Show me the list of the issues with the greatest number of "Blocks" type issue links

Question

I'm looking for a way to automatically count or visualise blockers which are holding up multiple issues. Basically a frequency chart which would show the most common blockers. There doesn't seem to be a suitable widget on dashboards, could I do this via JQL filters?

Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Answer

What I suggested, could still work, because it collects the number of blocked issues in a custom field. And, it is a custom field like any other, so you can search for it and order by it in standard JQL filters.

(If you want a query that works out of the box as answer, then there is no such, because OOB Jira does not collect the information you want to query for.)

Zara Johnson · Answer

Thanks Aaron, I've amended the question for clarity.

Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Answer

You haven't mentioned how you express the "block" concept, but I guess you are using an issue link type dedicated to this, for example the one called "Blocks".

If so, then the question can be rephrased like this: show me the list of the issues with the greatest number of "Blocks" type outgoing issue links!

Unfortunately, using the built-in features you cannot "count" issue links of a given type. If you used ScriptRunner, I am quite sure that you can introduce a "Number" type custom field to store the number of outgoing "Blocks" type issue links. Then you just need to get a list sorted by this field's value descending.

Actually, you could also do this with Better Excel Exporter's calculated field feature and sorting in Excel. It should be fairly easy.

Or, Automation for Jira may also help, I am not sure.