Automation trigger not firing when field is auto-filled from linked issues

[Lissa Radman]

I've built an automation rule in Jira Product Discovery that updates the "Target Delivery Quarter" field based on changes to the "Targeted Delivery Date" field. The Target Delivery Quarter is used as our column value for the board's roadmap view to visualize by quarter.

Current Setup:

• Automation calculates the quarter based on the Targeted Delivery Date
• Targeted Delivery Date is configured to auto-fill based on linked delivery work items' due dates (using JPD's auto-fill functionality)
• Goal: reduce multiple manual updates for PMs
• I used this community article to help build out my automation

Issue: The automation triggers successfully when the Targeted Delivery Date is manually updated, but it does not trigger when the Targeted Delivery Date is auto-filled after a linked work item's due date changes.

Question: Is this a known limitation with the "field value changed" trigger when the value updates through auto-fill rather than direct manual input? Are there any workarounds to make the automation respond to auto-filled field changes?

Any insights or alternative approaches would be appreciated!

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Lissa Radman 

Without seeing the details of your complete rule and audit log...

How is "the Targeted Delivery Date is auto-filled after a linked work item's due date changes" accomplished?

If you are setting the field using another automation rule, your "downstream" rule to set the quarter needs to enable this option in the details at the top:

Check to allow other rule actions to trigger this rule. Only enable this if you need this rule to execute in response to another rule.

By default, this option is disabled to prevent accidental, runaway rule looping.  But, when you intentionally want the actions of one rule to trigger another, enable the option.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Lissa Radman]

Great question @Bill Sheboy ! I'm using the 'built in' functionality of JPD at the field level. I don't have a unique automation rule to reference the Due Date.






The start of my automation looks like the image below. Based on my Audit's log, it only triggers when the date is manually changed. There are no audit logs created when the due date at the Epic level is updated. 

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for that information, @Lissa Radman as it explains the cause...

For JPD auto-filled and formula fields, the value is only shown in the UX and is not actually stored in the Idea.  Thus, JQL, automation rules, etc. cannot "see" the field value.

Worse still: if the field had a value before it was changed to auto-fill or formula, that old value will be used in things like automation rules!

I do not know know if the JPD team plans to change this behavior to actually store the calculated values.  Perhaps someone from that team will comment on any roadmap items to do so.

On to workarounds...

• You could disable the auto-fill, and use a different automation rule to populate the "Targeted Delivery" date.  That will certainly require additional automation usage and a multiple project (or global) scope rule...which your Jira Product Admin will need to help with.
• You could duplicate the logic of the auto-fill in your current rule.  To do that, your rule would use the Lookup Work Items action with JQL to gather the linked delivery work items, and then get the maximum due date with {{lookupIssues.duedate.max}}  Again, this will require a multiple-project (or global) scoped rule to access the issues in the lookup.  This approach also has the risk of the auto-fill configuration and rule getting out of synch, such as if you changed to use a different source than the Due Date.

[Lissa Radman]

@Bill Sheboy Thank you for such a detailed answer! I'll try your suggested work arounds. I'll accept your answer.

Ideally, this isn't just a UX value but an actual stored value. It's a great idea to have to roll up to limit duplication of input but feels like it's only partially solving/ creating more problem by it only be a UX value.