How can I enforce mandatory issue linkages in Jira to ensure users always link issues correctly?

Question

How can I enforce mandatory issue linkages in Jira to ensure users always link issues correctly? For example, linking "BPH" to "Requirements," "Requirements" to "TIDIPS & Deliverables," and "TIDIPS" to specific deliverables like FD, TD etc. Jira’s native functionality doesn’t offer this, so are there plugins or automation solutions (like Jira Automation, ScriptRunner) that can help enforce these linkages and block transitions until the required links are in place?

Lucas Knorr · Answer

Hi @isaiarasi.meiyalagan

it is really easy to configure this with the plugin Issue Picker for Jira.
You can use a custom field to determine which issue should be linked and which link type should be used. The linking can be done with the app permissions, so that you can remove the permission to create links from the users in the permission scheme. This gives you complete control over the linking behavior.

Aron Gombas _Midori_ · Answer

@isaiarasi.meiyalagan The popular JMWE app can enforce issue linking in the form of custom workflow conditions and validators!

See:

*  https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/JMWEC/pages/466226242/Linked+Issues+Condition
* https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/JMWEC/pages/466323119/Linked+Issues+Validator

Florian Bonniec · Answer

Hi @isaiarasi.meiyalagan

To configure the context, so, this type should be link to this type using the link type Y, you could get around with Extended Schemes for Jira | Atlassian Marketplace

The issue with behaviors is that it do not affect the More > link option, only the Issue link on the screen so it cannot be use to enforce this.

You could leverage both, Behavior and a Listener from Scriptrunner. Use Behaviour to define the logic and listener as guardrails, deleting links that do not match the business logic and adding a warning or automatically replacing te link type if it's wrong.

In term of make sure it's fill in, I do not know how you could do that. Issue Link field set as required will only works if you need to use just 1 link type.

You could also create a Script Field Issue Picker to allow the user to select the issue and then in the background using a Listener, read this field and create the link.

There was an app that was doing that easyLink, but it's no longer supported so not future proof.

Regards