Automation - Linking Epic to Initiative when parent doesn't exist

[Nikki Hylton]

Is there a way to automate epics so that if they do not have a parent initiative, they are automatically assigned? We will always only have one initiative per project, and want epics to be automatically assigned to that initiative in case that step is missed. 

We have this so far, but we need a way to automate the initiative ID, rather than hard coding it like we have here, "CST-8"

Resources used so far: 

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/advanced-field-editing-using-json/#Linking-issues

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-issues/

[Mark Segall · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nikki Hylton - If you're looking to get the initiative dynamically, you could do something like this...

Just before your Edit Issues Action, add a Lookup Issues action

issueType = Initiative

For good measure, you probably want to make sure that there is only one Initiative so you could add an advanced condition of:

{{lookupIssues.size}}
Equals
1

Replace CST-8 in your Edit issues action with this:

{{lookupIssues}}

[Nikki Hylton]

Exactly what we needed - thanks so much!

[Nikki Hylton]

Hi @Mark Segall - thanks again for your help before! This worked perfectly within a project, but now we're trying to make a global rule across all projects. We have a global rule in place which is now searching for Initiative across all projects... so we'd like to modify it to lookup the Initiative in the same project  where the issue (epic) is being created. Any ideas?

Thanks again,

Nikki

[Mark Segall]

Yes, following the same assumption that there is one and only one initiative per project, you would change your lookup issues action to this:

project = {{issue.project}} and issueType = Initiative

[Nikki Hylton]

Hi @Mark Segall,

Thank you! We tried that but it throws this error: 

[Mark Segall]

Maybe try this instead:

project = {{issue.project.key}} and issueType = Initiative

[Nikki Hylton]

That did it- thanks so much!

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Does the single initiative for the project live within that project or in it's own project? Is there anything in the initiate that identify which project it belongs to? If the answer is yes to either of these questions you could use the lookup issues action to get the issue key for the initiative and then add it to the epic.

[Nikki Hylton]

The single initiative lives within that project. Lookup function worked - thank you!!

Nikki

[Rodolfo So]

Hi @Nikki Hylton 

Can you share screenshot with your automation rule for this?

Thanks

Rod

[Nikki Hylton]

Hi @Rodolfo So ! Here is how our automation is set up. We renamed initiative to “Project Level (Do not use)” and the custom field mentioned is the parent link.