Is there a way to lock the acceptance criteria in a Jira issue

[Ajita Kopparapu]

Hi,

Is there a way to lock the acceptance criteria in a Jira Story once all parties have agreed, to avoid any future changes?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Ajita Kopparapu 

Not natively, there's no field-level permissions in Jira.

I've seen a few different alternatives used to do this, in particular...

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Workflow Screen 

• Add the field to a Screen only editable in a Workflow transition. This means it's only possible to modify the field during that Status change.
• Split the main Screen between different Issue Operations (using the Screen Scheme), with a View screen containing Acceptance Criteria, and Create/Edit Screens not including it.

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Automation

• Create an additional paragraph custom field - Accepted Acceptance Criteria
• Create two automation rules...
  • The first rule copies the value of Acceptance Criteria to the new custom field, when all parties have agreed. A trigger would be needed to activate this (such as a Status change).
  • The second rule checks updates aren't being made to Acceptance Criteria. If the field is modified, it will check the value still matches Accepted Acceptance Criteria - if not, it will alert relevant parties via email/comment.

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Let us know your thoughts - and if you need more detailed instructions, let us know!

Ste