Jira Align integration with mandatory custom fields

[Anupam Prakash]

Hello Everyone,

I am creating a custom field "Sub-Type" in Jira at a story level and want to make this a mandatory field. However, in doing so, I am told that the integration with Jira Align would not work if we make this custom field mandatory.
Please note that this custom filed would be a single select dropdown in Jira.

Is there a way we can have this mapped to any other mandatory custom field in jira align or any other available field to enable this ? Making this mandatory is required to foster adoption of certain process within the org.

Many thanks.

[manish a]

@Steve Sauser is there a way we can add a mandatory field in jira align as well and create a 1-1 mapping of the jira and jira align field. 

if not can you suggest what all things can possible break if we stop the sync from jira align to jira. i mean i know for every story there is a link that gets updated rom jira align to jira 

will there be any impacct on sprint start and sprint ending

will there be any impacct if i change the epic for a feature. 

i know i cannot make any changes to the parent of a story in jira align as that sync will not happen. 

[Steve Sauser]

@manish a 

At a story level you would not be able to create custom fields that will sync from JA to Jira (or back from Jira to JA).  

You can do this at the Feature level in JA, however your question is about the story level.  

Impacts to Stories:

• If you create custom fields in Jira that are required to Create or required later in the workflow (such as a transition from To Do --> In Progress) and those fields are not syncable with JA then any story created (or updated in the transition pattern) from JA will fail to sync.  
  • Create:  In this case the story would exist in JA, but it will not exist in Jira (because JA could not provide the required field value to Jira). 
  • Workflow Update:  In this case since the story already existed in both systems, if the change in workflow is done in JA the value will be sent to Jira, however since again JA does not have the appropriate data to provide Jira, it will send back the original status and the state in JA will be moved back in the workflow.  

Impacts to Sprints:

• Creation Impact:  You might not have all the stories in Jira (failure on create) to pull into the Sprint. 
• Workflow Update:  Teams will be confused why their change in JA appears not to "take" as they will see it revert in JA because Jira sent it back to the earlier step in the workflow.  

Other Impacts:

• Mainly this will simply cause a lot of confusion in your user-base.  
• People will begin to "not trust the system" and erode confidence along with creating additional work for people as they have to do things over. 

I would highly advise against this (if you are using a bi-directional sync).  If you would like to explore a single directional sync (Stories from Jira sync to JA, but Stories from JA don't sync anything back to Jira) you would be able to create the field suggested in Jira and apply the appropriate required pattern and it would have no impact in JA.  

• You would also not have that custom field displaying in JA at all.  
• There are a number of actions necessary to change the sync to a single directional (not only a toggle, but you need to update all the roles so they cannot create or update the Story level in JA).  

I would advise getting in contact with your companies Advisory Services representative for direct guidance on making this change if it is something you would like to under-take. 

[Steve Sauser]

@Anupam Prakash Thank you for asking the question, we are always happy to help.  

Before I address the question directly, one option for you to consider is to change your current sync settings so that Stories are only synced from Jira to Jira Align (this would involve changing both the Role toggles and Jira Settings.  

• This would change the system so that only updates on Stories (Create/Update, etc...) can only be done in Jira and not in Jira Align.  

You can create a custom field (these are limited) through Administration --> Detail Panel Settings. 

• Select a Portfolio
• Select a work item (Story)
• Select Add Custom Field (in the top right of the screen)
  • You can create a limited number and type of fields (you will see this on the screen). 
  • One of those is a Single Select dropdown. 
• On the same screen you can also set the field to be Required (this will be required at create in JA after you save this selection). 

The issue you are going to encounter now is that you cannot sync custom fields on Stories to Jira.  You will be able to select the field when creating in JA, however that value won't be part of the sync so you will still have a failure to "Create" a story in Jira by creating one in Jira Align.  

[Anupam Prakash]

Thanks @Steve Sauser . I will check this and revert.