Automation: Open all On Hold Issues

[Kristin Lyons]

I have this automation set up to open all on hold issues each weekend.  A bit of a back story, each day I have a filter sent to me to display all my open issues (open or in progress) that are due during this sprint.  If an issue is resolved or on hold it won't be sent in the filter.  Each weekend I have all on hold issues moved back to In Progress, so that Monday I can review the issue and see if I can start working on it or not.  This forces me to be realistic about the issue - is it something I can actually complete during this sprint or do I need to move it to the next Sprint?

Now on to the automation:

I originally had it using the CRON expression but once Automation updated to use an easier Scheduled format I switched to that :D

Every Sunday at 9a it will run a JQL query: all issues in the specific project I'm working on that are on hold status, then it will transition the issues to On Hold and remove the text from the "Hold Reason" field.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Kristin Lyons 

Thanks for this information.  I wonder...

• Using this method wouldn't you lose visibility to how long and how often issues are on-hold?  Could checking the aging of on-hold issues provide a better approach?
• When issues are on-hold often enough to need a status in the workflow, that may be a symptom of bigger issues, such as high work in progress (WIP) counts, changing priorities, too many dependencies/hand-offs of work, etc.  What do you think?

Thanks, and best regards,
Bill

[Kristin Lyons]

Hi @Bill Sheboy  Those are some good points that I might implement!  I really like the idea of not having an On Hold status in the workflow but I'm not sure if that's feasible.  Much of my work is dependent on others' schedules.  I do however like the idea of tracking how long and how often issues on are on hold.

[Bill Sheboy]

Yes, and...maybe try a short retro/ponder for on-hold issues periodically...to learn what is preventable and if there are patterns to on-hold issues.  Even when you cannot yet resolve the causes such as others' schedules, knowing it is gonna happen will improve visibility to you and stakeholders.

[Carlos Faddul]

@Kristin Lyons

in the trigger Scheduled, you can use the JQL condition as a filter to execute the automation and unmarked "Only include issues that have changed since the last time this rule executed"

I hope I helped you.

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