Automating Task Start and Due Dates Relative to First Task Date

[Ida Ziegler Spedtsberg]

Hi everyone,

We're currently working on a project where each task's start and due dates need to follow specific intervals after the first task within the same issue or epic.

For instance, if the first task is set for a particular date, subsequent tasks should be scheduled every 10±4 days from that initial date.

I've explored previous threads on automating start and due dates, but haven't found a solution that fits our needs.

Thank you all in advance for your assistance!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Ida Ziegler Spedtsberg 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

How do you decide on the exact interval?

Can you walk us through and example of a set of tasks with specific dates for the first task and how you would set the dates for the subsequent tasks?

How many tasks will exist in the sequence?

[Ida Ziegler Spedtsberg]

Hello and Thank you! 

The interval is given in advance as part of the work process description why it cannot be changed.

Within an Epic:
The idea is that when the first task is set for a specific date, lets say Feb 8th, all following tasks (controls) will need to be conducted every 10 days ± 4 days. 

So we would like:

• the start date of the next task in line to be 6 days after (Feb 14th) 
• the due date to be 14 days after (Feb 22th) 
• the next task again should then come 20 days after the first date ± 4 days as well and so forth. 

For every Epic we will manualle change the date of the first task, and then it would be great if the rest of the dates would be filled in automatically.

We are currently solving this by putting the dates in manualle after we have the first date. But with 15-18 task following the first one, it is a time consuming process.
We know there will be at least 15 follwing tasks - all needed to be conducted at every 10th day ± 4 days. 

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm not quite understanding how you determine the start date and due date (or duration) of the subsequent tasks.

Is that information explicitly recorded in each task? Does the second task explicitly record that it needs to be started 6 days after the first one was started? And does it explicitly record somewhere that it will be due 14 day after its start date?

You would need to be able to code into the automation exactly what the delay is between the start dates and exactly what the duration is for each task. The Automation rule can't decode "± 4 days"

With this statement...

• the next task again should then come 20 days after the first date ± 4 days as well and so forth. 

...it sounds like the start dates of the subsequent tasks are all relative to the start date of the first task. Is that correct? Task #3 start date is relative to the start date of Task #1, not Task #2.

How do you identify which is the first task? Does it have a unique summary or some other value that is unique compared to the other tasks?

[Ida Ziegler Spedtsberg]

I determine them by the date of the first task: the beginning of the project process.
then the next task (control) should start 6 days after and be due latest 14 days after.
The start date will always be 10-4 days after the date of the first task. And the due date will always be 10+4 days for the next task. 

However, the following tasks need to be every 10 days (but have the same duration of 8 days with their start depending on the date of the first task).
So task 3 start date would need to be 20-4 days after the first task and the due date 20+4 days after the first task. 
Then task 4 would be 30 +-4 days after the first task etc.  
Tasks 2-15 should not be dependent on each other but ONLY dependent on the date of the first task. 

Task one is not specified anywhere except in the work-process description outside of Jira. I was hoping for a code that automatically would input the respective dates to the date of the first task. 

Yes, that is correctly understood. All tasks are relative to the first task. However still at the 10 days interval. so task 2 10 days after, task 3 20 days after, task 4 30 days after, and so forth. 

Currently, we can only separate the different tasks by name. perhaps I could input an ekstra variable for the first task to make it unique?