Jira automation Round robin, How to exclude User?

Question

I have an automation that listens to assignee change events. If a specific user is assigned it reassigns the issue to another user from a round robin user list.

Now the problem is that the specific user on which a reassignment is triggered is also in the round robin list.

This will lead to the case that round robin will come eventually to that user and tries to assign it which then fails with "Issue was already assigned to current user".

Is there a way to exclude that user from the round robin? My end result should always be that this specific user is no longer assigned.

This is a stripped down example to show the core problem that i have. Imagine the whole scenario were you want to assign a user of a group if a certain user is assigned to an issue... but also assume that the user to avoid is in the user group to choose replacements from

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Sandro Herrmann -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

For a question like this, context is important for the community to help.  Please post the following:

* an image of your complete automation rule in a single image for continuity
* images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches
* an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution

Until we see those...

This is a long-standing problem, related to other false-positive automation assignment errors.

One possible workaround is to perform a re-assignment, although that depends upon your rule structure.  The key parts are:

* trigger: some trigger...
* action: use a created variable action to save the current assignee
* action: clear the current assignee value
* action: re-fetch the work item data
* action: assign, using round-robin
* action: re-fetch the work item data
* smart values condition: compare the saved assignee to the to the current one, only proceeding if they match
* action: assign again, using round-robin

The second round-robin assignment should respect the rule's tracking of the last-used-assignee to give it to another person...with no need to alter the list of possible assignees for assignment.

Kind regards,
Bill

Christos Markoulatos -Relational- · Answer

Hey @Sandro Herrmann Welcome

Store the user list in a smart value (or use a Lookup Table) and filter it with a condition like {{user.accountId}} != "accountIdToExclude" before picking the next assignee. For example, if you’re using {{#list}} or {{lookupTable}}, apply a conditional branch or use {{list.remove("accountIdToExclude")}} so the rotation never includes that user.

Haven't tried it but i believe it should work!