Approval process without using the workflow approvals

[#1]

Have you encountered the need for an approval process where all stakeholders can either approve or decline before advancing in the workflow? This requirement came about when I was setting up a new project to manage backfill requests. The project, set up in Jira Work Management, mandated that all approvers should have the opportunity to express their support or rejection. The default approval process available only on the Premium plan and limited to team-managed projects didn't fit our needs as it moves the issue forward upon a single decline.

After some experimentation I found a solution that uses two circular transitions (approve and decline), two custom fields - one for logging decisions and the second for the selected transition.

 

Once the backfill request is moved to "Waiting for approval," an automation will assign the appropriate approvers based on the department and a lookup in Assets.

 

When an approver chooses either to approve or decline, the selected transition field is set as a post function. This action also triggers an automation that updates the log and removes the initiator of the transition from the approvers field.

After all designated approvers have provided their responses, the request can progress further in the workflow for review before a final decision regarding whether to proceed with the backfill is made.

[Annie]

Thank you for sharing this information! It’s incredibly helpful and insightful