Abstain Option

Owned by Yoonjeong Bae
Last updated: Aug 19, 2024
2 min read

What is Abstain option?

Abstain option allows approvers to express vote of abstention. If a user decides to abstain, this choice is considered neutral with respect to decisions made by other approvers.

If the other approvers agree, it will be considered as a silent approval. If they disagree, it will be considered as a rejection.

Abstain option can be used on…

  • User step

  • Group step

  • E-mail step

  • Issue field step

  • For action type : Approval & Consent

 

How to set Abstain option?

 

  1. You can navigate to Global Settings of Approval Path for Jira.

Abstain_0.png

  1. Navigate to Settings → General → Enable abstain action.

 

Abstain_1.png

  1. Now, from Definitions, you will be able to find ‘Allow Abstain Approval’ checkbox.

  1. Go to your issue and run your Approval definition. You can find ‘Abstain’ button and click.

 

Remarks

  • Abstain is treated as silent approval. So if all voters choose to be abstained, the final status will be updated as ‘Approved’

 

  • If ‘Allow Abstain’ is disabled either at the definition level or globally, the option is not available for approval steps.

 

 

Edge cases

 

From the following table below, you will find answers to specific situations related to abstain option.

 

Case 1

Case 2

 

Case 1

Case 2

 

Scenario

Group users step that contains 3 users

Number of votes required for group step to pass is 2

Number of votes required for group step to fail is 2

Group users step that contains 3 users

Number of votes required for group step to pass is 3

Number of votes required for group step to fail is 2

Given

First user approved, Second user rejected, Third user abstained

First user approved, Second user rejected, Third user abstained

 

 

 

Outcome

Step is marked as Approved

Step is marked as Rejected

 

 

  • "Abstain" is treated as silent approval.

 

  • Number of votes required for group step to pass is met. : 1 approve & 1 abstain >= 2 required votes to pass

 

  • Number of votes required for group step to pass is not met : 1 approval & 1 abstain < 3 required votes to pass

 

  • Next, the condition on the number of rejected votes is checked, number of votes required for group step to fail is met : 1 reject & 1 abstain >= 2 required votes to fail

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