Why is the behavior of bi-directional sync of date fields (released in 10.91) inconsistent?

[Diane Raber]

In preparation for adopting the bi-directional sync of date fields, the following scenarios where tested. In each scenario, the date field always pushed to the other system, with the exception of scenario 2. Is that intentional? If so, why?

Scenario 1: Feature has dates / Jira Epic does not / Update Jira Epic

In this scenario the JA feature has date values, the Jira Epic does not. I applied a label to the Jira Epic issue. When information synced from Jira to Jira Align, the dates in the JA Feature issue were removed (set to blank).

Scenario 2: Jira Epic has dates / Feature does not / Update the Feature

In this scenario, the Jira Epic issue has date values, the Jira Align Feature does not. I updated the description in the Jira Align Feature. When information synced from Jira Align to Jira, the dates on the Jira Epic issue were not removed, i.e. they were retained.

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Extending this to scenarios where both systems have dates...

Scenario 3: Feature and Jira Epic have dates / Jira Epic updated first after implementing this change request

Immediately after implementing this change request, if both the Feature AND the Jira Epic have different date values and the Jira Epic is updated first... The date values from the Jira Epic will be applied to the Jira Align Feature.

Scenario 4: Feature and Jira Epic have dates / Feature updated first after implementing this change request

Immediately after implementing this change request, if both the Feature AND the Jira Epic have different date values and the Feature is updated first... The date values from the Jira Align Feature will be applied to the Jira Epic issue.

[Mark Cruth · Accepted solution]

Hi @Diane Raber!

Great question! My thought here is that in scenario 2, Jira Align is intentionally keeping the dates to avoid wiping out dates for customers if they had been using dates in Jira prior and nothing is populated in Jira Align. I'm curious...if you had the same setup as scenario 2 (no dates in Jira Align, date in Jira) and updated the Jira description (vs the Jira Align description), do the dates sync over? 

I do think this is worth submitting a support ticket to request clarification / potentially call out a bug. Here's the support link: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/

Mark

[Diane Raber]

Will do, thanks Mark!