Change to 1 Workflow assigned to multiple workflow scheme

[Emily Ashley]

We have a existing workflow for a defect.  Multiple workflow schemes have this same defect workflow assigned to it.  I want to make a change to the workflow and add an additional step, I think this change will be reflected across all of the projects that use this workflow regardless of the workflow scheme they are assigned to?  I think the workflow scheme determines which issue types use which workflow but if there are multiple scheme's that have this same defect workflow assigned then this change to the workflow will be reflected in multiple scheme, is this correct?

[Mark Segall · Accepted solution]

Hi @Emily Ashley and welcome to the community!

Yes you are correct that any change to that workflow will impact all workflow schemes associated with it. 

To play it safe, you could copy the defect workflow to say, "defect workflow 2", add the new step to it and then on your desired scheme(s) change out the existing defect workflow for defect workflow 2.  This way it only impacts where you want it to impact.

[Emily Ashley]

Great, thank you, just wanted to validate my thought process!  Much appreciated

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You are absolutely right in everything you are thinking here.  

I think of it in a different order, and quite a reductionist way, in that I separate out workflow and workflow schemes as two totally separate objects.

Jira has a pile of workflows that issues can be made to follow.   These are global items, they don't belong to projects or issue types.  If you look at a project or issue and edit its workflow, you're not editing the workflow for that project or issue, you're editing a global, possibly shared, item.

Jira uses schemes for configuring things.  One of these schemes is the workflow scheme, which simply says "when you see issue type X, use the (global) workflow Y for it".  You associate one or many projects with a workflow scheme, so it effectively becomes "in this project, use workflow Y for issue type X"

A workflow scheme can name many workflows, and different schemes can use the same workflows.

So, you say "I think the workflow scheme determines which issue types use which workflow but if there are multiple scheme's that have this same defect workflow assigned then this change to the workflow will be reflected in multiple scheme" - that is exactly correct.

If you want to change the workflow for an issue type in a project, then you need to check if that workflow is used anywhere else.  If it is used in more than one scheme, or your scheme is used by more than one project, then you need talk to the all the people who are currently using that workflow to see if your changes are going to work for them, or decouple it - create a new workflow and new workflow scheme that uses it (I say "create new", in most cases, you'll find it quicker and easier to copy the existing ones and amend the new copies)

[Emily Ashley]

Great, thank you