Automatically sync Kanban board position to custom field for ranking and sorting

[Alexander Ziegltrum]

Hello Community,

We want to map the position of issues on our project's Kanban/Backlog board to a ranking system. This project organizes Change Projects by its priority. The Team responsible for the board want to be able to have a simple option to sort and therefore prioritize projects by its rank in a list view.

So if you move an issue (which represents a Project) it becomes the number 1 project. Rearranging other issues must be reflected with a number in a customfield.

• Issues at the top get rank 1, below that rank 2, 3, 4, etc.
• This rank number should be stored in a custom field (Number field)
• We want to use this field to sort and display priority across our workflow

In the end, the rank of a project will be synced to all linked issues in other jira projects, where Dev-Teams organize their work according to the given priority of the Project.

Thank you for your thoughts on this and if someone had similar requirements and how you solved it.

Cheers, Alex

[Alexander Ziegltrum · Accepted solution]

To all interested in this, there is a solution, to put a priorization value in a customfield based on how a user ranks an issue.

It involves a Jira filter, a Jira automation and an automation platform, here: n8n.

Here is a short description.

First, you need a Jira filter, that filters on the Jira Project and the relevant issues (like based on status e.g.). Let's call the result of this filter for the purpose of this description "backlog".

Second, you need an automation that catches each update on the issues of interest. In that automation you narrow down on the issuetype and take the Rank into account, so that the executions of the automation is on the most possible minimum. The automation calls a webhook at n8n.

Third, you need an n8n workflow, with a couple nodes. If the n8n webhook gets triggered, there are two branches executed. 

Branch 1: Fetches all issues from the backlog filter, assigns each issue its rank position (1, 2, 3...), and writes it to the field – but only if the value actually changed.

Branch 2: Fetches all issues not in the backlog that still have a project priority set, and clears the field.

This makes the backlog rank (priorization value) usable in JQL, reports, and automations.

With that implementation, a user can move issues on a Board or in a Plan (Advanced Roadmap) higher or lower and the prio value is set based on the rank of the issue.

At the time of this post n8n has a downside though that matters to us. You can`t use an Atlassian Service account in the designated Jira credential yet. You must go with the Basic Authentication. This is relevant, since otherwise you wouldn't need to have the Jira automation to execute the n8n webook. n8n would actually be triggered by the designated Jira credential, which would be a considerable simplification.

If anyone is more interested, let me know. I am happy to give more detailed information.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Alexander Ziegltrum 

This is not possible based on moving the issue on the board.

Moving issues on a board from bottom to top or the other ways around is not an action the can be used in an automation to set a custom field with a value.

Issues on a board in a space (project) are based on rank already, this is based on their position on the board.

You can create a custom field for all issues and base swim lanes on the board on this field values.

Then when the number field on an work type of "project" changes or gets set you can have an automation that updates this field to all linked issues.

[Alexander Ziegltrum]

Hi Marc,

thanks for your thoughts. I am not sure, what you mean by

"you can create a custom field for all issues and base swim lanes on the board on this field values."

Then when the number field on an work type of "project" changes or gets set you can have an automation that updates this field to all linked issues.

Would you mind explaining that a bit more?

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Alexander Ziegltrum 

You can create a custom field in Jira of type number.

This field can only contain numbers.

Then create an automation rule that triggers if the value of this field changes, with condition that the issue is type "project"

Then add a branch in the rule that all linked issues are updated with this same value.

[Alexander Ziegltrum]

Hi Marc,

thanks for your thoughts. I am not sure, what you mean by

"you can create a custom field for all issues and base swim lanes on the board on this field values."

Then when the number field on an work type of "project" changes or gets set you can have an automation that updates this field to all linked issues.

 Would you mind explaining that a bit more?