Assign epic link to child and linked issues

Question

Hi,

I am working in a project with a series of epics. Each epic has stories and those stories have child issues.

While organizing my tickets, I am sorting issues into epics and I'd like the epics that I assign to issues to be auto-assigned to child and linked issues if they don't already have an epic assigned.

I have tried to do this via automation but cannot trigger a rule by "epic link". Epic name only refers to the name of the epic ticket so it's not helping me.

Any clue how to make this work?

Thanks!

John Funk · Answer

@Kwasi Bowman  - Did you get this working for you?

Ste Wright · Answer

Hi @Kwasi Bowman

This might be possible - can I confirm how these issues are all linked together:

* An Epic has child stories (via Epic Link)
* Stories also have children - are these sub-tasks (which don't need an Epic parent) or issues linked to the Stories? If linked, what's the link type?
* Stories / Epics can also be linked to issues (i.e not via the hierarchy) - how are these issues linked?
* Rule: If you give Story 1 an Epic Link, you want Story 1's children / related issues to also have the same Epic Link applied, if Epic Link = Empty

------------------

In general, you can locate issues which have an Epic Link applied (as long as this is a Classic Project):

* Action: Issue Updated
* Condition: Advanced Compare Condition - {{issue.Epic Link}} (first value) does not equal (condition) - then leave "second value" as Empty

^ Then, utilise:

* Branches to locate the related/linked issues
* JQL Conditions to find issues without an Epic Link
* Edit Issue Actions to copy the Epic Link from the Trigger Issue

Note: Because this action is activated by issue updates - not just the addition of an Epic Link - it will run regularly. Keep these two things in mind:

* This means if Story 1 is a child of Epic 1 and is subsequently linked to Story 2, an update to Story 1 could trigger the addition of Epic 1 as the parent of Story 2 (if Epic Link = Empty)
* As this rule will be executing frequently, it is better placed at project-level. This is because global rules have limited executions per month, whilst project rules have virtually unlimited executions

------------------

Let me know if this is what you're looking for. If you need help with your specific rule, answer the queries above and I'd be happy to try and create instructions for you :)

Ste