Why is there a transition in my workflow that shows in italics?

[Jamie Sperla]

I added a new Step in my workflow and new transitions.   From issues, I filtered for a specific set of issues that fall within specific create dates and bulk changed the - transitioning them all to the new Step.  Now every issues in board is in that column and when I create an issue it does not show up in requested.  Upon reviewing the project workflow I can see there is a new transition that is in italics. What is this transition?  I transitioned all issues into an existing step in the board so I don't understand what this is - it's obviously been created by the system but now I can't troubleshoot bc I have limited ability to manage this system create transition.  

Two things:

Can I revert the board to a state prior to the changes (workflow and bulk issue changes)?

Why was a new system transition created when I did this bulk change when the transition and step was already in the workflow? 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Jamie Sperla 

Are you working with a Team Managed project or a Company Managed project?

There is unfortunately no "undo" button for a Bulk Change operation.

You can revert the workflow if you were working with a workflow for a Company Managed project and you elected to save a backup of the workflow when you made the changes.

Can you provide more details of what changes you made, exactly, and the steps you took to make those changes? Can you provide a screen image of the workflow? Do you have one workflow for all issue types in the project/board? Can you provide an image of the Column/Status mapping for the board? Can you share the filter for the board?

With multiple areas of change it will be challenging for us to debug and diagnose exactly what happened and how to undo it.

[Jamie Sperla]

Is there a way we can just jump on a call?  

[Trudy Claspill]

No, I'm afraid not.

I am just another user of the product, voluntarily offering guidance and support through this user community when I am able. 

I would recommend that you contact Atlassian Support directly if you want real-time support, but I see that your post tags indicate you are on the Free subscription and that does not include access to Atlassian Support.

[Jamie Sperla]

[Trudy Claspill]

So far I have not found a documentation reference that explains the italicized "Unreconciled" Transition text.

Can you provide an image of the workflow diagram, please?

What had you added to the workflow before the bulk change? And what appeared to get added to the workflow when you executed the bulk change?

Looking at my own workflows, it appears that a transition displays in the Text screen in italicized text when that is a transition supported by a Global transitions (an "All -> " transition).

Looking at the transitions in my workflow that can be made when an issue is in the Review status.

From Review I can transition to To Do, In Progress, and Review based on Global transitions. I can transition to Done based on a specific transition. The transitions that are global show in the list as italicized. 

That suggests that the transition to the Unreconciled status in your workflow can be made from any other Status in the workflow through a global transition.

[Jamie Sperla]

Thanks, Trudy! 

It's a business project, which I've gathered must be a "company-managed projects".  

My goal was to clean up the stale issues in this board, which required me to add a new column, create some tags on existing issues, and move issues/tickets around.  

Here's what I've been up to that has caused unexpected issues.

Action 1: Add new step into workflow

Project Settings > Workflow > Add new step name "Unreconciled" + Status = In Progress > Publish new drafted workflow (validated by checking to see that the column showed up in the board. Success!)

Action 2: Add transitions to steps to accommodate for new step/status "Unreconciled" [Note this was undone as we reverted back to an old workflow while trying to diagnose and correct the issues we've run into]

Project Settings > Workflow >add transition "Unreconciled" to all other status/steps > Publish workflow changes

Action 3: Update transition name from "Unreconciled" to "Archive_Unreconciled"

Project Settings > Workflow > Edit > Change name > Save > Publish workflow

Action 4: Bulk tag current status and transition old/stale issues to new "Unreconciled" status

Project Board Menu "Issues"> Filter "Purchased" > Filter "More...Created Date...Between - Dec 2018 and Dec 31 2021" > upper right hand corner "... - bulk change" > select issues > next > edit > add label Purchased and change assignee to unassigned" > confirm > wait for changes > Done

Project Board Menu "Issues"> Filter "Purchased" > Filter "More...Created Date...Between - Dec 2018 and Dec 31 2021" > upper right hand corner "... - bulk change" > select issues > next > transition > select "Unreconciled" > confirm > wait for changes > Done

NEW ISSUES:

Now issues that were not bulk moved to "unreconciled" aren't showing up on the board, but they are showing in the issues view.  And newly created issues are not showing on board at all, but are showing in issues view.

[Jamie Sperla]

[Jamie Sperla]

Note: all issues can be transitioned into unreconciled right now because I need to move stale tickets from any of the other states into the new "unreconciled".  This update was in place when I did the bulk transition of tickets from other states into "unreconciled".  

We've been playing with the workflow as this is a business critical board so I just need it to function in some fashion.  (i.e. I need new tickets to appear in "Requested" in the board and I need for others to be able to move them through the board. 

At this point I'm considering just rebuilding the project and moving all the tickets there.  It's just frustrating that, that is what ends up having to be the solution given the urgency of getting this board functioning again. 

[Jamie Sperla]

When you state "Global Transition" - what does that mean?  That all status/steps can move into that state (i.e. the "all" that is pointing into the "Unreconciled"

[Jamie Sperla]

I thought maybe it was a board filter, but I have no way of getting to board settings and/or filters...I'm not very familiar with business boards so have been trying to find docu about that in order to better understand the issue(s) I'm facing.

I'm hoping that there is some kind of lag in the bulk updates that is causing the issue of the "missing issues/tickets" in the board view and that it will magically fix itself tomorrow...just not going to hold my breath on that one. ;) 

[Trudy Claspill]

A Global Transition is a transition that indicates an issue in any status in the workflow can transition to the specified status. In the Diagram view this is represented by an arrow pointing from All to a Status.

In the Text view it is represented by italicized text in the Transition column for the name of the transition.

I don't work a lot with Business project either. It may indeed be faster to create a new project and move your issues than it will be to unwind/fix what has happened.

This experience may inspire you to test out changes in test projects in the future. ;-)  We've all been there - thinking we're making a simple change only to have it blow up in unexpected ways.

For Business projects there is no board filter for you to adjust/edit. The Business project board should show all incomplete issues in the project, and completed issues that haven't aged off the display. But I have seen some very strange things happen when workflow modifications are made.

Do you have more than one type of issue in your Business project? Are you trying to use different workflows for different issue types in the project?

You said there are issues in the "issues view" that are not showing up in the board. When you say "issues view" are you talking about the Issues option in the navigation pane on the left, or the List option, or are you talking about the issue searching functionality you can get to through the Filters menu?

Can you show us the board, and the "issues view"? Black out confidential data. I just want to see the statuses mapped to the board columns, and statuses shown for issues in the issues view, particularly for issues that are in the issues view but not on the board.

[Jamie Sperla]

Thanks again for all your guidance and feedback. We're using a single workflow for all all issues and the only issue type is Order.  Screenshots below. 

I also learned something new from Atlassian support:
Please see that in Jira Work Management, you can only see 1000 issues in the board. Checking "Unreconciled" column, I see that this limit was already reached, so you is expected you not be able to see more issues in the board.....I'm trying to figure out the logic that is used to determine which 1,000 will show.  It's not based on create date from what I can tell.

[Jamie Sperla]

[Trudy Claspill]

I had forgotten about that limit of 1000 issues on the Work Management board display.

You could consider creating a second board for your Work Management project, creating the board from a Saved Filter that pulls all (or a subset) of issues from the project.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Multiple-boards-in-Business-and-Team-Managed-Projects-You-bet/ba-p/1719761

You won't get a pull down in the navigation pane for selecting that second board, but you could use the Add Shortcut option to add a link to the second board into the navigation pane.