Forms - assign to a parent rather than backlog

[Nick Boemo]

I have been reading through the forums to find answers but nothing really hits the mark.

I am trying to create a form within JIRA for customers to raise requests - at the moment all of these requests go to backlog which isn't checked often during the sprint.

Is there a way to have it assigned to a Parent e.g. Customer Requests and all the items land in to-do?

[Germán Morales _ Hiera · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nick Boemo ,

Since this is a team-managed software space and you want the form-created work items to be linked to an Epic, I would treat this as setting the Parent field, not as moving something out of the backlog.

You could try an automation rule like this:

1. Trigger: Work item created, or Form submitted if that trigger is available in your site
2. Condition: match only the items created from that form, for example by form, label, summary pattern, or another field you control
3. Action: Edit work item
4. Set Parent to your Epic, for example CUSTOMER-123

One important distinction: linking the item to an Epic/Parent will not necessarily move it into the active sprint. In Scrum, the backlog/sprint location and the Epic/Parent relationship are separate concepts.

So if your goal is:

- “these requests should belong to this Epic” - set Parent
- “these requests should be visible to the team immediately” - consider a board filter, notification, dashboard, or triage queue
- “these requests should enter the active sprint” - be careful, because automatically adding new intake to an active sprint can affect sprint scope

For your case, I would start with Parent automation first, then decide separately how the team should review new requests during the sprint.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Nick Boemo 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

What type of Space does this concern? Click the ellipses button next to the Space name in the navigation panel on the left. What do the last two lines in the pop up say?

You mention that the requests end up "in the backlog", don't get considered in the current "sprint", that you want them assigned to a "Parent", and for them to land in "to-do". These statements seem to be conflating different concepts.

With a Scrum board you will have items in the Backlog or in Sprints. The Sprints may be Active sprints or Future Sprints. 

"Parent" is a term used to refer to work item hierarchy, such as an Epic is the Parent item for a Story. That concept is not necessarily related to backlogs and sprints.

"to-do" is usually a reference to a Status that is part of the workflow of an item, as in the item starts in the To Do status, then transitions to the In Progress status, and finally to the Done status.

Can you provide some annotated screen images to help illustrate what is currently happening versus what you want to happen? That might help us better understand what you are trying to achieve.

[Nick Boemo]

Hey Trudy,

Thank you! I am quite new to Jira so my apologies.
The last two items say software space - Team managed.

At the moment I work out of Board view and I have an Epic (i think purple lightning bolt)
When form submissions go through they appear in Backlog view under Backlog - ideally I'd like them to automatically link to the Epic?

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for that additional information.

Making the new items child issues of an Epic and their appearance in the Backlog screen are two different and unrelated items of functionality.

When you add a new item to a Software space that has a Scrum board, the items will appear in the Backlog. That is where all new items go so that during Backlog Grooming you can decide in which Sprint to schedule the items to be worked on.

Making an item a child of an Epic will not change the item's appearance in the backlog. However, if you want to do that then when you are creating the item in your Automation Rule you would set the Parent field to be the work item key (i.e. ABC-123) of the Epic.

If you can provide screen images showing your entire Automation Rule we can provide more specific advice about how to change it.

You said that you are new, but you did not say which of these concepts is new to you.

The Learning link at the top of the Community pages will take you to a site where you can find free, on-demand training available from Atlassian in addition to live training that is available. You may want to take advantage of that to learn more about the Jira application, Scrum boards, Agile practices, Work Item Hierarchy, and Automation Rules