prefix so that it was easier to search for the users.

This would be solved by being able to filter the custom field group picker to only certain groups, but that is currently not available in Cloud out-of-the-box. I believe Scriptrunner could do that. There is an open suggestion for the group/user filtering, if you'd like to add a vote, watch, and comment:

• JRACLOUD-61856: Limit group picker to filter out desired groups

[Lisa Forstberg]

Hi @James Mehlman ,

Welcome to the community!

To create groups you need to go to Settings > User management > Groups 

br

Lisa