Increment count in Jira issue summary when automation runs

[Damien_R]

I've got a project where I charge the customer on a per 20 items basis. They basically buy packages of 20 items, but we deliver them one by one.

We want to create a template for this Epic delivery process.

So back in Jira, I'll create a new Epic for each item and it will contain the mention of ClientXYZ. It can happen at any time.

I would like to know if there is a way to keep the issue count in the Summary for an easier follow up of the global delivery.

Let’s say we created in the past:

• ClientXYZ 1/20

• ClientXYZ 2/20

• ClientXYZ 3/20

Then I would like to be able to create a new Epic for item 4 and have an automation triggered by the issue creation that can see that “ClientXYZ 3/20” exists, so it will create the new Epic with “ClientXYZ 4/20” in the Summary.

The “ClientXYZ” part being a specific common term to all issues in this project if easier to scan by the system.

When reaching 20/20, add a comment to notify the end of the batch.

And going further, be able to make it loop back to 1/20 when we reach 20/20.

How can we achieve that? Thanks :)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Hi Damien,

That sounds very clunky and not easily reportable to me.  Plus not easy to automate.

My standard advice is always "have as few custom fields as possible", but I think you have every good reason to add one or two here!

I would probably put a simple counter field on the Epic, and automate that.  It could be as simple as "count the linked stories". 

Then I might automate a check for "someone just (tried to) create issue 21 in this Epic, so you can get warned when people go over their 20, or even create the new Epic for them and tell the user to move story 21 to 1 in the new Epic, and close the old Epic. 

You would also be able to easily build reporting off this - my first instinct is a dashboard with a gadget on it that lists all open epics with their current number of links, but this is where a second field might be useful.  You could have a second field that is automated to look at the current number and show one of "none, low use, medium use, getting close to limit, and at limit". Although I would be more tempted to do that in the Epic workflow, having an automation that moves the Epic forwards every time they cross a threshold.

Ending an Epic (batch), yes, you can automate a comment, but with the suggestions above, an "at limit" status would do the job, and give you a trigger to create a new Epic for the customer.

If, for example, you did the field as a select list (with options 0-20), you could use it in a lot of gadgets.  With a filter for "issuetype = Epic and count != 20" (I'm assuming 20 means "end of Epic" and that you would do the one-line automation to close the epic), there are quite a few gadgets that would summarise your data without some poor human having to read each and every summary of every Epic.

TLDR: rewriting a summary is not as easy to code for as treating your Epics as discrete batches, and it is less reportable than you might think.