Updating start and due date on a parent from its subtasks

Giorgos Kavvadias

Hello there,

I am currently having my own structure of issues which looks like above:

|-Epic
|--- Level 1 (type of story)
|------ Level 2 (type of subtask)

What I wish to do, is to update the start and due dates at level 1 based on the dates of level 2 subtasks.
More specifically, I wish to have as start date at level 1 the earliest start date of subtasks at level 2, and as due date at level 1 the latest due date of subtasks at level 2.
Is this something doable?

In addition, would the change be huge if in a next step I would like to do the same in the level of an epic using the dates of level 1 tasks?

I have already read this post: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Jira-Automation-Parent-issue-due-date-based-on-children-issues/qaq-p/1592692 but I cannot say it was clear enough to me, since I am new at automation.

Note: I am using the cloud version

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Giorgos Kavvadias -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You can do this with automation for Jira (A4J), and what may help is to read a bit about A4J and look at some example rules first.  That will give you context before creating your rule(s).

So first, please take a look here:

• https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/expand-jira/automation
• https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library#/
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Jira-Automation-all-the-resources-you-need-in-one-page/ba-p/1388465

Next, for your specific use case: you will want to define what you want to happen when dates change.  For example, what happens when the dates get cleared versus updated? 

Once you decide the edge and test cases, you can build a rule.  Perhaps something like this for your Level 2 -> Level 3 layer, which uses searches on the sub-tasks (Level 3) to get the min/max dates.  This example assumes no blank dates, so consider how to handle those.

• trigger: start date or due date change
• condition: issue type is your Level 3
• action: lookup issues with JQL to find all Level 3 issues with the same parent as the trigger issue, ordered by the Start Date ascending
• branch: on JQL for the earliest Start Date, key = {{lookupIssues.key.first}}
  • action: create a variable to save the {{issue.Start Date}}
• action: lookup issues with JQL to find all Level 3 issues with the same parent as the trigger issue, ordered by the Due Date ascending
• branch: on JQL for the latest Due Date, key = {{lookupIssues.key.last}}
  • action: create another variable to save the {{issue.dueDate}}
• branch: on the parent of the trigger issue
  • action: edit start date and due date to the created variables

This example handles dates moving earlier or later.  If you only expect Start Date to get earlier and Due Date to only get later, the rule can be made much simpler.

Making a rule for your Level 1 (epic) to Level 2 would be similar.  At this time, I do not believe it is possible to do both in one rule as branches cannot be nested.

Best regards,
Bill