Streamlining Your Approval Process with Automation in Jira

Simplify your workflow and save time with just a few clicks.

Why automation?

Do you find yourself constantly starting approvals manually for each issue in your project? Do you wish there was a way to automate this tedious process? Well, we have great news for you! In this blog post, we will guide you through the steps to automatically start an approval path for any issue that goes through a specific status transition.

Use Case

Let’s say that you require approval for every issue created on your project. When an issue is first created in the “Backlog status,” it must be approved before it can be transitioned to the “In Progress” status. To make this process easier, we can add a third status, “Waiting for Approval,” and use this status as a trigger to initiate the approval path. This way, any issue that transitions to this status will automatically start the approval process.

Pre-Conditions

Before we get started, here are a few things you need to have in place:

• A status that you want to use as the trigger (e.g. Waiting for Approval)

• An API key (documentation on how to create one can be found here)

• The “Create Approval for Issue” privilege must be granted

Automation Steps

1. Navigate to the project settings

2. Select the “Automation” tab

3. Click on the “Create Rule” button

4. Search for the “Issue Transitioned” trigger and select it

5. In the “From Status” and “To Status” fields, select the status change that should trigger the action (e.g. Backlog -> Waiting for Approval)

6. Click on the “Save” button

7. Click on the “New Action” button

8. Search for the “Send Web Request” action type and select it

9. Fill in the data:

   • Web request URL: https://app.approval-path.com/webapi/approvals/{{issue.key}}

   • Headers: Authorization: Bearer + your API key value (e.g. Bearer 4mbmqXaw4cATK9BMXblqFiD6ei3q4vSdsYVGQ9CKFsrf)

   • HTTP method: POST

   • Web request body: Custom data

   • Custom data:

{
  "definitionId": "id of the approval definition you want to start",
  "summary": "Demo transition trigger"
}

Note: The definition id can be obtained from the definition page. Click on the “Save” button

1. Give this automation a name

2. Click on the “Turn it on” button

And that’s it! Now, every time an issue transitions from Backlog to Waiting for Approval, the approval path will start automatically. No more manual approvals and no more hassle!

In conclusion, using automation in Jira can greatly improve your approval process, saving you time and effort. Try it out today and see the results for yourself!

Need more flexibility and further dynamic steps?

Here are some useful links!

• Read the Resolve function from Issue field - Email

• Parallel group

• Webhook step

• Jira Automation

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