Changing Issue statuses will affect other projects?

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Hello,

I am managing a few projects out of many projects in my company. Currently, we have a Blocked column (across all projects) and a Blocked status that it's mapped with that column.

I just removed the Blocked column from my project board. After doing that, I saw in the Columns settings that 1 Issue type will not show up on the board, the one with the status Blocked. To (try to) fix these "unseeing issues", I moved the Blocked issue type from the Unseeing to the "In Progress" column.

I have 2 questions now:

1. Going to Issue Attributes > Statuses, I see the Blocked status now it's mapped with "In Progress". Does it mean that all the projects will be affected by my change? If yes, how can I fix that?

2. Can I remove the Blocked status only from my project without affecting others? I'm not sure if I remove the Status Blocked from  Issue Attributes > Statuses will affect others (since it says there are 7 associated workflows with Blocked status.

Thanks a lot!!

[Debra Rolston]

Another follow on question - I manage several projects that I inherited, each with its own set of status values and workflow.  I would like to make changes to move all three to a common set.  I am worried about the change on all the existing issues completed and in work if I do that change.  Does the change give me the opportunity to map the old values to the new ones and will the system make that change on all existing issues?

[John Funk]

Hi Jose,

You can remove the status from your workflow without affecting other projects - assuming that the workflow is only used by one project. If the workflow is shared, removing the status will affect those that share that workflow. 

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Thank you @John Funk !! Still getting familiar with Jira and how it connects Statuses with Workflows with Projects.

I think I got it. Statuses are defined in JIRA as independent entities. Workflows are created and linked to a project, adding the existing statuses to this workflow. Is that right?

The reason why I'm asking is that I need to create a new column in my project "Ready for QA" but I don't have any state that I can associate to the column, thus the column is not visible. I guess I need to create a new Status and then associate it to my workflow and then it'll show up in the columns settings... Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for your help!

[John Funk]

Sorry for the late reply - but yes, you are correct on how you describe statuses and workflows and their relationship with each other and projects. 

Yes, you would need to create a new status for Ready for QA and add that status to your workflow. After you save and publish the workflow with the changes, you should see that status show up on the right-hand side to drag to the column. 

[Trudy Claspill]

First, please confirm if you are using a Company Managed project or a Team Managed project. It will say at the bottom of the navigation pane on the left.

1. When you map a Status to a Column on your board, that does not change the category to which the Status is mapped in Issue Attributes > Statuses. Those categories are set and maintained only in that screen and have nothing to do with how you map Statuses to columns in any of the boards.

Issue Statuses have to be mapped to Categories. The Category options are pre-defined in Jira and cannot be changed. The Category options are "To Do" , "In Progress, and "Done". All Status values have to be mapped to one of these categories. Jira uses the Category for a status as the basis for elements of its functionality throughout the system.

If "Blocked" is showing in that page as part of the "In Progress" Category, that is how it was before you made your Status/Column change. You don't need to "fix" it, and the change to your board had no impact on other projects.

2. DO NOT remove the Blocked status from that page!!!! That page lists the statuses that may be used in any Company Managed project in the system. If you remove the status from that page you can definitely impact other projects.

2a. If you want the Blocked status to no longer be part of your project, and assuming you are using a Company Managed project, then that requires a change to the Workflow assigned to your project. Projects can share workflows, so if the workflow on your project is shared with another project, any change you make to that workflow will affect the other projects. If your project currently is sharing the workflow, and you don't want to affect any other project, then the workflow and workflow scheme have to be copied. You can then change the copies and assign the new/modified Workflow Scheme with its new/modified Workflows to your project.

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Hi @Trudy Claspill , thanks for your answer. Yes, it's a Company Managed project.

How can I know if my workflow is shared with another project? I'd like to customize my project with our own Statuses, Workflow, and Columns...

For instance, I just created a new column "Ready for QA" but I don't have any status associated with it. I created a new status "Ready for QA" (maybe I should change the name to differentiate it from the column) but I didn't see it in the Column settings where Statuses are linked to the columns. I think I'm missing the workflow step...

Thanks for your help!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Jose Manuel Fernandez 

Go to the Project Settings page for your project.

Click on the Summary option in the navigation pane on the left.

In the new page there will be a section labeled Workflows. It will show the name of the Workflow Scheme associated with your project, and will list the Workflows that are in that Workflow Scheme. There are two things you will need to check:

1. Is the Workflow Scheme is shared?

2. If it is not, are any of the individual workflows that you want to change used in other Workflow Schemes.

Make note of the Workflow Scheme name and the individual Workflow names.

