Is it possible to force a user to update a remaining time estimate in a workflow transition?

Question

Hi there community ✌🏼

we have a printing data production team. They get their daily jobs as Jira issues. When they finished their job (issue) they put in in a "Review" state, where the job is getting reviewed by a project manager. The project manager then decides whether a correction of the data is needed. If so, he pushes the issue back to status "In Progress".

Currently, the value of remaining time estimate stays the same and is shown in the transition screen. The project manager should really adjust the remaining time estimate now, but often forgets to do so.

>> Now we're coming to the core question:
Is it possible to force a user to change / update the remaining time estimate field on transition?

One idea we came up was to create a separate custom field (e.g. "New time") on the transition screen to fetch the new user input. In a post function the value of the "new time" field will overwrite the "remaining estimate time" field.

Any more elegant ideas?

Thanks for your help!

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Thats also an option

jbo_47mouh · Answer

The time tracking fields are handled differently by Jira, so the usual native "Field has been modified" validator does not work with them.

We were able to make it work with the following Scriptrunner validator:

issue.originalEstimate != null &&
originalIssue.originalEstimate != null &&
issue.originalEstimate != originalIssue.originalEstimate

This validates that the field original estimate can not be empty and that the new value can not be the same as the old value. The transition is possible only after entering a different value, otherwise it will be blocked.

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Marvin Brand

A standard "field required" validator won't work because Remaining Estimate isn't empty; it already has a value.

Try use the Field has been modified validator on your transition screen to force an update. If that validator doesn't support time tracking in your workflow, make a temporary custom field (like "Corr Estimate") required on the screen, then use a post-function to copy its value over. Avoid using automation alone, as it cannot block the transition if the user ignores the field.

Best,

Arkadiusz🤠