How does Round-robin logic work after automation rule editing?

[Doris Reinart]

I use Jira automation rule to distribute incoming tickets in a round-robin manner. After the list of people is edited (some people added/removed to the list), does this reset the round-robin logic? Meaning that will the round-robin start distributing the tickets again from the beginning of the list or it can continue where it left of the last time?

Example:

I have 10 people in the user list between who I distribute tickets in round-robin. The last ticket was given to the 5th person. I edited the rule and removed whoever I had there as the next person. I also add additional people to the end of the users list. Will the round-robin continue its logic or will it start from the beginning since the list of users was changes.

[Rilwan Ahmed · Accepted solution]

Hi @Doris Reinart ,

Welcome to the community !!

I tried the scenario in my test jira. I see that round robin starts from the beginning when there is an update tp the list of users. 

Example: If first list has user 1, user 2, user 3 and you created 2 tickets and it gets assigned to user  1 and user 2 respectively. If you update the rule now and check, the new ticket gets assigned to user 1 and not user 4. 

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Also when you edit a existing list, newly added users will be added at the bottom of the list. So if you want to reassemble, remove and add users from start. 

[Doris Reinart]

Thank you for the answer, this proves my suspicion.

We had to edit the users list quite often because of vacations/out-of-office times and we started to notice that for some reason the people at the beginning of the list get more tickets than the bottom of the list. Now we know why.

[Doris Reinart]

I have a follow-up question. If my automation consists of several filters and round-robin lists of people and I change only one of the user lists, will this change reset the logic for all round-robin lists or only the one I changed?

Example:

In my automation rule, there are several if blocks that check the ticket issue types and then decide to which user group the ticket is assigned. All ticket assignments are done in round robin. Let's say I update only one logic block where I check issue type A and remove a few users from the list, but other if blocks remain the same. Will this change reset the round-robin logic for all the if-blocks or just the one I changed?

Thank you in advance.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Doris Reinart 

I believe the round-robin assignment tracking is coupled to the publishing of a rule.  And so when a rule is updated and republished, the rotation resets to the beginning of the user list.  This is based on my observations and I see nothing in the documentation which describes this clearly.

You could confirm the behavior by experimentation or asking the Atlassian Support team if you are on a paid license level: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Kind regards,
Bill