How to prevent transition to done on Epic if it has open issues under it, using Jira automation?

[Meital Adir]

Hi,

I would like to set a transition condition/validator using automation, if Epic is move to done status, check the linked issues in this epic and fail the transition if any of the linked issues are not "done". 

The same as "linked issues status validator". can I use Automation to create such rule?

I'm using Jira cloud

Thanks,

Meital

[wwalser]

Meital,

Just chiming in as a member of the Automation team. Agree with others here who have noted that Automation is not able to create a great user experience here because we can only hook into the action _after_ it's happened. I don't think this falls into a natural use-case for Automation for the moment. Workflows or perhaps a marketplace plugin feel like the way to go here.

Best,
Wes

[Curt Holley]

I agree with @Darryl Lee regarding "real time" is better than post assumed success.

That said, i helped a team set up automation at Story level to monitor for sub-tasks still open and just sent the "initiator" (the person who did the transition) an email.

[Meital Adir]

Thanks @Curt Holley 

[Darryl Lee]

Yes. A former client implemented such a rule.

The trigger was the initial Transition. There was then an IF block to see if the linked issues were not Done, and if not, then it was transitioned BACK to the previous step.

I believe the rule also added a comment to explain why the transition was "rejected".

[Darryl Lee]

Oh, I should note, while this will work, I'm not a fan.

While it's unfortunate that you'd have to pay for a third-party add-on to implement this as a Validator, I it's a much better user-experience to tell users that they cannot do something when they click Submit.

Letting the transition succeed and then notifying them afterward (by the comment) doesn't seem very user-friendly.

[Meital Adir]

Thanks for your answer, I'll try that with comment when it's rejected. I agree it would be better to do that as workflow validator.