Approval can take 3 months

[Swati V ETCC]

I am working on a Documentation project. We create documents like user guides, training documents etc. The documents go through Draft, Review, Back in Draft, Approve internally.. and then it gets parked for 3-4 months until the client approval comes in. 

I would like to mark the issue Done after internal review passes. 

And then pick it up for Client review 3 months later and have it go through workflow until Final Approval. 

How would you handle this workflow ?

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

@Swati V ETCC Welcome to the Atlassian community

I would suggest making an issue with sub-tasks for internal review and client review.  Then you can track each task separately and report on it.    Once all the sub-tasks have been closed out you can close out the main task through automation.  

[Swati V ETCC]

1. how would I separate subtasks into different sprints 3 months apart?

2. The reporting won't show the work completion for 3 months, until all subtasks are complete and main task is closed. While actually the Team's work is complete and it should reflect in their velocity. 

[__ Jimi Wikman]

If you lift the hierarchy a bit then you can have the Epic hold the full work and regular tasks would be the two flows. That way you can bring in what you do each sprint and external reviews can sit in the backlog, preferable with a due date that can indicate future work, so you know what might be coming up.

That would also let you use the Timeline, so you can see when things are planned visually.

If you want, then you can even have two different issue types and sort on two boards, so you would have one only showing internal work and one only showing external work. If that makes sense, that is :)

[Swati V ETCC]

Thank you Jimi.

[__ Jimi Wikman · Accepted solution]

Well, you have two streams of work, one internal and one external. Both with steps of completion, so you can either have dual closure (two green statuses), or you can have two activities connected to a main activity that you can close individually.

I would probably go for a single workflow with just one closed status (because I despise dual closure from a workflow perspective).

So, something like this:

• Draft
• Blocked/Pending
• Ready for Internal Review
• In Review
• Ready for Client Review
• Closed (Client Approved as resolution)

You can use In Review for both internal and client review, and I would make all transitions open to allow free movement. Ready for client review will be the end of the internal review, and you can make that a green status if you must, but I would just have it as a normal inactive status.