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Jira Automation: Parent issue due date based on children issues due date

Dmitry Nekrasov

Hi guys,

I'd like to setup automation for my Epics' due dates based on the due dates of all issues inside these Epics.

I've found this thread and tried to repeat the same flow via Automation in Jira, but it doesn't work at all:
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Can-I-automatically-set-the-due-date-of-a-parent-issue-to-the/qaq-p/101813

What am I doing wrong?

Here in Documentation it's also mentioned, that I can use {{triggerIssue}} smart value, but everything stops working with it.
https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/smart-values-general/

Please, find a screenshot with my flow attached.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PcV_OGJ5rQw_pzNy4KKDjdHSUNW4yQ4P/view?usp=sharing

Also welcome for any other ideas how to setup that all.

Thanks.

Accepted answers

All comments

Mykenna Cepek

Hi Dmitry. You have some really good questions here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

The first thread you mentioned is a few years old. I contributed to it today, both updating it with new information (that might help you), and also to provide some additional warnings about the approach outlined there.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

The {{triggerIssue}} smart value should work, I use it often. I didn't see a screenshot in your original post, so I'm not sure what problem you have when you try to use it.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Back to your overall question though, it is currently quite challenging to set the "Due Date" in an Epic based on the Due Date of child issues. In my opinion, it should be easier. But the features available in Jira Automation as of right now make it much harder than it should be.

A question for you: do you want the Epic Due Date to be based on just the Stories, or on the Stories and any Sub-tasks?

As I noted earlier, it's nearly trivial to keep the Due Date of a Story in sync with all the Sub-tasks for that Story.

However, keeping an Epic Due Date in sync with all its child Stories is pretty challenging.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Before I write more, I'll let you respond to what I've written so far.

Dmitry Nekrasov

Hi @Mykenna Cepek , thanks for your reply.

I've attached the screenshot link in my post above, I'll duplicate it here also:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PcV_OGJ5rQw_pzNy4KKDjdHSUNW4yQ4P/view?usp=sharing

Answering your question:
- A question for you: do you want the Epic Due Date to be based on just the Stories, or on the Stories and any Sub-tasks?
- Yes, I'd like Epic Due Date be based on all children Stories, Tasks and Sub-tasks.
I've got the same automation already set up for Epic Status based on all statuses of children issues within this Epic.
It consists of 2 automation flows:
one for Stories Status based on Sub-tasks/Sub-bugs statuses,
and the 2nd for Epics based on Stories/Tasks statuses.
Please, take a look at these screenshots:
For Epics: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IraXhsTvM3aQ8PprITrSdiuV0ennJK7M/view?usp=sharing
For Stories/Tasks: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XcWnKyDIeLEiQ3P9R3qvhDN3B-LZU8wN/view?usp=sharing
So, I assumed I could set up the same automation flow for Due Dates, but it seems that the condition with {{triggerIssue}} doesn't work.

Dmitry Nekrasov

@Mykenna Cepek

Well, I've found my first mistake.

- Related Issues Condition module has to be inside the Epic branch.

Here is a screenshot:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hHjg59yQSf7XfoawFET_uCYffjC0ENYv/view?usp=sharing

But now I've got the next error:

JQL search failed for some issues. This is most likely because the JQL with smart-values was not valid for this query:"("cf[10008]" = SDJP-1 or (parent = SDJP-1 and issuetype in standardIssueTypes())) AND ('duedate' is EMPTY OR '2021-02-26' > 'duedate')" - Field '2021-02-26' does not exist or you do not have permission to view it.

Mykenna Cepek

Simply change your JQL from this:

{{triggerIssue.fields.duedate}}

To this:

{{triggerIssue.duedate}}

to eliminate that message. You don't need to use the .fields accessor in the smart value.

Mykenna Cepek

Several concerns for you to ponder and maybe address, based on what I see here...

As written, this rule will trigger for a "Due date" field change for any issue in any project. That's probably excessive, especially when I see the first conditional focusing in on just one project. Just want to ensure you understand that the trigger applies to all issues in the entire Jira instance that change based on the trigger settings -- moderated only by the projects that the rule might be set to under "Rule details".
Your second conditional combines Issue Types at two different levels of the Jira hierarchy: Story/Task/Bug (all at the "story level") and Sub-task/Sub-bug (at the "sub-task level"). It's important to realize that the parent relationships are different at different levels. For example:
- issue.parent only works when the issue is at the "sub-task level", allowing you to go from a Sub-task to its parent Story.
- You need to use issue.epic instead when the issue is at the "story level", and you want to go from a Story to its Epic.
The first two conditionals after the trigger act as filters, terminating the rule early when a condition fails for the triggered issue. Note those conditionals do not impact later JQL in the rule. So as written, your "Related issues condition" could access issues outside the SDJP project. Example: the triggered issue is an Epic in the SDJP project, but that epic has stories from other projects.

One reason you might see no action being taken, for example, is that the triggered issue was at the "sub-task level", and so the "For epic (parent)" branch won't do anything (because the parent of a Sub-task is a Story, not an Epic).

Adding some "Audit log" debugging can help you understand what's working and not working as you expect. I outlined some examples recently in this other post: