Date automation for Jira product discovery

[Paul Wijnen]

Not able to use automation for calculating project end date based on estimated hours and start date.

Seems that all possibilities for setting an project target date via automation are disabled, is this correct? 

I would like to set the target date via automation based on project start date and estimated hours,

[Robert DaSilva · Accepted solution]

Hi @Paul Wijnen , 

Are you able to share some screenshots that help to illustrate what you're trying to populate? I'm looking at my own Product Discovery space, and I'm not sure I am understanding what the "End Date" you're trying to populate is.

Is that a custom field you've added to the space?

Robert

[Paul Wijnen]

please see above, put the info in wrong field ;-)

[Robert DaSilva]

Hey @Paul Wijnen , thanks for sharing the details!

You should be able to populate that field with Automation, much like what @Hermance NDounga shared. I don't see "Project Target in any of my pre-built demo projects, so I assume that's a custom field you've created for your teams. 

From what you stated before, I'm going to assume that you cannot find the "Project Target" field when you're building an automation rule. Specifically, you cannot find this when you configure the "Edit Work" action.

What we can do instead is leverage the "Additional Fields" options as part of this action, and attempt to populate the field that way.

I'm going to make a few assumptions:

1. The Project Start date is where we want to start our calculation, and this custom field is a date field
2. The Project Target date is where we want to end, and this custom field is a date field
3. The Availability rate is a number field, with a whole number used to represent a percentage
4. The Dev Effort is the total estimated effort for the project, in hours
5. The math we are using is "<Project Start> + (<Dev Effort> * 100 / <Availability Rate>)"

What's strange is the Date field in Jira Product Discovery is actually two date fields, using the following format: {"start":"<DATE 1>", "end":"<DATE 2>"}

Here's how I would solve this.

1. In your automation rule, create an Edit Work Item action.
2. Under "More Options", expand the "Advanced Fields" menu.
3. Paste the following JSON (with adjusted customfield IDs) into the dialogue

{
"fields": {
"<PROJECT TARGET>": "{\"start\":\"{{<PROJECT START> .plusHours(<DEV EFFORT> * 100 / <AVAILABILITY RATE>)}}\",\"end\":\"{{<PROJECT START> .plusHours(<DEV EFFORT> * 100 / <AVAILABILITY RATE>)}}\"}"
}
}
--- or with the custom field IDs spoofed:
{
"fields": {
"customfield_10111": "{\"start\":\"{{issue.customfield_10222.plusHours(issue.customfield_10333 * 100 / issue.customfield_10444)}}\",\"end\":\"{{issue.customfield_10222.plusHours(issue.customfield_10333 * 100 / issue.customfield_10444)}}\"}"
}
}

That should do it! Give that a try and let me know how it's working.

Here's a screenshot of my example, without the more complicated maths.

Robert

[Robert DaSilva]

Okay, @Paul Wijnen , after some additional testing, here's my updated recommendation:

We should use multiple "Create Variable" entries to simplify the automation and JSON entry.

Create a "Create Variable" action to capture the current Project Start date.

We will use the substring command to pull the first date out of this entry. Let's call this variable "projectStart".

{{issue.customfield_10540.substring(10, 20)}}

Create a "Create Variable" action to capture the additional hours and availability rate math.

We will use the math command to calculate the new number of hours based on the Dev estimate, and the availability rate. Let's call this variable "addHours".

{{#math}}{{issue.customfield_devhours}} * 100 / {{issue.customfield_avail-rate}}{{/}}

Create a "Create Variable" action to capture the new Project Target date value.

We will use date math to add the number of hours to the start date, and then only keep the date itself (not the leftover hours). Let's call this variable "projectTarget".

{{projectStart.toDate.plusHours(addHours.asNumber)}}

Then, in the JSON for the edit, we can simply enter the variable instead of the long math additions.

{
"fields": {
"customfield_10539": "{\"start\":\"{{projectTarget}}\",\"end\":\"{{projectTarget}}\"}"
}
}

[Robert DaSilva]

On another thought, you could adjust the math and "add hours" actions to be focused on days instead, and then round up to ensure you're looking at the next whole day.

The math would become 

{{#math}}{{issue.customfield_devhours}} * 100 / {{issue.customfield_avail-rate}} / 24{{/}}

and the ".plusHours()" changes to ".plusDays({{addDays.round()}})" or ".plusDays({{addDays.ceil()}})". Round will round up using standard rounding logic, ceil will go to the next whole number, regardless of decimal. 

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-math-expressions/

[Hermance NDounga]

Hi Paul, 

Dates fields can be populated via automation, but you need to be aware of their specific formatting : https://support.atlassian.com/jira-product-discovery/docs/manage-automation-templates/ 

However, in your case, I don't think it would be possible to populate a date based on two other fields. 

[Robert DaSilva]

Hey @Hermance NDounga , these date fields should be able to be manipulated and calculated based on the existing date math that Automation is able to address, no?

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-date-and-time/#Date-plus-unit---

The JPD Date field is a little strange, and will need to be manually set via the JSON formatting I shared in my other response to this question.

[Hermance NDounga]

Hey Robert, 

I'm clearly no JSON nor math in automation expert, to be honest so I really thought that wasn't possible.. I'm so glad it is. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain how to set these up and helping the community ! 

Best Regards,
Hermance
Sr. Product Manager @ Jira Product Discovery

[Paul Wijnen]

Hi Robert, @Robert DaSilva 

What im trying to do is calculate the project target date based on the project start date, the development effort in hours and the availability rate (70% available capacity)