Getting More from Jira Workflows

Unlock the full potential of Jira workflows. Learn how to design, customize, and optimize workflows to streamline processes, improve team efficiency, and ensure smooth project delivery.

Overview

An expert instructor will teach your team advanced workflow features like conditions, validators, post functions, triggers, and properties. Your team will also learn about commonly used workflow configurations such as statuses and transitions and how to deal with complex workflow requirements. Then, your team will learn how to create custom workflows.

Throughout the course, your team will be able to ask organization-specific questions in real-time and get the answers they need. The team learning environment delivers engagement, retention, and collaboration, extending the benefits of an instructor-led course beyond instruction time.

This course is designed for Jira administrators and individuals who need to design and maintain business processes in Jira workflows.

Data Center is not supported in this live team training course.

Before taking this course, we suggest your team take Jira Administration Part 1 (Cloud or Data Center), Jira Administration Part 2, or have experience with Jira administration and administering workflows.

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Full course details

Course outline

Introduction to Advanced Workflow Concepts

Understanding workflow maturity in teams

·      Why teams evolve workflow needs

·      Common symptoms of inefficient workflows

Activity: Discuss in pairs significant “pain points” your team has in their current Jira workflow.

Key workflow components and their impact

·      Statuses, transitions, conditions, validators, post-functions

·      How each component affects the user experience and process flow

Lab: Open a sandbox Jira Cloud project and map out an existing workflow: list all statuses and transitions.

Designing Workflows for Team-Specific Needs

Gathering requirements from stakeholders

·      Identifying roles, handoffs, approvals, and exceptions

·      Workshop technique: workflow sketching on a whiteboard

Activity: In small groups, pick a common process (e.g., bug triage, feature development) and sketch it end-to-end.

Aligning workflow design with Agile mindset

·      Ensuring flow, limiting WIP, enabling feedback loops

·      Avoiding over-complexity: keeping workflows lean

Lab: Compare two workflows: one minimal (“To Do → In Progress → Done”) and one with many detailed statuses. Discuss pros/cons.

Implementing Workflows in Jira Cloud

Creating and editing workflows

·      Navigate: Jira settings → Issues → Workflows

·      Add statuses, transitions, set screens, and link to workflow schemes

Lab: Create a new Company-Managed workflow in Jira Cloud with at least 5 statuses and appropriate transitions.

Configuring transition elements

·      Conditions, validators, post-functions and triggers

·      Best practices: when to use each, how to avoid “dead ends”

Activity: For your created workflow, add a condition so only a certain group can execute a transition; add a post-function to auto-set a field on transition.

Advanced Workflow Features & Automation

Using automation to streamline transitions

·      Built-in Jira Cloud “Automation” rules triggered by workflow events

·      Example use-cases: auto-assign based on status; send notifications; set due‐dates

Lab: Create a Jira automation rule: when an issue transitions to “In Review”, set the reviewer field and notify a group.

Branching, parallel workflows & exception handling

·      How to model branching paths: e.g., Approval vs Direct Release

·      Parallel tracks for e.g., development + QA or support + escalation

Activity: Identify a process in your team with two possible paths (e.g., minor bug vs critical) and design a branching workflow for it.

Monitoring, Optimising & Maintaining Workflows

Tracking workflow effectiveness

·      Metrics: cycle time, transition bottlenecks, statuses with high dwell time

·      Using Jira Agile reports, dashboards, and JQL

Lab: Build a dashboard widget showing average time in status “In QA” and identify which issues exceed target.

Maintenance and evolution of workflows

·      Change management: adding statuses/transitions safely

·      Archiving old workflows, consolidating similar workflows

Activity: Review your current active workflows list; identify at least one that could be merged or simplified and propose how.

Governance, Best Practices & Stakeholder Engagement

Workflow governance and permissions

·      Who should be able to edit workflows: avoiding chaos

·      Documenting workflows, training users, change logs

Lab: Draft a change-request template for workflow modifications and simulate submission for one proposed change.

Engaging your team and continuous improvement

·      Gathering feedback from users, conducting retrospectives on workflow effectiveness

·      Iterative approach: refine rather than perfect once

Activity: Run a mini-retrospective question set: “Which status or transition causes most confusion?”, “What one small change could improve flow?”, etc.

Audience / prerequisites
  • Jira administrators or project administrators who manage workflows in Jira Cloud.
  • Team leads or process owners who want to design and optimize workflows that align with their team’s business processes.
  • Anyone responsible for configuring or improving Jira Cloud projects beyond basic setup.
  • Ideally, you’ve completed the Jira Administration Part 1 or Jira Essentials with Agile Mindset course (or have equivalent practical experience).
In this class you will learn how to
  • Course overview
  • Covering the basics
  • Creating conditions & validators
  • Automating your workflow with post functions
  • Triggering transitions
  • Extending workflows with properties
  • Taking it to the next level

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