Automation - How to have Jira Service Management send a Slack message when on-call responder changes

Question

We have set up an on-call schedule in Jira Service Management and would like to notify our users whenever the on-call person changes (either due to the schedule or if someone manually takes the role in JSM).  I have tried setting up a trigger, but I cannot get {{oncall}} as a smart value in any of the fields.  I'll have to get the associated ID to satisfy GDPR requirements, presumably through something like {{oncall.accountId}}, but I need the field value to watch.  Thus far, the documentation has failed me.  All I want to do is trigger a Slack message that says "{{oncall.responder}} is now the on-call engineer." in one of my Slack channels.

Antonio M_ Ferreira · Answer

@Bill Sheboy

Thanks for checking in.  Here's what I've learned.  Apparently, you can do something like this in Opsgenie, but not directly through JSM.

Historically, our "customers" (all internal) have asked for help in a dedicated Slack channel.  When I joined the organization, I got JSM up and running.  The customers are used to knowing who the on-call person is (via a notification in the Slack channel). I wanted to automate sending that Slack message whenever the on-call schedule is updated in JSM.  For example, the on-call person last week took a couple of PTO days and the goal would be to update the on-call schedule in JSM and send a message to Slack so our customers are aware of the change.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Antonio M_ Ferreira

Just checking in to learn what you heard from the Atlassian Support on this one.

Thanks!

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Antonio M_ Ferreira -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Just to confirm, you want to contact *all customers* using Slack when the next person in the on-call rotation takes over?

What problem are you trying to solve by doing that?  That is, "why do this?"

When one of your customers creates an issue (e.g., a service request), they will get notified by whatever processes you have defined.  But preemptively telling customers the on-call person may lead customers not use JSM to create an issue, and instead use other communication methods that neither track the issue nor use appropriate intake, triage, etc. processes.  That will make work less manageable and reduce the value of using a tool like JSM.

I did a quick check in the REST API and did not see a way to identify the current, on-call user for a JSM project.  As Jira Automation uses the REST API to do things, what you ask may not be possible with automation rules.

Just to confirm this, perhaps work with your Jira Site Admin to contact Atlassian Support (if you are using a paid license): https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Kind regards,
Bill