Automation to Track WIP

[Fred]

I'd like to count issues:

WHEN an issue transitions to In Progress

AND there are more than 8 issues already In Progress (count these)

THEN send a message 

Should I be using this?

{{lookupIssues.size}} greater than 8

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Fred 

I cannot tell if you are on Server/Data Center or Cloud version, so...

Lookup Issues will work for Cloud version, so your check on the size can work with the JQL you supply.

For Server/Data Center, you may want to try a scheduled rule instead so you can check on {{issues.size}}

And regarding WIP measures, we also use automation to track Age of WIP.  Here is a how-to for that rule.

Best regards,

Bill

[Bill Sheboy]

Gotcha; Please try a rule like this to send a message when issues are moved into progress.

• Trigger: issue transitioned, selecting all of your in-progress status values for To Status
• Action: LookupIssues on JQL, inserting your project name

project = myProject AND statusCategory = "In Progress"

• Advanced Compare Condition: {{lookupIssues.size|0} is greater than 7
• Action: send an email... or post a slack message... or...

Please note: by design JQL lookups inside of rules exclude the trigger issue, so I lowered the condition value to 7 for the condition test.

[Fred]

Amazing! This works perfectly, and it gives me a whole new avenue to explore.

[Bill Sheboy]

Fred, I am glad to hear that helped. 

Here is a related suggestion for improving WIP management that you may want to watch: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-21297

[Fred]

It's Jira Software, Cloud version.

I'm looking for a way to 'count' issues and not expressly finding it.  

[Deleted user]

This....I've tried using the Jira javascript charts gadget, but the "Count of Issues" will not support a daily count between 2 different dates.

What it only ends up showing is how many things TRANSITION into a particular state (per the query), but it doesn't keep a count like a Cumulative Flow Diagram might demonstrate.

It's almost as if this "Daily WIP count" should be obvious, especially for those using Kanban or strictly flow-oriented process workflow.