Complex Automation with Clones, Copy Comments, and Field changes
I have utilized this community before to help me get to where I am now with this automation, but I've been banging my head against a wall for a while and I'm looking for more input. It's going to be long, so buckle up!
1. I will provide a screenshot of all the automations that have been built out so far, including ones that are not necessarily needed but have used to test with
2. I will layout each automation and the issue/s I am experiencing with each, if any
3. I'm hoping to determine if any of these will be able to be combined and/or if any of them are not possible or need to be modified
4. This is working in a Scrum project
The above are the list of automations being used. The Comment ones will be addressed last. The "Copy field values" is setup to copy specific fields that are changed in the Epic to also be changed in the Task that is created from it. So far, I have not experienced any issues with it, specifically, but there is one subsequent task from a separate automation that doesn't seem to be functioning the same.
The order in which these automations should be running is as follows:
1. Epic to Req Task: When an Epic is created, a Task is associated with it and appended with "Requirements" while also taking specific field changes made to that Epic.
The parameters between the branch and the final transition were recently added because the created Task included the Developer and Developer Points fields which should ONLY be the Analyst and Analyst Points fields. This is my attempt to make the field blank. It was working prior to adding any automations for attempting to copy comments. No errors occur as it is currently set.
2. Req to Dev Task: This automation creates a new Task upon completion of the previous "Requirements" task which is appended with "Development" as well as the Developer and Developer Points fields populated. All other fields do not change from what is entered in the Epic.
The last screenshot is my attempt to stop the automation steps if a Clone is created, so it does not continue once cloned. There are no errors in the Log.
3. Dev to Internal Testing Task: As the next step, this creates another Task once the previous one is completed with it appended with "Internal Testing" and the Analyst and Analyst Points being filled along with the others that are not changed from the Epic. There have been no errors since last tested.
4. Internal Testing to UAT: As the next step, this creates another Task once the previous one is completed with it appended with "User Acceptance Testing" and the Analyst and Analyst Points being filled along with the others that are not changed from the Epic.
***This is also the step where, if a specific field is selected, it will either continue to the UAT or skips it and goes directly to the Deploy stage. This process was working as expected with no errors when last tested.
5. UAT to Deploy Task: As the next step, this creates another Task once the previous one is completed with it appended with "Deploy to Production" and the Developer and Developer Points being filled along with the others that are not changed from the Epic. There have been no errors since last tested.
6. Incomplete Clone: This automation is used for any stage in the process that a Task is marked "Incomplete". A clone is created and moved to the next available Sprint.
A. Ideally this event should stop any subsequent automations in the process from being created when it is marked "Done". Currently, it does not.
B. This is also the step when I would like all comments copied from the original Task into the Clone and have been unsuccessful.
Errors have mostly come in the form of "Error adding comment to issue. Comment body can not be empty! (comment)" - which is not the case as I have made several comments to test. Best result was getting the "Author" and "Date" text to populate with nothing for the comments. The following are resources from the community that I have attempted in some form or another:
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Filtering-smart-value-lists/ba-p/1827588
That is everything. Whew! The biggest takeaways are stopping the automation from continuing once a Clone has been made and the comments getting copied into that Clone. If you need specific errors and/or have me run it from start to finish for log info please let me know. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk!
