nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Auto-notify blocker assignees when tickets are open > 3 month

Timi Falusi

I'm looking to improve visibility on tickets with long-standing blockers.

Scenario:

Parent tickets remain open 3+ months because they have linked blocker tickets
Need to proactively notify the blocker assignee

Goal: Create an automation that comments on the parent ticket mentioning the blocker assignee, like:

"@Adam Bob - ABC-123 is blocking this ticket and has been open for 90+ days"

Questions:

Can I query linked issues (specifically "is blocked by" link type) in an automation trigger?
Can automation mention/tag the blocker's assignee in the comment?

Accepted answers

All comments

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Timi Falusi

First thing, what do you mean by "has been open for 90+ days"? For example, perhaps work items which are in progress that long?

If you started with the blocked items, ignoring the parent, you could use JQL to find them:

project = myProject
AND workItemLinkType = blocks
AND statusCategory = "In Progress"
AND NOT status CHANGED AFTER -90d
 ORDER BY Key ASC

A check to only note items with an Assignee and Parent work item could be added to the JQL, as needed.

If this was used with the Lookup Work Items action, the distinct parent's could be found, and then a single comment with mentions added to it for the linked, blocking work items and their assignees using an advanced branch over the parent keys.

Kind regards,
Bill

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @Timi Falusi

Yes, and Yes.

If you can formulate a JQL statement that would retrieve the desired issues you can use that in a rule.

You can use the linkedWorkItems() JQL function.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/jql-functions/#linkedWorkItems--

The exact structure of the rule would take some additional exploration of your use case, as you want to look for Epics that meet your criteria, but also pull data from a subset of issues linked to those Epics.

And, it is possible to mention a user in a comment. You may have to take some extra steps to get the assignee of the linked issue.

A question I would have for you is how will you know that the blocked issue has been open for 90+ days specifically because of the blocking issue?

Timi Falusi

I don't need to know if it's because of the blocking issue.

In Jira Scirpt runner;
issuefunction in linkedIssuesOf("project in (USIM, FXIM, CAIM, USFIM, IM, EUIM, AUIM) and issuetype not in (task, story) and status != closed", "is blocked by") AND status not in (closed, resolved) ORDER BY created ASC

It shows me all open issues that are currently blocking some other open, non‑task/non‑story issue in one of the IM projects sorted from oldest to newest.

So, I want for the open issues in one of the IM projects for the ones older than 90 days for automation to mention/tag the blocker's assignee in the comment?

Timi Falusi

I want the automation to get the assignee of open issues that are currently blocking some other open, non‑task/non‑story issue in one of the IM projects that have been open longer than 90 days.

This in Jira Scirpt runner gets all the blockers;
issuefunction in linkedIssuesOf("project in (USIM, FXIM, CAIM, USFIM, IM, EUIM, AUIM) and issuetype not in (task, story) and status != closed", "is blocked by") AND status not in (closed, resolved) ORDER BY created ASC

Trudy P Claspill

What is the range on the number of issues you are getting from that filter?

Does this concern Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center?

A general rule structure that might work would be as follows:

TRIGGER: Scheduled
-- Run a JQL
-- Provide the JQL you have
-- Uncheck the box that says get only issues that have changed since the last rule execution

FOR EACH: Related Issue/JQL
(iterates over the list of issues from the trigger
 getting the list of IM project issues it blocks) 
-- JQL: issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf("key={{issue.key}}", "blocks") and
        project in (USIM, FXIM, CAIM, USFIM, IM, EUIM, AUIM) and 
        issuetype not in (task, story) and
        status != close and
        created < (-90d)
  -- ACTION: Comment Issue
    Content: [~accountId:{{triggerIssue.assignee}}] - {{triggerIssue.key}} is blocking this ticket and has been open for 90+ days

The caveat here is that there a limitations on the number of issues that can be retrieved with a JQL and the number of issues overall, including through branching) that can be processed within a rule.

Also, there may be differences in functionality within Automation Rules between Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center

Timi Falusi

It gets 123 issues.
I'm not sure if it concerns Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center, how do I know?

Bill Sheboy

@Trudy P Claspill is helping you already with a specific rule approach, so let's stay with that thread for now. I will add suggestions to that one as needed. Thanks!

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Timi Falusi

Just following up to check if one of the suggestions answered your question. If so, please consider marking that one as "answered". That will help others with a similar need find solutions faster. If not, please let the community know what help you need.

Thanks!

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Quick Links

Find more posts tagged with

jira

automation

assignee

block