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Set up approvals for your project
This feature is currently rolling out and may not be available on your instance yet
This page refers to approvals, which is a feature for Jira Work Management that’s only available for:
Jira Work ManagementCloud Premium licenses
Jira Service Management Cloud Premium and Enterprise license
Jira Software Cloud Premium and Enterprise licenses
Before you add an approval step to a workflow
Make sure:
You’re in a team-managed project. Approvals are not available for company-managed projects currently. To check which type of project you’re using, look at the bottom left of your project’s sidebar to see whether you’re in a company-managed project or a team-managed project. Learn more about knowing whether your project is team-managed or company-managed
You have project admin permissions to add an approval step to a workflow.
You have transitions set up for your workflow. Learn more about how to set up transitions
There are two ways you can set up an approval. You can set up approvals through the workflow editor or the approvals view for your business project. Setting up an approval process can help your team standardize and adhere to effective governance to minimize risk when delivering work.
Your team may need approval for issues as part of your business process before they can move to the next status in their workflow.
Before you can set up approvals, you’ll need to have transitions set for each status. Learn more about how to set up transitions
Set up approvals from the approvals view
Here’s one way you can set up approvals for your business project:
Select Approvals in your project view navigation (horizontal navigation above the project you’re viewing), then select Approvals.
If you haven’t set up an approval for this project before, you can select Set up approvals.
Select which workflow to apply an approval to. Some projects may only have one workflow in which case you’ll set up an approval process for that one workflow. If you have multiple workflows, you’ll need to choose which workflow and associated issue types to apply an approval process to.
Choose a status from your workflow to trigger an approval from.
Select Continue.
Select who you would like to nominate as preset approvers. Preset approvers will be automatically added when the issue reaches the status you’re triggering an approval from. You can always modify the list of approvers in an issue later.
Give the approver field a name. This is a custom user picker field that contains the people you want to approve the issue.
Choose a transition for when the issue is approved.
Choose a transition for when the issue is declined.
Select Save.
Select Update workflow at the top-right of the workflow editor to apply your approval and any changes to your workflow.
Set up approvals through your project settings
Another way you can set up approvals for your business project:
Select Project settings in project view navigation (horizontal navigation above your project’s view).
Select Issue types from the sidebar navigation on the left.
Choose which issue type’s workflow you would like to edit, then select Edit workflow of that issue type’s screen.
Select the status you want to add an approval step to.
Select the plus symbol :plus: next to Approvals in the right sidebar to open up the approvals setup screen.
Select who you would like to nominate as preset approvers. Preset approvers will be automatically added when the issue reaches the status you’re triggering an approval from. You can always go back and modify the list of approvers in an issue later.
Give the approver field a name. This is a user picker field that contains the people you want to approve the issue.
Choose a transition for when the issue is approved.
Choose a transition for when the issue is declined.
Select Save.
Select Update workflow at the top-right of the workflow editor to apply your approval and any changes to your workflow.
Troubleshoot setting up your approval
For further support when setting up approvals for your project: Learn more about troubleshooting your approval setup
Important to note once your approval process is set up
When you set up approvals for your project, approvals will not be retrospectively applied to existing issues that are already at the status you’re triggering an approval from. The approval process will only be applied to new issues that go through the workflow.
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