Then click the Gear icon near your avatar in the upper right and select Issues. This will be available only if you are a Jira Administrator. If you don't see the Issues option you will need to work with a Jira Administrator for your environment.

After getting to the Issues settings screen, select Workflow Schemes from the navigation pane on the left.

Find the Workflow Scheme that is associated with your project. This page includes a column for Projects which notes the Projects to which that Scheme has been associated. If you see more than just your project listed there, then the Scheme is shared as are all the workflows in the scheme.

If the Scheme is not shared, you then need to check the individual Workflows to see if the ones you want to change are in other Workflow Schemes used by other projects.

Click on Workflows in the navigation pane on the left.

Find each of the workflows you want to change in the list shown. This page will so the Assigned Schemes for each of the workflows. If you find one of your workflows lists more than just the Workflow Scheme that is assigned to your project, then that workflow is shared.

If neither your Workflow Scheme nor your Workflows are shared with other projects, then you can update your workflows without affecting other projects.

If there is sharing, then you will have to make copies of the shared items.

If your scheme is shared, then you have to copy all the workflows and make a new Workflows Scheme that includes those workflow copies. Then you can make changes to those workflow copies to add the Ready for QA status to the workflow. When you get those updates made, then you would associate the new Workflow Scheme to your project, which will make the Ready for QA status available in your project. Then you would see it in the unmapped statuses for your board and you can map that status to your Ready for QA column.

If there are only individual workflows shared, and not the entire workflow scheme, then you would copy the shared workflows. Then in your workflow scheme you would swap in the copies and remove the ones that are shared. Then you would be able to update the workflow copies, now in your scheme, without affecting other projects.

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Thanks so much, @Trudy Claspill !! I made it! It was shared so I cloned the workflow and scheme and associated the new cloned workflow scheme with my project (1 for now).

I could add the new state "Ready for QA".

Can I ask you the last question...The states don't really show in the right order in the dropdown of the board issue card... is there any way to move them up and down in such a way they are displayed in the right order? (I thought the workflow Diagram would do that, but it doesn't apparently... I have my diagram with the states in the right order, but the dropdown doesn't really 

Current Dropdown option order (top to bottom):

Backlog > To do > In progress > In QA > In Review > Ready for QA > Done

Desired Order:

Backlog > To do > In progress > In Review > Ready for QA > In QA >  Done

So, basically, I want to move the last two states I created up in the dropdown...

How can I do that?

[Trudy Claspill]

The ordering of the statuses is managed in this page

https://<yourJiraUrl>/secure/admin/ViewStatuses.jspa

Note that making changes here to the order of statuses can affect other projects also, as this is applied globally.

If  "In Review" and "Ready for QA" are used only in your project, moving those should not affect any other projects. But if you move statuses that are used in other projects, then you may affect the ordering of those statuses in those other projects.

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill ! I tried to do that but the statuses don't move. Maybe I don't have permission to do that?

Also, it's weird that the status "In Review" is displayed higher than the status "In QA" in the Statuses table, when the dropdown shows "In QA" above "In Review".

[Trudy Claspill]

If you have access to the screen then you have sufficient permissions.

People have noted in community posts that they have had trouble re-ordering statuses. I had the same trouble myself and posted about it here:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/JIRA-Admin-JIRA-Status-Sort-can-t-reorder-statuses-to-pull-last/qaq-p/1213549

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill , I was just reading that article! 

Very helpful! Thanks a have a great day!

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

@Trudy Claspill I finally re-ordered the statuses, but no impact in the dropdown. I think this is managed somewhere else...

[Trudy Claspill]

Oh, my mistake. 

Take a look at this post:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Changing-the-order-of-the-statuses-in-the-dropdown-list-in-an/qaq-p/1459475

Credit to @Sachin 

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

@Trudy Claspill Thanks! I'll follow up in that thread...I applied the opsbar-sequence to all transitions, but still not showing the right order

[Trudy Claspill]

I took the time to read the full post, and I see that there is an open issue with Atlassian that the opsbar change is not respected in the New Issue View

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-13864

[Jose Manuel Fernandez]

I'm still working on this LOL ... I couldn't find anything. I changed the order of statuses, I set the opsbar-sequence property in each transition (and state, just in case) but nothing reorder the list of statuses... 

I want to give up but I can't :D ... Need to figure this out somehow!

Thanks for following up @Trudy Claspill !