In order to provide valuable feedback to users that worked on issues attributed as the Root Cause Issue of an Attributor Issue, the Root Cause Analysis plugin needs to be able to get access to certain information that is only available during workflow status transitions. The workflow status transitions that are applicable to the plugin will differ from workflow to workflow based on how your organization uses JIRA.
There are two workflow post functions that come bundled with the Root Cause Analysis plugin:
- Root Cause Analysis Resolver Saver - Used to save the JIRA user id as well as the date/time of a particular workflow status transition where the transition is causing an issue to be change complete.
- Root Cause Analysis Closer Saver - Used to save the JIRA user id as well as the date/time of a particular workflow status transition where the transition is causing an issue to be verification complete.
The data obtained from the placement of these two workflow post functions will appear on the Root Cause Analysis panel within each issue that has attributed a Root Cause Issue.
We feel that allowing you to specify which status transitions will map to the Resolver and Closer fields in the Root Cause Analysis plugin provides the ultimate in flexibility from the simplest to the most complex workflow processes.
Example Workflow Configuration
As a working example, lets go through the Root Cause Analysis workflow configuration process for JIRA Software's Basic Software Development project type and its associated workflow.
- Start by clicking the Projects drop-down and select Create Project
- Select the Basic Software Development project type and click Next
- Click Select on the next screen and enter a Project Name, Key and Project Lead. I'll use Root Cause Test, key RCT, and project lead admin.
- Click Submit to finish project creation.
- You will now be on the project Open Issues page. On the side navigation bar, click on the Project Administration cog
link located at the bottom of the screen.
- On the resulting project Administration page, look for the Workflows section and click on the
(edit) icon beside the Software Simplified Workflow for Project RCT link.
You are now presented with the list of Workflow steps and their valid transitions for the projects workflow.
Analyze the each workflow step and each of the associated transitions to determine which transitions we want the Root Cause Analysis plugin to manage data.
Step Name Transition Track Data for Resolver Track Data for Closer Reasoning To Do To Do 
When in the To Do status and the To Do transition is triggered, the user has not changed the status of the issue, so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition. " In Progress When in the To Do status and the In Progress transition is triggered, the user is just starting work so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. '' In Review 
When in the To Do status and the In Review transition is triggered, the user performing the action is marking the issue as change complete. The Root Cause Analysis plugin will want to gather information from this status transition for just the Resolver at this time. " Done When in the To Do status and the Done transition is triggered, the user performing the action is both marking the issue as change complete and verification complete. The Root Cause Analysis plugin will want to gather information from this status transition for both the Resolver and the Closer. In Progress To Do When in the In Progress status and the To Do transition is triggered, the user is moving the issue back in the workflow so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. " In Progress When in the In Progress status and the In Progress transition is triggered, the user has not changed the status of the issue, so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition. '' In Review When in the In Progress status and the In Review transition is triggered, the user performing the action is marking the issue as change complete. The Root Cause Analysis plugin will want to gather information from this status transition for just the Resolver at this time. '' Done When in the In Progress status and the Done transition is triggered, the user performing the action is both marking the issue as change complete and verification complete. The Root Cause Analysis plugin will want to gather information from this status transition for both the Resolver and the Closer. In Review To Do When in the In Review status and the To Do transition is triggered, the user is moving the issue back in the workflow so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. " In Progress When in the In Review status and the In Progress transition is triggered, the user is just starting work so we don't care to ever track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. " In Review When in the In Review status and the In Review transition is triggered, the user has not changed the status of the issue, so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition. " Done When in the In Review status and the Done transition is triggered, the user performing the action is marking the issue as verification complete. The Root Cause Analysis plugin will want to gather information from this status transition for just the Closer. Done To Do When in the Done status and the To Do transition is triggered, the user is moving the issue back in the workflow so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. '' In progress When in the Done status and the In Progress transition is triggered,the user is moving the issue back in the workflow so we don't care to ever track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. '' In review When in the Done status and the In Review transition is triggered, the user is moving the issue back in the workflow so we don't care to ever track anything from this specific transition for Root Cause Analysis plugin purposes. " Done When in the Done status and the Done transition is triggered, the user has not changed the status of the issue, so we don't care to track anything from this specific transition. Based on the analysis above, we will need to add workflow post functions to five different transitions. Moving down the list from the top, lets add our post functions to the Done transition within the To Do step.
- Click on the Done link in the To Do row under the Transitions column.
- Click on the Post Functions tab. You now see the list of existing post functions for the transition.
- Click the Add post function link on the right hand side of the page. You are then presented with a list of available workflow post functions.
- Select Root Cause Analysis Resolver Saver and click Add
- The next screen is a generic configuration screen for post functions. There are no configurable options for the two Root Cause Analysis Post Functions. Click the Add button.
- You will now see the new post function appear at the top of the list of existing post functions for the transition.
- Repeat steps #12 through #15 to add the Root Cause Analysis Closer Saver post function to this transition.
- Click the Software Simplified Workflow for Project RCT (Draft) link (near the centre of the page, and will differ depending on the name of your workflow) to go back to the workflow table.
- Repeat steps above (from #10) for each of the other four status transitions determined from our analysis in the table above:
- Click on the In Review link in the To Do row under the Transitions column. Only add the Root Cause Analysis Resolver Saver post function.
- Click on the In Review link in the In Progress row under the Transitions column. Only add the Root Cause Analysis Resolver Saver post function.
- Click on the Done link in the In Progress row under the Transitions column. Add both the Root Cause Analysis Resolver Saver and the Root Cause Analysis Closer Saver post functions.
- Click on the Done link in the In Review row under the Transitions column. Only add the Root Cause Analysis Closer Saver post function.
- In order to save the changes you have made to the workflow. Click on the Publish Draft button. You can review the workflow first to ensure everything is correct before publishing.
- You will be prompted to save a backup copy of the original workflow before your changes. Do so if you wish.
- Click the Publish button.
The workflow is now completely configured to use the Root Cause Analysis plugin to its full potential!