The initial issue state is the first state assigned to a bug, enhancement, or documentation issue when it is submitted by a member of a given group. Different groups can have different initial states for the same type of issue. Moreover, within a group each issue type, bug, enhancement, and documentation issue, can have a different initial state.
For example, you might assign a software bug submitted by members of the Development group to an initial state of Dev-Ready because you assume that developers can accurately assess what is actually a software bug. On the other hand, you might assign a software bug submitted by members of the Corporate group to an initial state of Unreviewed because you might want to first verify that the issue is truly a new bug before sending it on to Development to be fixed.
Issue Manager provides a number of default states for you to choose from. You can also create your own issue states before you set up the groups in your organization.
Although initial issue states apply to every member of a group, you can explicitly override these settings for a given user.