Workflows - Cloud Native

Workflows overview

TFS4JIRA lets you map the statuses and states in your Jira and Azure DevOps projects.

Jira statuses represent the position of an issue in its workflow. For example, a Jira issue with a To Do status waits for the work described in the issue to begin.

Similarly, Azure DevOps states define how a work item progresses through its workflow. For example, an Azure work item in a New state is at the start of its workflow journey.

Since all Jira and Azure items use statuses and states to represent their progress, it is important to map statuses and states accurately to ensure their position in a workflow is properly captured during synchronization.

Map workflow statuses and states

  1. Click In Jira and select a workflow from the list. Click In Azure and select a workflow from the list.

    in jira in azure to be mapped fields
  2. Click Add mapping. The mapping is added to the Mapped statuses list.

Workflows in Jira and Azure DevOps should be as similar as possible to reduce the chance of an error in the synchronization.

Map multiple statuses and states

It is also possible to map more than one Jira status to an Azure DevOps state and vice versa. For example, if you wanted to synchronize the Jira status Done to two Azure states Closed and Removed.

  1. Click In Jira and select a status from the list. Click In Azure and select a state from the list. The order that you select the status and state is important, as the first pair selected is how the synchronization occurs for the single status or state.

  2. Click In Jira or In Azure and select the same state as the previous step. Select the second state to map to and click Add mapping for the other side. You can continue adding additional states depending on how many are needed.

    The first mapping is the default. The arrow between them is bidirectional, indicating that synchronization goes both ways. For additional mappings to the same state the arrow only points toward the single state, indicating that synchronization occurs in one direction, but not the other.

Default values

Set how TFS4JIRA responds during synchronization when it encounters an unmapped status.

  • Raise Error - When TFS4JIRA encounters an unmapped state, it is recognized as an error. You can review the error in the sync log.

  • Set Status - When TFS4JIRA encounters an unmapped state, it maps it to a specific value. For example, if you select To Do, all unmapped values will be set to a To Do state.

  1. Click the Jira field and select Raise Error or Set Item from the list of options. If you select Set Item, click in the field and select a value.

  2. Click the Azure field and select Raise Error or Set Item from the list of options. If you select Set Item, click in the field and select a value.

  3. Click Save and continue.

Click Save settings to finish creating the sync profile.

Example workflow

This example describes mapping a simple Jira workflow to an Azure DevOps workflow, including mapping a single Jira status to two Azure states.

The Jira workflow uses To Do, In Progress, and Done, while the Azure workflow uses New, Active, Resolved, and Closed. Resolved and Closed will be mapped to the Done state in Jira. Resolved is the default state, meaning that after synchronization, all Jira items with the Done status will be represented in Azure with a Resolved state rather than Closed.

Default values will be skipped for Jira and Azure.

  1. Click In Jira and select To Do from the list. Click In Azure and select New from the list.

  2. Click Add mapping. The mapping appears in the Mapped statuses list.

  3. Click In Jira and select In Progress from the list. Click In Azure and select Active from the list. Click Add mapping.

  4. Click In Jira and select Done from the list. Click In Azure and select Resolved from the list. Click Add mapping.

  5. Click In Jira and select Done again. Click In Azure and select Closed from the list and click Add Mapping.
    Done now appears in the Mapped Statuses list. The arrow between Done and Resolved is bidirectional, indicating that synchronization goes both ways. For Azure’s Closed state, the direction points towards Jira, indicating that Closed will synchronize with Done, but not vice versa.

  6. Jira and Azure default values are at Set Status for this example. Any unmapped values will be designated To Do and New during the synchronization.

  7. Click Save settings.

Once all the sync profile sections have been successfully configured, the You’re Ready to sync! panel appears at the top of any sync profile page with links to enable the synchronization and sync initial items. Go to Ready to Synchronize for details.