Problem

In Jira Service Management projects that use approval steps, when an administrator edits the approval configuration (for example, changing "everyone must approve" to "one of" or changing the approval status) while issues are already in an approval status:

• Some in‑progress approvals record the approver's decision (e.g. "Approved" in the Approvals panel),
• But the configured approval transition is not triggered, so the issue remains in the "Waiting for approval" status,
• There is no warning or indication during workflow/approval changes that existing issues in an active approval step may be affected,
• Administrators and agents only discover the problem when they notice stuck issues, and must then manually transition them.

This behaviour can also affect multiple issues that were already in an approval status at the time of the configuration change, leaving them in an inconsistent and non‑obvious state.

Suggested Solution

Introduce robust handling for in‑progress approvals when approval configurations are modified, including:

1. Admin warnings on change
   • When an admin edits approval settings (e.g., approval rule, approver field, status, or transitions) for a workflow step that currently has issues in that approval status, show a clear warning such as:
     • "There are X issues currently in this approval step. Changing this configuration may affect how their approvals are processed."
   • Provide a link or filter to view the impacted issues (e.g., a pre‑built JQL search for that status).
2. Configurable behaviour for in‑progress approvals
   Allow admins to choose what happens to existing issues when an approval configuration changes, for example:
   • Option A - Keep existing behaviour (current default)
     • Existing issues keep using the old approval context, new issues use the new configuration.
   • Option B - Rebuild approval context
     • Existing issues in the affected approval status are forced to re‑enter the approval step under the new configuration (e.g., by automatically resetting the approval state and re‑creating the approval requirement).
   • Option C - Assisted manual remediation
     • Provide an admin tool or bulk action to:
       • List all issues currently in the affected approval status,
       • Show whether they have an approval recorded but no transition,
       • Offer a bulk "apply approval transition" or "reset approval step" action.

1. Clear UI indicators on affected issues
   For issues where the approval decision is recorded but the auto‑transition has not fired (e.g., Approvals panel = Approved, but status still "Waiting for approval"):
   • Show a visible warning banner on the issue, e.g.:
     • "This issue's approval configuration has changed since the approval was started. The automatic transition may not have run as expected."
   • Provide a one‑click action (admin/agent‑only) to:
     • Apply the configured "approved" transition, or
     • Reset and re‑enter the approval step with the current configuration.

Why This Is Important

• Business‑critical processes get stuck silently
  Approvals are often used for critical flows (e.g., hardware orders, access approvals, financial approvals). When an approver sees "Approved" and the requester sees that the approver has approved, everyone assumes the process has moved on. If the status silently remains in "Waiting for approval" because of a mid‑flight configuration change, the process is effectively blocked without anyone noticing.
• Inconsistent and confusing user experience
  Different issues in the same project and same approval step can behave differently depending on whether they entered the step before or after a configuration change. This inconsistency:
  • Confuses agents and approvers ("Why did this one move and that one did not?"),
  • Erodes trust in the approval system.

Workaround

Until the product supports better handling of in‑progress approvals on configuration change, administrators can use the following operational workarounds in a generic Jira Service Management project (e.g., PROJ):

1. Identify potentially affected issues
   • Use a JQL filter to find issues currently sitting in approval statuses such as:
   • Manually open these issues and check the Approvals panel to see if:
     • The approval is shown as Approved, but
     • The issue status is still in a "Waiting for approval..." state.

1. Manually trigger the approval transition
   • For issues where the Approvals panel shows Approved but the status did not move:
     • From the agent view, run the configured approval transition manually (e.g., a transition like "Manager approved" that should move the issue to the next status).
   • This realigns the workflow status with the recorded approval and unblocks the process.