Hey team, I have a few automation questions that I need some assistance with, if anyone can help, please. * In the first part, our dev team run through 3 statuses before passing it on to QA. The task will start off with being 'ready for development' (to do) > 'In development' (in progress) > 'Code Review' . Is there an easy automation that I can create to pre-fill the time tracking field for a story/bug based on the time spent between 'In development' > 'Code review' ? i.e time starts when the status is updated to 'in dev' and stops when it is then set to 'code review'. * The second part, we currently use 'original estimate' for each task, however, we're now required to use a new custom field for this, combined with another new field called 'actual story points'. To avoid any major impact to our workflow, is there an easy automation that I can create that updates our new field to 'match' our entry under he original estimate? I tried but could not find a field that matches 'Original Estimate'. * Lastly, (this may be answered by the above), I also need to create an automation that pre-fills the 'actual story points' field based on the time tracking value that is generated from my first question when the status is updated to 'done'. Sorry, lots of questions there, but I've tied my hand at the automation and cannot for the life of me, get anything to work.

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Automation Question

Allan Vaifale

Hey team,

I have a few automation questions that I need some assistance with, if anyone can help, please.

In the first part, our dev team run through 3 statuses before passing it on to QA.
The task will start off with being 'ready for development' (to do) > 'In development' (in progress) > 'Code Review' . Is there an easy automation that I can create to pre-fill the time tracking field for a story/bug based on the time spent between 'In development' > 'Code review' ? i.e time starts when the status is updated to 'in dev' and stops when it is then set to 'code review'.
The second part, we currently use 'original estimate' for each task, however, we're now required to use a new custom field for this, combined with another new field called 'actual story points'. To avoid any major impact to our workflow, is there an easy automation that I can create that updates our new field to 'match' our entry under he original estimate? I tried but could not find a field that matches 'Original Estimate'.
Lastly, (this may be answered by the above), I also need to create an automation that pre-fills the 'actual story points' field based on the time tracking value that is generated from my first question when the status is updated to 'done'.

Sorry, lots of questions there, but I've tied my hand at the automation and cannot for the life of me, get anything to work.

Accepted answers

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Allan Vaifale

First thing: for questions like this were you are trying to get rules to work, I suggest posting images of your rule, the audit log details showing the execution, and a description of what does not work as you expect. That will provide context for the community to offer ideas.

Next, when you are unclear if there is a smart value for a field, and the exact syntax for it, please try the information in this how-to article: https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/find-the-smart-value-for-a-field/

For your question #1, you could add custom fields to track the data/time of transitions (or call the REST API for the issue history) then then perform math or date/time operations to log the time. I would note caution doing this: are you certain that issues will not remain in a status longer than expected due to delays, such as overnights/weekends? Those could cause inflated values to be logged as work time.

For your question # 2, please try that how-to article to identify the correct smart values to use.

For your question # 3, first get your #1 and #2 cases to work, and then try this one again.

Kind regards,
Bill

All comments

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Allan Vaifale

For your question # 2, please try that how-to article to identify the correct smart values to use.

For your question # 3, first get your #1 and #2 cases to work, and then try this one again.

Kind regards,
Bill

Allan Vaifale

Hi @Bill Sheboy ,

Thank you so much for your reply and the tips for any future questions I may have.

I've made some minor progress with my automation rules.

So far, I have the below rule, which adds 'current date' to the 'start date' field as soon as the status for a task = 'In Development

My logic here is, if I have a start date stored somewhere, I could then use that as a starting point to pre-populate a value for time tracking.

Thus, I've created the following automation rule, where I want the system to look at the 'start date' and calculate the difference between that date and the date of when the task is updated from 'In dev' to 'Code Review'

The automation works, however, I can't seem to get the calculation right with the time logged. I've tried .seconds, .minutes, .days & .hours and I still can't get an accurate reading.

The below example task has a start date of 03/10/2022. The status for the task was changed to 'Code Review' on 06/10/2022, so I would've expected to see 3days logged in the time tracking, however, I instead got the below result.

Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong here, please?

Bill Sheboy

Two things to help...

The time tracking features use the system settings for working days and hours, so it can help to log as minutes and then let the system do the rest.

Next, when adding to timeSpent, the units of measure are required, such as minutes as "m".

So perhaps try this in the JSON expression:

"{{issue.Start date.diff(now).minutes}}m"

Allan Vaifale

Thanking you @Bill Sheboy

I've made your suggested changes but still no luck A lot better than 3minutes from my first trial run though

For context, our ''ideal day'' equates to 8hrs and the current workday setup looks like the below for this specific project:

Do you have any other suggestions on what I could try out, please?

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