Hi - automation rules help: with issue 'On Hold' monitor status change on linked issues blocked by

[Jonathan Parsons]

In a Sprint or on Backlog for an issue that is 'On Hold' how can I use automation to look at its linked issues 'Blocked By' / 'Depends On' and check and notify me when the status of those linked issues changes?

The linked issues may or may not be in my project; and the rule is not triggered by 'Issue created' or 'Issue linked'

SO I can't work out if this can be one rule or several; and also (tried without success) what is the trigger to check the status of the linked issues for the issue that is 'On Hold' i.e. is it

• When: Field Value Changed
• When: Issue linked Types: Blocks, Dependent
• When: Scheduled
• or something other? 

I'm also unclear how I would trigger a check for when all the linked issues 'Blocked By' / 'Depends On' are 'Done'; and then branch and transition the issue that is 'On Hold' to 'To Do', set a priority, assign it and notify individuals that this issue is available/unblocked.

I had thought that this might involve the action Manage Watchers but then realised that just adds a user to the issue 'on hold'

I have looked and tried various patterns from this prior community question but still can't fathom it out https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Automation-of-Blocked-Linked-Issue-Notifications-and-Transitions/qaq-p/1778074 

Sorry being very new to JIRA Automation I watched/read and searched for ways to do this; and having tried lots of different paths (such as comparing keys etc), but I'm just getting myself confused. Not least with relationship between usage of the Branch For Linked Issue and For Destination issue (can't find a simple example anywhere obvious) 

Use Case:

• In sprint or in [product] backlog
• Issue Foo1 (my project key) has status On Hold (with one or more linked issues)
  • Is blocked by linked issue Foo2 (other project key)
  • depends on linked issue Foo3 (my project key)
  • Notify when Foo2 and/or Foo3 status changes
• When all linked issues 'blocked by' or 'depends on' have been themselves transitioned to Done; then
  • Notify assignees that Foo1 is no longer blocked 
  • Transition Foo1 to 'To Do' and set priority etc.

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Jonathan Parsons and welcome to the community!

First thing on this is that you would need a multi-project scope in your rule definition so you want to create the rule from global automations:

instance.atlassian.net/jira/settings/automation

Here's a rule I set up that should do the trick... You'll need to add your depends on link type, but this should get the job done:

[Jonathan Parsons]

HI @Mark Segall thank you for your quick response to my query and much appreciated suggested rule trigger, actions, conditions. Really helped me understand 'how' some of these work in conjunction with each other.

I created the rule as per the steps you outlined above replacing the trigger "When: Issue transitioned to 'Done'" with a manual trigger to test the steps; and I also tested with linked issue being only in my project too.

However I noticed that the rule would only work when manually triggered as an Rule Execution on the issue Foo2 itself.

When I run the rule manually on Foo1, where I would expect the automation to look at each linked ticket on Foo1 itself the rule automation status is 'no action changed'

However if I manually run the rule on Foo2, then the rule status is 'success' and Foo1 has been transitioned to 'To Do'. Same outcome goes when I added other linked tickets to Foo1 alongside Foo2, such as Foo3, Foo4 etc.

I had assumed that the logic would be driven from the rule being executed against Foo1; and hence traversing any linked issues on Foo1 and applying the rule conditions as such to Foo2 or Foo3 etc. etc. ?

Is the above happening because I have replaced the trigger with a manual one for testing please? 

Issue Foo1 (my project key) has status On Hold (with one or more linked issues)

• Is blocked by linked issue Foo2 (either my project key or 'other' project key)
• Notify when Foo2 status changes

• When all linked issues on Foo1 which have status 'blocked by' i.e. Foo2, have been themselves transitioned to Done; then
  • Notify assignees that Foo1 is no longer blocked 
  • Transition Foo1 to 'To Do' and set priority etc.

[Mark Segall]

Hi @Jonathan Parsons - Did you make sure that your scope and projects were set on the Rule Details screen (see the first screenshot I shared in my original response)?  If you created the rule against Foo2, it will only work on Foo2 by default. 

You'll need to ensure the scope is for either multiple projects or all projects and if the former is set, then the Projects field will need to be set to include all relevant projects.

[Jonathan Parsons]

Hi @Mark Segall

Apologies for my late response only I am dependent on a central team to create Global Rules. This has now been done and having tested the rule in our Sandbox its now working across a test sample set of multiple projects. :)

Your help on this has been much appreciated. Thank you