A Delegated Project Administrator is someone who has been granted the Administer Projects permission in a given project or who is a JIRA Administrator. In addition, in order to be able to carry out any delegated administrative task, the JIRA Administrator must have configured the  Delegated Project Admin Pro for JIRA add-on to delegate one or more administrative tasks and empowered you, specifically, to do one or more of those tasks.

The Delegated Project Admin Pro for JIRA add-on supports 2 modes of operation (Guided Path and Self Service) to allow the most flexibility in the types of administrative tasks that a JIRA Administrator can delegate to others. By "others", we mean those individuals who are Project Administrators, by virtue of having the "Administer Project" permission in a project's Permission Scheme. Groups and user types to whom such capability has been delegated are known as Delegated Project Administrators.

A JIRA Administrator may to start with only allowing Guided Path mode until the Delegated Project Administrators gain experience and comfort in doing administrative tasks. Alternatively, a JIRA Administrator may opt to delegate Self Service administrative capability to only a few trusted Project Administrators, with the other Project Administrators only able to perform Guided Path administrative tasks.

1. Guided Path, which allows them to switch a project from one scheme to another.
2. Self-Service, which allows them to define a "Process Template", which is a set of configuration options that can be applied to a project. These configuration options include switching from one scheme to another and also editing a scheme to customize its behavior as desired.

The changes resulting from Self-Service mode can have a more significant impact on a project than Guided Path mode. Hence, it is best to use caution when configuring Self-Service mode. That being said, the Delegated Project Admin add-on ensures each change – from either mode – can be rolled back by a JIRA administrator or a Delegated Project Administrator.

An administrator can choose to delegate only via Guide Path mode, only Self-Service mode, or both. Please note that your selections on this screen will not be put into effect until you have selected your Delegated Project Administrators on the Select Who to Empower screen.

The Guided Path mode allows a Delegated Project Administrator to switch a project from one scheme to another. The types of schemes supported are:

• Issue Type Schemes, which indicate which Issue Types can be used on a project's issues
• Issue Type Screen Schemes, which indicates which Screens are used to create, view or edit each Issue Type used within a project
• Field Configuration Schemes, which define the fields available on a project's issues and the behavior of those fields (e.g., whether each is optional or required, whether each is hidden or visible, and what options are available in dropdown (aka "Select") lists).
• Notification Schemes, which defines who is notified when certain changes or events occur on an issue.
• Permission Schemes, which defines who can perform various activity on the project and its issues.
• Workflow Schemes, which define the lifecycle of issues in the project.

A JIRA Administrator chooses the desired delegation for each of these types of schemes, including:

• Allowing no delegation (i.e. no schemes of that type are selectable)
• Allowing all existing schemes of that type to be selectable
• Allowing all existing schemes of that type – except for specific ones – to be selectable
• Allowing only specific schemes of that type to be selectable

The JIRA Administrator then chooses which Project Administrators can perform various delegated activities in Guided Path mode. For instance, some Delegated Project Administrators may be able to work with Notification Schemes while others may be able to work with each of the supported schemes.

To switch a project from one scheme to another, the Delegated Project Administrator can click the  icon in the sidebar of the Project screen to open the Delegated Project Admin screen, click the tab corresponding to the type of scheme to change, and then click the Select Different Scheme button. A list of available schemes is shown (based on what the JIRA Administrator indicated to allow), and the Delegated Project Administrator can select the one that should be applied to the project.

By default, a project will be in Guided Path mode, unless the ability to enter Self-Service mode has been granted and a Delegated Project Administrator with the ability has opted to enter Self-Service mode.

It is important to note that the mode (Guided Path or Self-Service) is based on the project, while the capabilities of a Delegated Project Administrator while in that mode is based on how the JIRA Administrator has configured the delegation for that individual or the groups to which s/he belongs. The project stays in its mode (Guide Path, by default) until someone deliberately changes it to a different mode. It is possible for a Delegated Project Administrator to be unable to do some things or perhaps anything at all in a project if s/he was not delegated any capability pertinent to that mode.

The Self-Service mode allows Delegated Project Administrator to do more granular configuration of a project, beyond what can be done in Guided Path mode. The capability within Self-Service mode can include any or all of the following:

• Self-Service mode: Entering or exiting Self-Service mode

• Issue Types: Adding or removing Issue Types

• Fields: Adding or removing a Field from the Create, Edit and View screens, making a Field required or optional, reordering a Field on the Create/View/Edit screens, and adding or removing values from a Select List.

• Workflows: adding or removing a Workflow step, editing the fields available on a transition screen, and reordering the Fields available on a transition screen.

• Notifications: adding or removing recipients for a notification

• Permissions: granting or revoking JIRA project permissions to a user, role, or group.

• Process Templates: renaming, cloning or removing Process Templates

A Process Template is a set of configuration options that control the workflows, fields, issue types, and groups that can be applied to a project. 

By default, a project will be in Guided Path mode, unless the ability to enter Self-Service mode has been granted and a Delegated Project Administrator with the ability has opted to enter Self-Service mode.

It is important to note that the mode (Guided Path or Self-Service) is based on the project, while the capabilities of a Delegated Project Administrator while in that mode is based on how the JIRA Administrator has configured the delegation for that individual or the groups to which s/he belongs. The project stays in its mode (Guide Path, by default) until someone deliberately changes it to a different mode. It is possible for a Delegated Project Administrator to be unable to do some things or perhaps anything at all in a project if s/he was not delegated any capability pertinent to that mode.

A Process Template is a set of configuration options controlling the workflows, fields, issue types, and groups that can be applied to a project. Process Templates are available only in Self-Service mode.

When a project initially enters Self-Service mode, its configuration is analyzed and converted into one or more Process Templates. Multiple Process Templates would be created if some Issue Types on a project use a different configuration than other Issue Types.

The behavior of each Process Template is represented by the sections shown on the Self-Service screen:

1. IssueTypes, where Issue Types can be added or removed
2. Fields, where Fields can be added or removed; Fields can be made required or optional; Fields can be added, removed or reordered from screens used to create, edit or view issues; and options added or removed from dropdown fields of type "Select List (single choice).
3. Workflows, where Steps (aka transitions) can be added or removed; Fields can be added or removed from transition screens; and the Workflow used on the project can be switched to another existing Workflow.

Delegated Project Administrators can also rename, clone or remove a Process Template.