Deleted features not syncing with Jira?

[GregPearson]

My company uses the cloud version of Jira and Jira Align. We have noticed that while changes to fields in features are syncing as expected, and new features created in either tool are appearing in the other, when features are deleted in Jira Align, they are still active in Jira. Any idea why that is? We know how the process works to "clear out" Jira Align when features are deleted in Jira, no problem there, it is only when they are deleted in Jira Align that we have an issue. Thanks!

[Peter Jessen · Accepted solution]

Hi @GregPearson -

The root of the issue is that the Atlassian-built Jira api.

Hard deletes: The api does not send or accept "hard deletes," therefore:

• Align will never know when an issue is hard deleted in Jira and
• Jira will not accept a hard delete from an external system (like Align)
• The way around this is to use a cancelled status in Jira instead of deleting issues and mapping that status to Align's Cancelled status (as @Samit Mehta _321 Gang_ recommended) or the Deleted status as @Sam Tsubota recommended).
  • My personal preference is to use the Deleted status in Align mapped to the Cancelled status in Jira.
  • An added benefit of this approach is that when a client is audited, they don't face audit findings of "missing Jira issue keys."
    • Auditors don't like missing records in systems of record, which is what Jira is for most companies, whether they realize it or not.

Moving Issues between teams/projects: The other major limitation of the Jira api (not the connector) that comes up is moving stories between teams or features between programs in Align not syncing to Jira.

• This is another limitation of the api. Jira will not accept a MOVE command from an external system. If a story or feature needs to be moved between teams (story) or programs (feature), then it must be done in Jira.

[GregPearson]

Thanks, Peter. One question for clarification about the statement "Align will never know when an issue is deleted in Jira". Isn't that what the "Jira Deleted Issues" functionality in the Jira Management Settings does? Compares Jira Align to Jira, finds anything that exists in Align but not in Jira, and gives you the opportunity to delete from Align? That's how I've been using it to remove issues from Align that were deleted in Jira, just want to be sure I'm not missing something.

[Samit Mehta _321 Gang_]

@GregPearson I believe what Peter was trying to say was that there isn't an automated "trigger" available for Jira Align to be informed when a Jira Issue is deleted. 

The "Jira Deleted Issues" functionality is a workaround for this limitation, so that the you can manually initiate a check by the Jira Align connector for Jira for any issues that have been deleted in Jira but the "linked" work item still exists in Jira Align.

[GregPearson]

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying!

[Sam Tsubota · Accepted solution]

@GregPearson Jira Align's delete functionality doesn't automatically delete issues in Jira. On the Jira Setup tab under Jira Settings, you can configure the Jira Connector to sync when a work item is deleted in Jira Align to a Jira workflow status like "Delete" in the Delete Item Status field (See below).  What will happen is when a feature is deleted in Jira Align the status of the Jira epic is set to Delete but it does not delete the epic in Jira. It will need to be deleted in Jira manually. Going in reverse if the status of the epic is set to Delete in Jira, it will permanently delete the feature in Jira Align. The Jira epic still must be manually deleted in Jira. 

[GregPearson]

Thank you, a very helpful idea!

[Samit Mehta _321 Gang_ · Accepted solution]

@GregPearson what you are seeing is the designed behavior - "Deletes" in Jira Align are not synced to Jira.

If you have mapped a "Canceled" State in Jira Align, then you can encourage users to instead use "Cancel" operation in Jira Align and also in Jira (transition to Cancel state).  This has the advantage of automatically syncing between the tools, and the action is also reversible.

https://help.jiraalign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002704334-Cancel-items

[GregPearson]

Also a very helpful idea, much appreciated!