Making 'Assignee' field required when 'Allow unassigned issues' is turned ON in General Configuration
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Diagnosis
The Assignee field is required or automatically assigned by default when Allow unassigned issues is turned OFF in Administration > General Configuration.
If it is set as ON, user will be allowed to choose the Unassigned option and this affect every project in JIRA. In certain use case, some project might need the Assignee field to be required and "unassign" is not an option. This feature has already been requested in JRASERVER-1001 - Allow unassigned issues on a per-project basis.
Workaround
There is no way to do it by default in JIRA. However, this can be achieved by using a third party plugin called JIRA Suite Utilities, which has a set of conditions and validations to personalize workflow of JIRA.
The content on this page relates to platforms which are not supported. Consequently, Atlassian Support cannot guarantee providing any support for it. Please be aware that this material is provided for your information only and using it is done so at your own risk.
Install the JIRA Suite Utilities. For install the plugin please refer to: Installing JIRA plugin
Use the 'Fields Required' validator function in your specified transition. Please refer to: https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/JSUTIL/JIRA+Suite+Utilities+Workflow+Validators
Add the 'Assignee' field as required.
Was this helpful?