Automations for child issues

[Briana Fitzpatrick]

We have a ticket format that we use for hiring. Multiple people are responsible for different child issues within the ticket. I would like to make automations for the child issues that when one child issue is complete, it will notify the next person responsible for the next batch of child issues via email.

I know this type of automation is easy to do with tickets in general, but is there a way to do it for specific child issues? The automation template doesn't make it clear if the trigger will only occur for the child issue I have open.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Briana Fitzpatrick 

Which template are you viewing?

How are you identifying that issues are children of another issue? Are you using Epics and child issues? Are you using issues and subtasks?

How do you identify the order of the child issues?

[Briana Fitzpatrick]

Great questions!

The automation template I am viewing is when an issue is updated, send an email. My hope is to use this for when the previous child issue is updated, send an email to notify the next person that they can begin working on their tasks.

How we have it set-up is as a ticket (no-epic) and then when we begin the hiring process we clone that ticket and the child issues within it. Then we begin going through the child issues one by one. This ticket is not linked to other tickets, so all the child issues are housed in that one ticket.

The order of child issues organized chronologically so my thought was to set the automation for the last child issue assigned to someone so when that's updated it notifies the next person.

[Trudy Claspill]

To confirm, the "child" issues in this case are subtasks, correct?

You said "The order of child issues organized chronologically". Do you mean that you have dragged and dropped the child issues to organize them chronologically?

Do you have any data in the child issues that indicate the order in which they should be completed, such as Due dates, or creation of links between the child issues?

[Briana Fitzpatrick]

@Trudy Claspill yes the child issues act as subtasks and we have dragged and dropped the child issues to organize them chronologically.

There are no due dates/creation of links between child issues because we us this ticket and child issues as a template, so when we get ready to hire a new candidate, we clone this ticket and everything in it, then begin to assign the subtasks/child issues to the people who are responsible for them.

My hope is to set up the automation in the template ticket so that when it is cloned, the automations are cloned as well and then we can proceed with assignments.

I did not set up this ticket template so I don't know much about why it was designed this way.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Briana,

The trick is coding the rule so that it knows which subtask is "next".

When you drag and drop the subtasks into an order under their parent issue you are Ranking the subtasks.

If the subtasks have to be completed linearly from top to bottom, and they are actually completed in that manner, then you could use a rule like this:

(1) is selecting all the subtask's "siblings" that are not already in a "done" status. Ordering them by RANK asc puts them in the same order as they appear when you look at them in the parent issue.

(2) is a branch to operate against just the first issue in that list of siblings. If the subtasks are being set to a "done" status in order, then that is the "next" subtask in the list after the one that triggered this rule.

(3) I used a Log action here, but you would insert a Send Email action here to notify the Assignee of that "next" subtask.

[Briana Fitzpatrick]

Thank you! This visual and your explanation was very helpful!

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm glad I could help.

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