Streamline an approval process

This is the documentation for JSU for Jira Cloud. If you are using JSU on Jira Server/Data Center, see the Server/Data Center documentation.

Goal	Save time and effort by streamlining approvals processes
Scenario	You want to eliminate unnecessary steps and downtime for those requesting approval, and those approving too. Use automation to automatically transition issues that don’t need approval and restrict the Approved action to selected users.
JSU Components	Follow Up Transition post function Value Field condition (Jira) User is in any users condition (JSU)

[ 1 How to configure this rule ] [ 1.1 Part 1: Add Value Field conditions for the Submit → Awaiting Approval transition ] [ 1.2 Part 2: Add the User is in any user condition for the Awaiting Approval → Approved transition ] [ 1.3 Part 3: Add JSU’s Followup Transition post function ] [ 1.4 Test the rule and see the automation in action ]

How to configure this rule

In this example, we are using an Approvals workflow that we configured for this use case. You can re-create this workflow in your instance in a few minutes. The main feature of the workflow is that from the submit status, the issue can move to either awaiting approval or approved.

First, we want to set the criteria we'll use for determining what requires approval and what can be streamlined to be automatically approved.

Part 1: Add Value Field conditions for the Submit → Awaiting Approval transition

Create a draft of your project workflow. If you're unsure how to get to this page, follow the onboarding steps in Edit a Jira Workflow. You can then view your workflow in Text or Diagram mode. The steps in this use case represent Diagram mode. If you haven't already, switch the workflow viewer to Diagram mode.
Select the transition (arrow) connecting the SUBMIT and AWAITING APPROVAL statuses to display the transition rule options menu.
Select Conditions from the options list to display the Conditions tab.
Select Add Condition.
Select the Value Field condition then select Add at the bottom of the page.
Now, let's configure the condition to ensure that only the desired issues can transition to awaiting approval.
1. Field: Choose the field that you want to inspect to determine whether an approval can be streamlined for it. In our case, we have a field called Budget Required that we've chosen.
2. Condition - Choose the type of comparison you will use when comparing with the value. In our case, we want to require approval when the Budget Required is greater than (or equal to) 1,000. So we need to choose greater-than-or-equal-to / >=.
3. Value: Type in the value you want to compare the field against. In our example, our chosen value is 1,000.
4. Comparison Type: To ensure that the value (a number) can be compared against the field (also a number), we need to tell Jira that in this scenario that value is a Number.
Select Add. A preview of the condition we've just configured displays.
Publish the draft workflow. Now let’s configure a rule for the other transition.
Return to the Approvals workflow and create a draft again.
Select the transition (arrow) connecting the submit and approved statuses to display the transition rule Options menu.
Repeat steps 3-7, only in the case, we set the Condition field to less-than < to ensure that issues with a Budget Required of less than 1,000 can be moved to Approved instead of awaiting approval.
Select Add. A preview of the condition we've just configured displays as with the previous condition.
Publish the draft workflow then move to Part 2.

Part 2: Add the User is in any user condition for the Awaiting Approval → Approved transition

In the draft workflow, select the transition (arrow) connecting the AWAITING APPROVAL and approved statuses to display the transition rule options menu.
Select Conditions from the options list to display the Conditions tab.
Select Add Condition.
Select the User is in Any Users condition then select Add at the bottom of the page.
Add one or more users to the condition. Only the selected users can transition the issue.
Select Add.

Part 3: Add JSU’s Followup Transition post function

Create another draft of the Approvals workflow.
In Diagram mode, select the transition (arrow) connecting In progress and submit.
Select Post Functions from the Options menu.
Select Add post function on the Post Functions tab.
Select Follow Up Transition (JSU) then select Add at the bottom of the page.
You do not need to configure the post function. Select Add again.
Publish the workflow.

Test the rule and see the automation in action

Go to an open issue in your Approvals project. In our case, we have an issue currently in In progress and with a Budget Required of 500.
Let's move the status to submit and watch the magic happen!
The issue moves to the submit status, then a second (or two) later, automatically to the approved status!

HINT: The issue history confirms this streamlined transition occurred.
Now try the same scenario, but where the Budget Required is 1,000, or more.
Let's move this issue to submit just like we did before.
Again, the issue is forwarded to its appropriate next transition; in this case, as the Budget Required value is greater-than-or-equal-to 1,000, it's moved to awaiting approval. Only the users named in the User is in Any User condition set up in Part 2 can select the Approved transition.
The issue history confirms that JSU helped us streamline the approvals here.

There you have it; streamlining your approval processes in Jira just got a lot easier thanks to the power of JSU.