I’m working on setting up a bug tracking system in Jira and running into an issue with field requirements. I’ve created custom screens for different workflow states including “in progress” and “verified” transitions. The problem is that I can’t figure out how to make certain fields mandatory only during these specific workflow transitions.
When I try to set field requirements through the standard field configuration, those fields become required everywhere - even on the initial issue creation screen where they shouldn’t be needed yet. I need these fields to be optional when creating the bug report but mandatory when moving to “verified” status.
I’ve been experimenting with different screen schemes and field configurations but can’t seem to isolate the requirements to just the workflow screens. Is there a way to achieve this without using third-party plugins? Has anyone managed to set up conditional field requirements that only apply to specific workflow steps?
Field configuration schemes are probably what you’re missing here. Create separate field configurations for different contexts - one for creation and another for your verification workflow steps. The trick is mapping these configurations through the field configuration scheme based on issue types and then associating the right screens with your workflow transitions. I ran into this exact scenario when implementing our defect management process. What worked was creating a dedicated field configuration that marked verification fields as optional, then switching to a stricter configuration only for the verification transition screen. You can achieve this by editing the field configuration scheme and ensuring your workflow transition uses the correct screen that references the stricter field configuration. Takes some back-and-forth between workflow designer and field configuration settings but definitely doable without plugins.
You’ll want to configure this through workflow properties rather than field configurations. Navigate to your workflow editor and select the specific transition where you need the mandatory fields. In the transition properties, add validators for each field you want to require. The key property to set is jira.field.required with the field ID as the value. I had a similar setup for our QA process where testers needed to fill in resolution details before marking bugs as verified. The transition-level validation worked perfectly without affecting the create screen. Make sure you’re editing the workflow scheme that’s actually assigned to your project, not just any workflow with the same name - that caught me out initially and cost me some troubleshooting time.
totally get the struggle with jira! just a heads up, workflow validators are the way to go here. just set them for that transition and boom, your fields will only be enforced then. it’s a bit hidden in the settings but super helpful!