Trying to add On Hold to Status drop down

[Brian Conlon]

I want to add a STATUS to the dropdown that is ON HOLD.  I want it to appear on all issues and in that status it can transition to any other status.  I can't understand what I need to do.  I have looked at Statuses, Workflows, Workflow schemes, Screens, Screen schemes and I can't put all of the pieces together and don't even understand some of the default stuff that I think is happening in order to provide information on what my current setup is.  I have looked at every bit of documentation I can find, and I am not smart enough.  If more information is needed, please direct me to what information would be relevant to know.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Hi @Brian Conlon  - In order to let any status transition to ON HOLD and let ON HOLD transition to any status you will need to use global transitions for all statuses.  That makes the transition that is global available to all other statuses and allows transition from the ON HOLD status to any other status.  

Note, however - that this then lets users avoid following your workflow in the order you wish because they can move to any status they like from anywhere.  

If you are using Jira Software, consider using the Impediment flag instead.  It allows you to signal that an issue is blocked / on-hold without having to change the status.

[Brian Conlon]

@Bob Swift {Appfire}   This does seem like it would fit my needs, but unfortunately, just like all of the other how-to's and instructions I've found, that link for Global Transitions doesn't have a step by step that actually leads me to where I could make this change.  In JIRA cloud project I go to "Issue Attributes" and then "Statuses" I don't find anything in the On Hold status I made or when trying to make a new status I don't see any setting to make it a global transition, so I'm still not sure how to achieve this with my JIRA Cloud project.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Hi @Brian Conlon - I made a quick video to show how to set the global transition.  I hope it helps.

https://www.screencast.com/t/W6wY6Ky6c

[Brian Conlon]

Sure, that part allowed me to set the global transition.  Now I just need to figure out the other 12 dependencies that are likely blocking me from having ON HOLD be one of the items in my project's status dropdown.  I guess I'll accept this as the answer, but I still don't understand how to accomplish getting this to show up in my project.  Allegedly based on what you showed me, it should if I can figure out the other things I need to do with workflows, workflow schemes, and Statuses tabs that I can't figure out after many attempts at getting this to display.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Yes there are a few steps.  Here's the basic instructions for setting up workflows.

[Brian Conlon]

This didn't seem to solve my problem.  I'm missing something.  All of my workflows in Workflows tab are in the "Inactive" bucket.  I can't see where to change that to Activate any.  Further, this doesn't help me understand the relationship between workflows, workflow schemes, and how these relate to getting a status to show up in any workflow I create/activate.  I have the "On Hold" status built and showing in Issues->Statuses and it has a category and it is associated with some workflows (but admittedly I can't even tell what workflow my current project is using because there's nothing in "Active" under Workflows, nor is there anything active in Workflow schemes, and doesn't appear to be an obvious way for me to change that.  I still do not understand how to get this status to show up and would greatly appreciate any additional information you could point me at in order to get this done.  I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get this working after reading a lot of documentation with no success.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Your workflows are inactive because they are not yet associated with a Workflow Scheme.  Your workflow schemes are inactive because they are not associated with any projects.

Workflow Schemes are what map a Jira project's issue types to workflows.  You edit the workflow scheme associated with the project you have in mind to add the workflow and then select the issue type (or all unassigned issue types) to that workflow. 

Once you publish the updated workflow scheme then the steps will appear in the issues in that project that are of the issue type(s) you selected when you added the workflow to the workflow scheme.

Check the documentation I linked above for how to associate a workflow with a workflow scheme and how to associate a workflow scheme with a project.

[Brian Conlon]

Apparently I'm not smart enough to figure this out. 

1.  I have a workflow set. 
2.  It has an assigned scheme. 
3.  That scheme is inactive.
4.  The workflow itself is also inactive, because I apparently need to go somewhere else this documentation isn't helping me get to instead of the circle I'm going in right now.  
5.  That's probably why I can't associate a workflow scheme with a project

I read the part about activating a workflow and get to where I'm supposed to click Issue type schemes and then Associate to begin some migration process but that doesn't seem like the place to go.  I am still not understanding what I need to do and in what order anything needs to be done.  None of this is working.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

You are smart enough @Brian Conlon .  This stuff is complex and powerful.  It takes a while to get comfortable with it. 

I found a workflow video that may help out.  The link below jumps to the part where it seems you are stuck.

https://youtu.be/1lvJ_RtDn0Y?t=820

[Brian Conlon]

yeah,  no.  I'm telling you...every single piece of documentation I've seen gets me to a place that either doesn't exist in my project for some unknown reason or I do what it says and don't end up with the one thing I am trying to do.  I watched the video, tried things in it and don't get expected results.  I don't even have these menus at around 16:06 I don't even have workflows in my project settings as described in that video.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Ok, if the menus don't appear in the project then it seems like you are a Jira Admin, but you are not an admin for that project.   Access the project via the Admin->Projects link. It might look different depending on the version of Jira you are using.

Then click the Project settings link for the project.  Once you are in the project settings assign yourself the project admin role and verify that role has Administer Project permissions for that project and the menu items should then be visible.

[Brian Conlon]

[Brian Conlon]

[Brian Conlon]

And I realize now too that this issue somehow ended up in Jira and not Next-Gen.

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

There's the reason:  You are using a next-gen project type.  You cannot customize workflows in a next-gen project.  

[Brian Conlon]

Well that's quite unfortunate.  I am really regretting this purchase.  I can't have my team or myself estimate how long things are going to take to complete (no original estimate) and now I can't even set up a workflow to have a status that indicates where an item actually is in completion (on hold, not in progress, not to do, not done...ON HOLD.  This product is really losing any sort of value at all.  I don't know how you could possibly have end users of this project that successfully use this to manage a project to completion.   If I am not allowed to customize workflows, it might be a good idea for you to identify that somewhere in the many screens you let me touch and spend a lot of time on that aren't going to do anything for me.  

[Michael Kuhl {Appfire}]

Try creating a classic Jira Software project.  It should have all the features you are looking for.