Custom statuses and workflows
An Aha! workflow is the set of statuses and transitions that a record such as an initiative, feature, or idea may move through during its lifecycle. You can configure a separate custom workflow for each workspace or team in your Aha! account, so that everyone's Aha! experience mirrors the way they work best.
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Permissions
Action | User permissions | Further reading |
Create, customize, and manage custom workflows | All products
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Apply custom workflows to workspaces or teams | Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Ideas
Aha! Develop
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Custom workflow types
Every Aha! product includes custom workflows, but not all products have the same custom workflows available. Here are the custom fields included with each product. If you have added multiple products (or plan add-ons) to your Aha! account, this list may expand for your account.
Aha! Roadmaps types
Goals
Initiatives
Releases / Schedules
Epics
Features / Activities
Requirements
Ideas
Aha! Ideas types
Ideas
Aha! Develop types
Parking lots
Epics
Features
Requirements
Add a custom workflow
To add a custom workflow, navigate to Settings ⚙️ Account Statuses and workflows.
Click the Add workflow button to create a new workflow.
Click the Set defaults button to set default workflows.
Use the Workflow type dropdown to filter the list of existing workflows.
When you click the Add workflow button, you can select which type of record workflow you wish to customize. If you want to create a custom workflow from scratch, select Simple example. If you want to use a prebuilt one, select it from the list of example workflows, then click Create workflow to create your workflow.
You can customize your workflow once you have created it. Update the Name of the workflow and add an optional Description.
Next, select whether your workflow will be flexible or fixed.
Flexible workflows allow users to skip steps in the workflow and do not support approval gates. They are best suited for workflows that do not follow the same steps in the same order every time — drafting a go-to-market blog post for a content marketing team, for example, with a variable number of reviews depending on the post's content.
Fixed workflows do not allow users to skip workflow steps and support approval gates. They are best suited for workflows that need to be consistent, like a product development initiative that needs regulatory and financial approval before implementation can begin.
Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Ideas customers who choose a fixed workflow will also see the option to Restrict approval changes. When selected, only administrators with customization permissions will be allowed to edit or delete approval to-dos created by the workflow.
Set default workflows
You can set a default workflow, by record type (and for Aha! Roadmaps users, by workspace type), by clicking Set defaults.
From the modal, select the workflows you want to be the default for each record type (and for Aha! Roadmaps users, workspace type).
For Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Develop users, requirements and epics both use Feature workflows. You can create separate feature workflows for each record type, or use one workflow for all three.
Once set, the workflows you select will be the default workflows. Workspace and team owners can change the default workflows for their workspaces or teams if they need to.
Add custom statuses
You may want the names of your custom statuses to map to the statuses used in tools you have integrated with or terminology unique to your company or team needs.
There are two ways to add custom statuses. You can edit the workflow's example statuses to reflect your processes. Or you can delete the example statuses and create new ones by clicking Add status.
Choose status categories
Status categories in your Aha! account help you automate certain displays and actions.
When you add a new status or edit an existing status, you will be able to choose the status category that best matches. You can have multiple custom statuses that have the same status category. For example, Design and Development statuses might both be part of the In progress status category. If the status does not match one of the category options, leave it blank.
Here are a few tips for choosing status categories for your Aha! product:
Aha! Roadmaps tips
Ideas:
When a user adds a new idea, the idea defaults to the first status that has not been assigned to a status category. These appear in order from top to bottom — you can drag statuses to reorder.
Promoting an idea to a feature will automatically change the idea status to the first custom status in the status category In progress.
Only statuses that are in a status category will be published to or trigger email notifications from public and private ideas portals.
Shipping a feature triggers the idea status to change to the first status in the status category Shipped. Note: If you do not have a status category of Shipped in your release workflow, shipping the release will revert the release to the first status in the category Not started.
Features and shipped releases:
When a release is shipped, all features with statuses not in the categories Done, Shipped, or Will not do will be moved to another release.
Any features with statuses in the category Done will be changed to Shipped.
If you do not have a status category of Shipped in your release workflow, shipping the release will revert the release to the first status in the category Not started.
Requirements and their parent features:
If any requirement has a status in the category of In progress, then the feature status will change to In Progress.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Done, then the feature status will change to Done.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Shipped, then the feature status will change to Shipped.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Will not implement, then the feature status will change to Will not do.
Aha! Ideas tips
Ideas:
When a user adds a new idea, the idea defaults to the first status that has not been assigned to a status category. These appear in order from top to bottom — you can drag statuses to reorder.
Only statuses that are in a status category will be published to or trigger email notifications from public and private ideas portals.
Shipping a feature triggers the idea status to change to the first status in the status category Shipped. Note: If you do not have a status category of Shipped in your release workflow, shipping the release will revert the release to the first status in the category Not started.
Aha! Develop tips
Requirements and their parent features:
If any requirement has a status in the category of In progress, then the feature status will change to In Progress.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Done, then the feature status will change to Done.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Shipped, then the feature status will change to Shipped.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Will not implement, then the feature status will change to Will not do.
Customize record types
Your team commits to different types of work, and even if that work needs to follow the same workflow, you might need different record descriptions for each type. Features that document new functionality, for example, need to capture different information than a standard bug report.
You can standardize these types of work with Custom types. For example, if you track both research and process work in features in your workspace, you can customize your feature workflow to include a Research type feature and Process type feature. Each type can have its own description template.
You can only customize record types for features, requirements, and epics.
While customizing your workflow, scroll down to the Custom types section at the bottom of the page.
Click Add type to add a new custom record type. Hover over an existing custom record and click its Edit button to edit a custom record type.
Enter or edit the custom record type's Name.
Enter details into the record template field. What you enter here will be populated by default in the record's description when the record type is selected. This is a great place to put any reminders for the record's creator when the record type is selected. For example, if you are customizing a feature type that represents a specific task, you can enter a checklist, user story, or any information that is relevant to the work it represents.
Set transition buttons
Transition buttons help Aha! account users follow a predefined workflow. To add transitions between two statuses, click the + icon in the Transition buttons column beneath the first status. Then you can choose how the statuses should flow and add a name for the transition button.
Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Ideas users can add approval gates to their transitions — so that a record will need formal approval before it can move to the next status.
The name of the transition appears on the button for moving between states, so choose an action phrase, such as Start designing. It is also helpful to acknowledge the completion of a step in your flow, such as Review completed.
Apply a custom workflow to a workspace or team
The last step in setting up a custom workflow is to apply it to a workspace or team. Workspace and team owners can do this by navigating to Settings ⚙️ Workspace / Team Configure. This is true for all workflow types except ideas.
Changes to a workflow are applied immediately and affect existing records.
If you change the workflow for a record type in Settings ⚙️ Workspace / Team Configure, it will change the statuses for all records in that workspace or team. This cannot be undone.
Remember, you can also set default workflows at the account level. To do this, navigate to Settings ⚙️ Account Configure statuses and workflows and click the Set defaults button at the top of the page. Then whenever someone creates a new workspace or team in your Aha! account, your default workflows will be applied.
Newly updated default workflows are only applied to newly created workspaces or teams. They are not applied to existing ones, which you must update individually.
