What is the difference between step and status?

[parulshah]

In JIRA workflow I came across two terms step and status. What is the difference between step and status?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Step is a position in a workflow, status is what you want to show to the users when an issue is on that step.

There's a 1:1 relationship between them, which often confuses new admins and your next question is going to be "then why have both?" - the answer is that in the workflow, the step is the important thing, the status is just a label, but Jira does a lot more with status so there's a whole load of coding around status that makes it a lot more simple if the two are separate logical entities with a simple link.

Your users will only see the status, steps don't matter to them. I think of steps as a "skeleton" which you hang the rest of the workfow settings off.

[parulshah]

thanks a lot for sharing this information

[Deleted user]

Tahnks for your detailed answers.
I think status is more important tahn steps. Because we see statuses and search based on it's value and etc.

I have another question. Every new admin have some problem for naming diffrerent part of workflows because he/she need 3 names for each stage of it. 1. Step Name 2. Status Name 3. Transition Name.
Do you have any idea or suggestion for that?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Status is not "more important" than steps, they're different things. It is important to remember that your users generally won't see steps, only status. But nothing would work without steps, so they're still necessary.

For your second question, you're getting confused. Workflows have TWO important and very different components.

STEPS are an indication of where an issue is in the workflow. They are associated with a status, as we've already discussed. Two pieces of advice I'd give you about steps

1. Initially, try to name them the same as the status you intend to use them with. That will make it easier to see and understand. Even as an experienced admin, I find it useful to keep them at least similar

2. When choosing the name of a status, remember that it is a description of a point in a process flow. In English (I'm ashamed to say that I don't speak any other language), the sentence you should aim for is "<issue> is <status>". So I can say "issue is open", "issue is blocked", "issue is under reveiew"

TRANSITIONS are an action that moves an issue from one status to another. You should name them in a way that indicates an action. It's a verb rather than a descriptive word. You "close" issues, or "resolve" them, or "reopen" them, or, for more complex flows "put under review" or "give to a developer"

[Lisa Ruby]

This is an old post, but I wanted to thank Nic. I've been a user of JIRA on and off for years. Am now setting up my own installation and this was driving me a little batty. You've clarified it for me.  Lisa

[MattS]

Steps are the name used by the underlying OS Workflow library. Status is a JIRA concept. The workflow designer is where the mapping is done. I agree with Nic that the step name and status name should match, or you will get confusingly named buttons in some places in JIRA

[Vishnukumar Vasudevan]

Please refer https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AOD/Configuring+Workflow#ConfiguringWorkflow-steps_and_transitionsStatusesandtransitions

[Michael Barton]

This link is broken.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It is from 4 years ago and out of date.  Search the docs for "configuring workflow"