Transition sibling issues using Automation for JIRA

Question

Is it possible to create transitions for sibling issues using Automation for JIRA? I have a Dev subtask and a QA subtask that are children of a parent story. I want the QA subtask to move to Ready for QA when the Dev subtask moves to Complete status. I've tried playing around with all the different options provided but I'm unable to find a solution to this problem. I have defined custom subtask types called Development and QA for this, so I can use that information if necessary.

Gil_2dvf2c · Answer

Hi @Swaroop Rao

I had an exact same issue. I wanted that same rule you are referring to.

I was able to do so only if the QA sub-task and Dev sub-task had a pre-set title.

I would either use labels or the titles to make a condition based on JQL that filters for the sub-task title or label, and then transition the QA subtask.

However, after much experimenting, I have decided to change our workflow and that solved the majority of the processes and automation problems.

QA test the entire Story, while developers deal with the sub-tasks.

Once all sub-tasks are closed, then the story transition to Ready to Test and the QA will review all sub-tasks and collected info on the Jira Story and they will report issues on the story using story-bugs (sub-task issue type).

The only exception is that we introduced QA R&D sub-task where the QA has to learn enough about the story under development to come up with test ideas, test setup and data prior to having the story ready to test.

While my post is not directly solving the problem you're facing, I wanted to share my experience with you because I had the exact same problem. My exprimentation with the problem you're now facing, led me to change how we do things and that solved more problems for us, then automation for Jira could.

Anyway, just food for thought.

Swaroop Rao · Answer

Thank you, Petter, for that good suggestion. By a very strange coincidence, I implemented the exact same idea a few days ago. However, I found that, for some strange reason, it doesn't work. When I complete the Dev task, the first rule fires and completes successfully according to the Audit Log. It says that the new custom field was edited successfully. But, the second rule doesn't seem to get triggered at all. So, I wrote a small Python script to get the value of the new custom field from the parent story and found that the field doesn't seem to have been set at all. I'm not sure how I can troubleshoot/debug what's happening or what is causing the field to be not set in the parent story even though the first rule is apparently successful. Thanks in advance for any further help/pointers you can provide.

Petter Gonçalves · Answer

Hello Swaroop,

Thank you for reaching out.

I understand that when a Dev subtask is transitioned to Complete status, you want the QA sub-task that is added under the same parent issue to be transitioned to "Ready for QA" using Automation for JIRA. Is it correct?

If I understood it well, you can use the Parent issue to intermediate this change. Allow me to better explain it:

1 - You can create a rule to update a field in the parent issue once the Dev sub-task is transitioned to Complete Status, removing the field from your issue view to avoid the field to be updated by other users:

2 - Then, create a second rule to transition the QA Sub-task as soon as its parent custom field is updated:

3 - Finally, you must navigate to the second rule (Rule Details) you created and allow it to be triggered by another rule:

Let me know if this information helps.