Are workflows enforcable by Jira?

[Dan Mabee]

We are attempting to develop repeatable processes for our Jira tickets. Is there a way to enforce the process by requiring certain tasks to be completed before a ticket can be moved from one state to another? For example, can you configure Jira to require that all subtasks be in a Closed state before you can change the parent ticket to a Closed status?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Enforcable, yes, although you need to be careful with the way you use words in Jira. A workflow is a specific thing, which is *Always* enforced - issues all have a workflow and exist in one distinct step within it.

There are two ways a workflow "enforces" process. They do it on a "transition", which is a process that moves an issue from one step in a workflow to another.

Validators check whether the data matches certain rules before allowing the user to commit it. They happen after the user enters some data, so they can check the input. A very popular one is "is a field filled, either before the user started, or because they filled it in on the transition screen"

Conditions work *before* the user is offered a transition, preventing them from even starting to perform a transition. A good example would be "user must be the reporter or the assignee", "user must be a developer in the project", or specifically, "all sub tasks must be in a status of x, y, or z before the user can proceed". From memory, all of those are built into Jira off-the-shelf.

[Dan Mabee]

Thanks, Nic. That starts me down the right path.