is it possible to clone a bulk of Epics to create Initiatives ?

[Vani Jayanthi]

I would like to create Initiative's which is one level above Epics. I have about 150 Epic's that needs to be cloned as Initiative's. is it possible to do a bulk change so that i don't have to replicate and create each individual one ?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Vani Jayanthi 

Can you please clarify if you want to change the exiting Epics into Initiatives, or do you want to copy the existing Epics so that you end up with 150 Epics and 150 Initiatives?

Both are possible if you have sufficient permissions, but the steps are different.

[Vani Jayanthi]

I want to copy/clone the Epics into Initiatives which is one level above.

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for that clarification @Vani Jayanthi 

What is your level of access for this Jira system? Are you an end user only, the administrator of your project/space, or a Jira Application Administrator?

In what type of project/space are the Epics contained? You can get that information from the Type column on the View All Spaces page, or by clicking the ... button next to the Space name in the panel on the left and reviewing the last TWO lines in the pop-up.

Do you want to create the Initiatives in the same project/space where the Epics currently exist?

If not in the same project, what is the Space type of the space in which you want to create the Initiatives?

Can you confirm that you have access to manually create Initiatives in that project through the UI?

Can you formulate a filter that retrieves the Epics you want to clone?

Jira does not natively have a Bulk Clone feature available in the UI. This could be accomplished natively using an Automation Rule that executes a filter to retrieve the Epics and then steps through that list to clone each Epic. Automation Rules can always be created by Jira Administrators, and they may choose to enable Project Administrators to also make rules. If you are unfamiliar with Automation Rules and need more specific guidance, answers to the above questions will be necessary.

[Vani Jayanthi]

I have admin access to this jira space but I am not a Jira application administrator. I have the ability to create Initiatives as it has been enabled. For now i want all the initiatives to be created in the same jira space where the epics reside. I want to clone all the epics that's in this jira space to initiatives. hope this helps 

[Trudy Claspill]

If you go to the Space Settings for this space do you see an option for Automation? And if so, can you click on it and see a Create button in the upper right? And if you can do you get any kind of message indicating you cannot proceed, or does it appear to present an interface to let you continue with creating an Automation Rule?

Do you have familiarity with Automation Rule creation?

[Vani Jayanthi]

Yes I have the option to create Automation Rule in here. I have set up few automation rules for my jira project but will definitely take your help if you can guide me for this one. 

[Vani Jayanthi]

I get two options, create from scratch and use a template under 'Create Rule' under automation.

[Trudy Claspill]

Happy to help.

Do you want this cloning to happen on a recurring set schedule or do you want to execute the cloning on demand, or both?

The two types of rules (scheduled vs. on-demand/manual) would have slightly different structures.

[Vani Jayanthi]

On demand as it could be one time thing and might not be needed again. 

So my requirement currently is I have to clone all my currently existing Epics into Initiatives. And then I might not need this to run again. May be I can schedule it for once and one it's completed, I can turn off this rule. Not sure what is the right way, will take your guidance. Thanks

[Trudy Claspill]

Do you have Rovo available in your environment?

If so you can use the  Create With Rovo button.

You can then enter a prompt in natural language describing the type of rule you want to create. Here is an example:

Click the Preview Flow button. Rovo will attempt to create a matching Autaomation for you. It may not be entirely complete, but it should give you a starting point. Here is what I got. Note in my system what you call a Feature is an Epic, and what you call an Epic is an Initiative.

The trigger allows you to run the rule manually by selecting the rule when looking at an issue.

The next step is a For Related Issues branch where, in this case, a JQL statement is used to find the the items you want to clone.

The third step is going to clone each item found by the Branch, but we'll come back to that in a moment.

I happen to know that the For Related Work Items branch will exclude the issue you were looking at when you trigger the rule. So if this rule is triggered while viewing an Epic that one Epic would end up not getting cloned.

There are three ways to work around that.

1. Trigger the rule from some other type of work item than an Epic.
2. Check if the issue from which the rule was triggered is an Epic and add another action to clone the issue where you triggered.
3. Instead of using a For Related Work Items branch, a Lookup Issues action can be used to get the list of Epics and then an Advanced Branch can be used to clone each work item found by that action.

Let us first use work around #2.

Steps added outside of the For branch will operate against the item that is "in context" at that point, which is the work item from which the rule was triggered.

You want to first add a Condition to check if the work item "in context" is of the type that needs to be cloned.  If it is not, the steps that follow won't be executed.

You then add the Clone action.

You get some default options set in the action - the clone will create the same type of issue in the same project and will copy only the Summary. You will need to change the Work Item field to create the type of item you want to create through the Clone action.

Since only the Summary is copied you will need to use the Choose fields to set list to select the other fields you want to copy and set each one. For instance if you want to copy the Description field you would select that from the list.

For most fields you will find an option to set the value by COPY.

When you select that a default instruction is filled in about the source field you want to copy and where you want to copy that data from.

You will want to click on those default instructions so you get the pop-up allowing you to change them.

And you will want to click in the Issue to copy value from field and change that to Trigger work item for this Clone action. Then click the Close button.

You won't want to do that in the Clone action within the For Related Work items branch, but otherwise you will need to update the Clone action within the branch in the same manner - update the Issue Type and add the other fields you want to set in the item created during the Clone action.

You may find it useful to visit the Learning area of the community to go through the free, on-demand courses related to Jira Automation to learn more about it. There is a link to Learning at the tope of the Community pages and here is a sample search for finding those courses.

https://community.atlassian.com/learning/catalog?product=Jira&search=automation