Issue Template Using Automation

[#1]

Hi Community,

I’d like to discuss an exciting opportunity for improvement regarding Issue Templates in JIRA.

As we review one of the longstanding feature requests, JRACLOUD-7731 - Issue Templates, along with various community posts, it's evident that many of us face repetitive work items. We have three potential solutions to tackle this:

1. Add-ons
2. Automation
3. REST API

While add-ons may introduce additional costs, and using the REST API can add complexity for administrators, I believe that leveraging Automation could be the simplest and most effective solution. This approach not only streamlines the creation of work items but also keeps admins informed about any changes to templates.

To implement Automation effectively, I recommend the following steps:

1. Develop a template work item that will serve as the basis for cloning.

2. Create Automation that allows for the cloning of these work items, restricted to JIRA admins for execution.

The rule creates EPICs and children from the Template work item and can be used for other work types as well. The rule Cloning Template issue is exposed to Jira administrators only and needs to be run manually.

3. Set up an Automation notification system to alert JIRA admins whenever there are changes to the template.

I hope this is useful for the Community. 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Waqas Mahboob -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Thank you for your post.  Here are some suggestions to improve the article and the shown rules:

First thing: all of the solutions noted (marketplace apps, automation rules, and REST API endpoints) may add complexity and introduce additional costs, subject to the customer's licensing levels.  Perhaps first chatting with one's Product Admin will help identify which solutions to try.

Next, the Delay() action is only available for Premium and Enterprise license levels.  When using automation features for higher license levels, please disclose that at the start of your post.

Next, in the Create Work Item action for your first rule, not all fields / values can be directly copied from another work item as you show.  Some need to be copied using advanced edit expressions with JSON, while others cannot be copied directly with rules due to the version of the REST API endpoints used.  Instead, the later versions of the endpoints must be called directly with the Send Web Request action, as described in this article.  Others cannot be copied at all as they are from third party, marketplace apps...potentially requiring use of the vendor's REST API endpoints.  Putting all those together, it may be better to use the Clone Work Item action before using the create one.

Next, for your "canary" rule to detect changes to the template work item, the updates to the work item could be caused from another automation rule.  Thus, the rule's details should enable the option to allow that: 

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.

Finally, also for your "canary" rule, a issue-updated event is only one of the possible things which could impact the template work item. Thus, multiple other rules and triggers are required to detect changes to the template.  These include, but are not limited to:

1. When the template work item is edited (i.e., the shown rule)
2. When the template work item is assigned to someone
3. When the template work item is status transitioned
4. When the template work item is archived
5. When the template work item is moved to another project
6. When the template work item is deleted
7. When Atlassian has an outage impacting automation rules, there is no documentation / guarantees of exactly which events / rules will run later to "catch up".  A mitigation for that would be an additional scheduled trigger rule (or filter subscription) which detects changes to the template over time.
8. When the site exceeds automation service limits, rules may halt running, and thus the "canary" rules may not detect changes to the template.  The scheduled trigger rule (or filter subscription) noted in #7 above may also mitigate this case by checking later for template changes.
9. And, possible special case rules for when the work item type is changed for the template
10. and so on...

Thanks again for your article and being a member of the Atlassian support team!

Kind regards,
Bill

[Waqas Mahboob]

Thank you for your valuable insights, Bill. I appreciate your advice and have carefully considered your points and agree with them.

I’m pleased to report that the rule functions well without adding delays. However, I plan to further streamline my test site to the free/standard version in the upcoming article.

The article was thoughtfully designed around a "Simple First" philosophy. While advanced configurations are available, the community can enhance or adapt them into more complex versions tailored to their specific needs by utilising Web API calls, advanced editing, etc

Thank you again for your great feedback!