Regarding converting manual tasks into recurring ones

[Jorge Alastuey]

Hello everyone,

I have a question for which I can't find an answer or I might be a bit clumsy. I would like to turn a manually created task into an automated one. Is it possible to do this in any
way?

Thank you very much.

[Brock Jolet · Accepted solution]

I have configured this in the past using Automation for Jira. It becomes clumsy.

Essentially, I had to define a number of custom fields such as:

• isRecurringTask
• recurringFrequency
• calendarType (this was to handle our financial calendar)
• etc.

Then I had to define a number of Automation rules that would trigger daily, weekly, monthly, etc. looking for issues where those fields matched the appropriate values.

If it found matching issues, it would create a clone based on the information in that issue.

After using this for a while, we decided it was worth our time to just use a pre-built plugin from the marketplace. We're currently using this one, Recurring Tasks for Jira Cloud. It has a nice UI and allows users to manage their own recurring tasks without admin intervention.

[Jorge Alastuey]

Great Answer

[Bryan Urias]

Hey Jorge!

I believe it largely depends on the task you wish to automate. 

Can you provide more detail? I may not know the answer but I'm sure your detailed response will provide context and a better answer to your question. :)

Best regards,

Bryan

[Jorge Alastuey]

Hi Bryan

Suppose I am working on a manual task and it is decided that this task becomes a regular weekly task at 08:00 on Wednesdays. Can I convert that same task to automatic? without having to create it from scratch in automations.

Best regards,

Jorge

[Kit]

@Jorge Alastuey can you tell us what the manual task is?

As Bryan mentioed above, the type of task it is will greatly influence the options you have to automate it.

[Bryan Urias]

Hey Jorge,

There are going to be limitations and it largely depends on what type of task you are trying to automate. 

If we exclude talking about plug-ins, whenever you try to create an automation rule, be sure to select "Scheduled" and set your rule to run every Wednesday at 8:00AM. :) 

[Anne Saunders]

I have many single-project automations that generate tasks on weekly, monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual bases, and they work just fine. 

I added a special status to our standard workflow (Recurring Task) and I use a label on each one that I want to recur that matches the frequency I want it to occur on (Weekly, Monthly, etc). 

I roll the "To Do" transition in with the automation, since these are pre-approved tasks that don't need to go through the Backlog approval process. 

When I need a new "Recurring Task" issue, I can easily clone existing issues and move them to the projects where I need them, making whatever other edits make sense, or build them by hand.

When I need a new automation for a new project, I just copy one with the correct frequency and swap in the new project key in the title and the project fields on the Description tab.