Atlassian Best Practice of the Week: "Don't Let Your Jira Workflows Become a Maze"

Friday, July 25, 2025
by Palak Chauhan

Atlassian Best Practice of the Week: "Don't Let Your Jira Workflows Become a Maze"

Jira workflows are meant to guide work from start to finish — but over time, when every team customizes their own statuses and transitions without governance, it creates confusion, reporting chaos, and automation nightmares.

This week, let’s break down how to design clean, scalable workflows for each Jira platform: Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Jira Work Management.

Why Workflow Sprawl Happens

  • Too many custom statuses ("Pending Dev approval", "Ready for production", "Manager Double Approval")

  • Teams duplicate similar workflows instead of reusing existing ones.

  • No clear governance or approval process for changes

Platform-Specific Best Practices

Jira Software: Keep Agile Reports Clean

Primary Use: Agile teams managing sprints, features, bugs, and releases.

Common Issues:

  • Custom statuses that break velocity charts or burndown tracking

  • Teams adding columns to the board that don’t map to real development stages

  • "Done" status not properly configured to mark issues as completed

Best Practices:

  • Stick to core Agile statuses: To Do → In Progress → In Review → Done

  • Ensure “Done” transitions to a status with a green category and sets Resolution

  • Use global workflows + workflow schemes across teams where possible

Jira Service Management (JSM): Align with SLAs and Request Types

Primary Use: ITSM, service desks, support requests, incident/change/problem management

Common Issues:

  • Custom statuses that break SLA timers or automation

  • Too many unnecessary transitions that confuse agents

  • Approval/rejection flows built inconsistently across request types

Best Practices:

  • Use ITIL-aligned workflows for Incidents, Requests, Problems, Changes

  • Configure transitions with “Automation Rules” to pause/resume SLAs properly

  • Clearly separate internal statuses (e.g., “Waiting for Support”) from customer-facing ones

  • Keep approval loops simple and avoid “looping” transitions that cause SLA breaches

Jira Work Management (JWM): Keep It Simple and Visual

Primary Use: Business teams (HR, Finance, Legal, Marketing)

Common Issues:

  • Overcomplicating processes that should be simple

  • Using status names that confuse non-technical users

  • Too many transitions without purpose

Best Practices:

  • Use plain-language statuses: Not Started → In Progress → Review → Completed

  • Leverage Forms + Automation to guide transitions (instead of over-customizing the workflow)

  • Keep workflows linear to support easy Calendar and Timeline views

Benefits of Workflow Governance

  • Clearer reports and dashboards

  • Consistent experience for users across projects

  • Fewer automation bugs

  • Easier onboarding

  • Faster SLA resolutions in JSM

  • Improved cross-team collaboration

Final Thought

Every workflow tells a story — but if your Jira instance is filled with conflicting plots and confusing paths, that story becomes unreadable.

By tailoring best practices to each Jira platform, you ensure every team is empowered without sacrificing consistency.

🔔 Stay tuned for weekly Atlassian updates and best practices to keep your instance clean, scalable, and efficient.