Importing work items in Jira Product Discovery from Jira Software project backlog

Nelson Nittala

Hi. Doing a POC with Jira Product Discovery (JPD). We have 100+ features in a jira software project backlog that are in To Do status.  I am using wizard to import features to JPD.  I can link JPD work items to Features in Software project backlog, but it doesnt show under Delivery tab in JPD.  

I am able to use Delivery tab manually to link and create a new work item, but not able to do using import wizard.  I can use automation if there is a way to populate linked items under Delivery tab.  Please help.  Thanks.

Christos Markoulatos -Relational-

Hi @Nelson Nittala 

To my knowledge this is just how the Delivery tab behaves, so it's not something you've set up wrong. From what I understand, the tab only shows one particular relationship, the delivery link, which turns up as the implements and is implemented by pair. When you go through the import wizard you tend to get an ordinary linked issue instead, and I suspect the wizard applies a fixed link direction, so what lands is either a generic link or the reversed version of the delivery link, and neither of those is what the tab reads. That would explain why manual linking works fine, since doing it by hand creates the proper delivery link for you.

The automation route you mentioned should do the trick here. I'd build a rule scoped over your ideas that takes each linked Feature, creates the delivery link between the idea and that Feature, and then removes the original generic link, and the Feature should show up in the Delivery tab. One thing worth knowing, as far as I know linking through the Delivery tab doesn't fire the issue linked trigger, so I wouldn't base the rule on a link created event. A Scheduled trigger, or a Manual one you run once over the selected ideas, should let it sweep all 100 plus in one go, and then you can just turn it off again.

If you'd sooner fix it at import time, the pattern I'd try is a two step import. Import the ideas first so they get their keys, then run a second import of just the links from the idea side, mapping a column to the delivery link with the value set to each Feature key. I suspect importing from the Feature side is what produces the reversed link that misses the tab, so the side you import from does seem to matter. Also, if the wizard offers some Discovery datapoint style link option, I'd steer clear of it, since to my knowledge that creates insights rather than delivery tickets. And rather than trusting the Delivery progress field to tell you it worked, I'd just open the idea and check the Feature actually shows under Delivery, as that field can lag a bit.

Whichever way you go, I'd test it on three or four ideas and confirm they land in the Delivery tab before running the whole batch, because the link direction is the easy thing to get backwards. And if the wizard won't let you pick the delivery link type, the generic link plus automation approach is probably your safest bet.

Hope this helps!