Atlympics - Automation - Calculate the sum of original estimate of all Epic's subissues

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

Hi all!

This is my repost of my original post, which you can read here:

This automation solves the problem of calculating the sum of the original estimate of all issue types of an epic, without the use of an addon. Keep in mind that I had 4 different issue types (standard tasks) from which I wanted to sum up all original estimates and not story points.

Rule

Below you will find my rule, which after testing it, it works like a charm:

So what the above rule does is that

• Step 1: It tracks changes on Time Tracking
• Step 2: Rule keeps going only if the trigger issue type is specific
• Step 3: Get the original estimate value of the trigger issue and copy it on the Story Point field
• Step 4: Create a branch for the parent of these issue types
• Step 5: Looks up to find all issues with the parent Epic Link
• Step 6: Sums up the story points of the Epic's children and copy it on the Original Estimate field

Rule Break Down

Below you will find each individual rule component.

Step 3

{{issue.fields.timetracking.originalEstimateSeconds.divide(60)}}

Step 5

{{lookupIssues.Story Points.sum}}

Ending Note

I though to end this article by presenting to you the pros and cons of this rule:

Pros

• It delivers and works!

Cons

• Uses an extra field (story points) to do the copy/paste thus,
• This rule takes 3 to 4 seconds in duration (which I think is significant)
• Makes Story Point field obsolete, since it is used in the calculation, thus,
• You can't use any chart that uses story point

Cheers,
Alex

[Suvradip Paul]

@Alex Koxaras _Relational_ , thanks for sharing! Much appreciated. I think except the Story Point field as obsolete which might raise some concerns other cons might be acceptable.

Cheers

Suvradip

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

It depends on the cons. 3-4 secs of processing time is rather unacceptable to be honest. Keep in mind that you have only 3600 secs of processing time every 12 hours. So this is troublesome if you have a large number of issues that needs to be processed.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi Alex,

As you note about performance and usage limits, I wonder: how often do you need this information updated?

Just-in-time updates are awesome when the benefit justifies the cost.  If you could live with accuracy of perhaps once-per-day, the rule could be converted to use a scheduled trigger.  And the rule could be fired manually, as needed, for a quick refresh between cycles.

Or perhaps investigate if using the REST API directly from the rule with an issue search is faster than LookupIssues to gather and sum the data with list functions.

Best regards,
Bill

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

With my experience, this field is something that should be up-to-date any time someone opens an issue to view it. If estimates are updated once a day, then yes, once-per-day is something that I could live with it. But if you have multiple projects, with multiple teams, this possible wouldn't work.

REST API would be definitely a good workaround, to avoid these automation limits.

Thanx for pitching in your ideas @Bill Sheboy! Always good to listen to your opinion!

[Bridget]

@Alex Koxaras _Relational_ thank you so much for your submission! 🔥

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

My pleasure! :D

[Liam Green]

Thanks @Alex Koxaras _Relational_ - bookmarking this for when I'm queried on how to do it!

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

I'm thrilled to know that this will end up on someone's bookmarks! I'm really glad that you've found this useful!