Permissions: what level to edit workflows?

Tyler Andrews May 20, 2013

I am currently a project administrator (not the over-all admin). Is the ability to edit workflows restricted to only the over-all administrators?

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Marian Finch
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
May 20, 2013

Hey Tyler,

In order to edit workflows you would need to have the JIRA Administrators global permission. The Administer Projects permission allows you to edit project role membership, project components, project versions and some project details ('Project Name', 'URL', 'Project Lead', 'Project Description') - (see our doc on Managing Project Permissions for more information). Feel free to email sales@atlassian.com and ask for Marian if you have any additional questions :)

David Putter October 13, 2017

Hi @Marian Finch is this answer still valid for the latest version of JIRA? 

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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October 13, 2017

No, it's not, the post is almost 5 years old.

To edit a workflow, you must be:

  • An administrator.
  • If you have Jira Software, then an admin can "simplify" the workflow, and board admins can then edit it to some extent.
  • If you are a project admin, and have Jira 7.3 or above, and your workflow is only used by your project, then you can also make some limited edits to it
  • If you have Jira 7.4+, the right to edit the workflow (if it is limited to one project) now becomes a permission setting for the full admins to set if they want.
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Steve Craig October 13, 2017

And, if you are using cloud JIRA, you're currently (Oct 13, 2017) out-of-luck.  Nothing I have seen enables Project Admin-role people to edit their workflows, which is a disappointment.

Lucas Germani March 12, 2018

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-, correct me if i got it wrong, at latest JIRA version we can give for example to a Project Lead the permission to edit workflow for that project?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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March 12, 2018

Yes, as mentioned above.

Yazan Hijji March 23, 2018

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- - How about cloud JIRA these days? would I still be out-of-luck as it was the case with @Steve Craig a few months ago ? I hope not (fingers crossed), please let me know

Jack Brickey
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March 23, 2018

@Yazan Hijji, please read here for available permissions

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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March 23, 2018

Server only so far

Yazan Hijji March 23, 2018

Ok got it :( , thanks!

Laurens Pluijmaekers February 14, 2019

2019 and Atlassian still does not want Jira Cloud to scale for anything more than one-trick-poney companies, without having to rely on Jira administrators.

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Milan Santosi March 27, 2019

What you mean you don't do Jira-administration "on the side", lol.

3 votes
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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May 20, 2013

Marian is right for plain Jira, but you've used "greenhopper" as well. IF your system adminstrators set the "simplified workflow" flag on your project, then you'll be able to define your own workflow by setting columns as a project administrator.

naresh veeragoni October 30, 2013

but we are losing the ability to have screens that captures values during the transitions. besides there are known issues as per the documentation

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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October 30, 2013

Correct. Simplified workflow IS simplified - no transistion screens etc. That's the point, it's supposed to be more simple.

I'm not sure what you mean by "known issues"?

naresh veeragoni October 30, 2013

I was referring to https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/GHKB/Unable+to+set+issues+to+Resolved+using+Greenhopper+Simplified+Workflow.

I just wish the JIRA workflow would be more preferable to be able to accessed by a project lead. As a matter of fact, Project Admins should be able to perform all of the admin tasks for that particular project without been given with a global admin access as that would be exposing everything and risky as I have recently seen that one of the admin has deleted an important project altogether may be by mistake.. but that cost my precious time to figure out what happened and eventually restore from backup, the sad part is I cannot trace who did that since the audit log is not there by design for administrative events. I tried searching the logs with no luck.

naresh veeragoni October 30, 2013

I was referring to https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/GHKB/Unable+to+set+issues+to+Resolved+using+Greenhopper+Simplified+Workflow.

I just wish the JIRA workflow would be more preferable to be able to accessible by a project lead. As a matter of fact, Project Admins should be able to perform all of the admin tasks for that particular project without been given with a global admin access as that would be exposing everything and risky as I have recently seen that one of the admin has deleted an important project altogether may be by mistake.. but that cost my precious time to figure out what happened and eventually restore from backup, the sad part is I cannot trace who did that since the audit log is not there by design for administrative events. I tried searching the logs with no luck.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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October 30, 2013

That issue is fixed in later versions.

There's a request outstanding for more granular permissions, and Atlassian are looking at it. Sadly, it's not as simple as it looks, both in terms of code and logic - your definition of "admin tasks for a project" could well be very different for another user. But it is in progress, rather than parked with "not in the next year"

Steve Craig August 23, 2017

I would love to see a status update on this item from 2013.  In 2017, with Cloud Jira, do we still need to give away super-admin privs to people if we only want them to be able to modify workflows? @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- and @Marian Finch  Greenhopper is not an option for us, thanks!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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August 23, 2017

It hasn't been Greenhopper for years.  It's JIRA Software now.

JIRA 7.3 gives you another option alongside JIRA Software's "simplified workflow".  Project admins can make limited edits to a workflow IF that workflow is not shared with other projects. 

7.4 added a specific permission for allowing it because most of the user-base demanded the ability to turn it off before the project admins made a mess with it!

Steve Craig August 23, 2017

Hurray!  Thanks for the quick reply @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-!  How do i tell if my Cloud Jira is version one-of-those-you-mentioned, because this doesnt sound anything like 7.3 or 7.4:

License Information for JIRA

JIRA v1001.0.0-SNAPSHOT

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
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August 23, 2017

Cloud has diverged from Server and uses a different numbering scheme.  It is "on the latest version" though, generally ahead of Server.  I don't know if it has that function actually.  Have a look at a permission scheme to see if there is an "advanced admin" option.

Steve Craig August 30, 2017

I've been looking around now for a little while, and it certainly appears to me that my version of CloudJira does not contain the ability to delegate workflow editing to Project Administrators.

 

I'd love to hear an offical response from Atlassian as to where this is on the cloud jira roadmap so that I can appropriately set my client's expectations.

Arturas Kuznecovas December 17, 2018

Hi,

+1 to this, we are using Cloud Jira and i cant find a way to delegate workflow edit permission to project admins.

This feels very strange, project admins should be able to control everything inside his project, fells like a gap in current system.

Any update on this would be great, will this capability be implemented in near future?

Thanks,

Yazan Hijji December 17, 2018

I believe the "next-gen" project type introduced recently solves this issue..you might need to check that one @Arturas Kuznecovas.. still, I would love to have the feature for existing and regular project types.

Arturas Kuznecovas December 17, 2018

Hi,

I have tried next gen project. TBH currently it is very lacking in features. Very basic.

We would like to use clasic templates for now, until next gen is developed.

Yazan Hijji December 17, 2018

Fair enough @Arturas Kuznecovas

2 votes
Mike Bartsch February 5, 2019

When will it be possible in Jira Cloud for project admins to edit their workflows?

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
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February 6, 2019

IMO this will never be allowed. Next-gen project types are sort of the 'answer' here by doing away w/ workflows altogether.

0 votes
Jack Brickey
Community Leader
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March 27, 2019

I am closing this thread down due to age. The product has change quite a bit since 2013. Please, feel free to open a new question or discussion on this or similar topic.

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