Automation to move parent (story) to match furthest back subtask status.

[Will Kniffin]

Hi all!

I'm trying to write a rule (or set of rules) to transition the parent of multiple subtasks to match the subtask in the furthest left status.

Example: there are 3 subtasks, two are in status C and one is in status A. User transitions the status A subtask from status A to B. The parent of those subtasks should be automatically transitioned from status A to B as well. 

Essentially, the status of the parent should always match the subtask with the least amount of progress (least progress on the workflow).

Thanks so much for any ideas on how to accomplish this!

[Mark Segall · Accepted solution]

Hi @Will Kniffin and welcome to the community!

You should be able to do something like this with If/Else conditions.  For the below example, I'm using a simple workflow of Open, In Progress, and Closed:

• TRIGGER: Issue Transitioned
• CONDITION: Issue Type = Sub-Task
• IF (Related Issues Condition)
  • JQL Issues

  • parent = {{issue.parent}} AND status = Open and status NOT IN ("In Progress", Closed)

  • Some match specified JQL
  • BRANCH (Parent)
    • CONDITION: Status Not Equal Open 
    • ACTION: Transition Issue To Open
• Else (Related Issues Condition)
  • JQL Issues

  • parent = {{issue.parent}} AND status = "In Progress" and status NOT IN (Open, Closed)

  • Some match specified JQL
  • BRANCH (Parent)
    • CONDITION: Status Not Equal In Progress 
    • ACTION: Transition Issue To In Progress
• Else (Related Issues Condition)
  • JQL Issues

  • parent = {{issue.parent}} AND status = Closed and status NOT IN (Open, "In Progress")

  • Some match specified JQL
  • BRANCH (Parent)
    • CONDITION: Status Not Equal Closed 
    • ACTION: Transition Issue To Closed

[Will Kniffin]

Thank you Mark! I modified slightly to get all subtasks (there are only ever 3 max) related to the parent in the JQL issues query, then used All match specified JQL rather than Some to check that all the other subtasks are either past or matching the status the issue was just transitioned to.

[Leon Lin]

@Mark Segall 

How are you able to do this part of your process:

Because when I try to do it, I am not sure how to do the above part. Please see my screenshot below:

Thanks!!

[Mark Segall]

In the related issues dropdown, change it to Parent.  Once you've created the branch component, you would nest the condition and action components within the branch.

[Leon Lin]

@Mark Segall  But from the screen above, I need to include some matching JQL code, what do I fill in there? Thanks.

[Mark Segall]

You won't need JQL if you change the Related Issues dropdown to Parent

[Leon Lin]

@Mark Segall 

Thanks for your comments. I am not sure if my below flow is correct. Mind taking a look at it? Thanks.

[Mark Segall]

Thanks for sharing the rule.  So the issue is that you have a single branch and then a bunch of serial components/actions.  The problem with this is that it will not process all conditions.  After it fails the first condition, it'll exit.  

To remedy this, you need to go with If/Else conditions which allow you to nest a branch component.  From my 9 August message, it would look something like this:

[Leon Lin]

@Mark Segall 

Thank you that helps a lot. Thanks again for you help.

[Will Kniffin]

Hi Leon!

In case you need another working example - here is what I went with which is working well:

this is just a snippet as it goes on through all of the statuses I have for my tickets.

Hopefully that helps you!