Twist on a sample Automation rule

[donhames]

I like the Jira automation rule in the Template library called "Sum up story points when the field value changes," which updates the Parent's story points when a child issue changes or updates its story point value. I have it running Globally, and it works great, at least for the issues that changed AFTER the rule was turned on. There are thousands of Epics with no story points, even though the child issues have a story point value.

To clean up the existing Epics that need their child issue story points summed up and stored in its story point field. I thought it would be a simple variation of the running rule instead of triggering the automation of an issue story field value changing and summing it up to the parent Epic. It has turned out to be more challenging than I expected, so I thought I would check with the Community to see if anyone has already solved this rule construction.

The rule should be manually triggered; run a JQL query that finds all the Epics without story points. Then, sum the child issue story points and replace the Epic's story points with the new sum. So it will work from the Epic down when the Template rule works from the child issue up.

Many thanks, as always. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Whoever solves this gets an extra helping of turkey and dressing tomorrow. :)

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @donhames 

I don't see that template when I view the automation rule templates, my answer doesn't take any of that rule into consideration.

This is how I would handle it:

TRIGGER: Scheduled Trigger
  - JQL: issueType = Epic and <your story points field in Epics> is empty
  - uncheck the "only include" box
ACTION: Lookup Issues
  - JQL: Parent={{issue.key}}
ACTION: Edit Issue
  - Field: <your story points field in Epics> 
  - Value: {{lookupIssues.<your story points field in issues>.sum}} 

Note, though, that there is a limit on the number of issues that can be processed in a single run of an automation rule. Look at the information on the Automation Limits page:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/automation-service-limits/

Specifically look at the Issues Searched and Associated Items for a Rule limits. You may need to change the JQL in the trigger to constrain it to one project at a time.

Also note that the Lookup Issues action is limited to returning 100 issues. If you have individual Epics with more than 100 issues then this rule will not get the right sum value.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @donhames 

Adding to Trudy's advice about checking for service limits...

If you really want to update thousands of issues this way, I recommend pausing and reading this notice about the change to the automation packaging model and limits for rule execution: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/cloud-automation-packaging-update

Then do a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation for how many rule executions this update will take and compare that to your limits.  Even with a Premium license level, you could use up your limit if you do not have enough licensed users.  And that would halt your other rule executions for the rest of the month.

Although I expect this type of rule doing bulk updates will probably hit the execution time limit first.

Kind regards,
Bill

[donhames]

@Trudy Claspill

Trudy, your suggestion worked great! I did cut it down into small runs to keep from being throttled by Atlassian, but on the next to the last run, I was throttled for 12 hours. So, thank you for your quick and right-on-the-money response.

You made the solution so simple I'm a little embarrassed for not being able to figure it out. :)

Does Atlassian think 60 minutes per 12 hours is an acceptable

 limit for an Enterprise 2,500-user Cloud instance? Is there a way to get this adjusted? I realize that now, I am running more than usual to get all our issues set, and then I have the other rule that will update a change on a single issue. Just curious what you think.

Thanks again!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @donhames 

I don't have any special insights into what Atlassian was thinking when they set the limits.

I'm not aware of any way to get the limits changed, but you could open a support ticket directly with Atlassian to ask that question:

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

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