Seeking Help with Task Dependency Scheduling in Jira Work Management

Muhanned Shahada_8fatdw

Hello Atlassian Community,

I am looking for some guidance on managing task dependencies within Jira Work Management. Our company is currently on a standard plan and upgrading to a premium plan for Advanced Roadmaps is not feasible at the moment due to budget constraints.

Here's our scenario: We have two tasks, Task A and Task B. Task A blocks Task B, and we need to ensure that the completion date of Task A is always scheduled before the start date of Task B. We want this scheduling to be reflected in our project timeline automatically. We use Start and Due dates fields to control timelines. 

The Challenge: We need a solution that would allow us to maintain this dependency rule within our timelines without manual intervention. Since we are not able to use Advanced Roadmaps, we are looking for alternative methods or best practices within the standard Jira Work Management capabilities.

What we’ve considered:

• We thought about using Jira automation to notify team members when Task A’s due date is not before Task B’s start date. However, this still requires manual adjustment.
• We have also looked into the possibility of scripting or using the JQL conditions within automation rules, but we haven't found a solid solution that fits our needs.

My Question: Is there a way within Jira Work Management (standard plan) to automatically adjust the start and due dates of dependent tasks to reflect the correct order of operations? If not, what are the recommended best practices to ensure that the dependent task (Task is always scheduled to start only after the preceding task (Task A) is completed?

We appreciate any advice, workarounds, or insights the community can provide.

Hariharan Iyer_f6fx5m

Hi @Muhanned Shahada ,

This can be achieved using Automation rules. I've depicted an example below for when one issue is linked to another as a blocker.

 

Let's take a closer look at the individual steps.

1. The first step (trigger) is straightforward - when issue is linked and the link type is blocks

2. Then we create a variable with the value of this ticket's due date. Note that in this type of link, the issue that blocks the other one is the parent issue.

3. Then we create a "for each" component for all linked issues.

The "only include issues that have changed" can be selected in this case.

4. Here we have an if condition to ensure we only change the start date for issues for which this is less than or equal to the due date of the blocker

5. Finally, we set the start date of the issues that remain to one day after the due date of the blocker.

 

You may also need to create another rule where the trigger condition is a change in the Due Date of a ticket.

 

Hope that helps!