JQL fixVersion CHANGED TO returning unexpected results

[Andrew Frayling]

Hi,

Does anyone know if there are bugs / gotchas with using the CHANGED operator with the fixVersion field? Or if I'm just doing something dumb with this query?

I'm trying to find all Epics where the fixVersion was changed to "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2013-12-12", but I'm getting results where the FixVersion was changed to "EDS FW PI17" in October 2023.

JQL filter is:

type = Epic AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17" AND (fixVersion was not "EDS FW PI17" before "2023-12-13" or fixVersion was EMPTY before "2023-12-12") and fixVersion changed to "EDS FW PI17" after "2023-12-12"

But it's returning some Epics where the change history on the ticket is showing the fixVersion was set to EDS FW PI17 on Oct 2nd 2023.

The fixVersion on these unexpected tickets was set to EDS FW PI18 AFTER Dec 12th 2023 so it seems like it's picking up all the tickets where the fixVersion changed after the specified date, but is ignoring the specific TO value I'm looking for.

Thanks,

Andrew.

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Andrew Frayling 

First thing, I am using Jira Cloud and not the Server version.  With that out of the way...

There are known problems with the changelog and list-like fields such as Fix Version.  Here are a couple of defects for that symptom, which also impacts automation rules due to the symptom:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-69307
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-80486

Looking at your JQL, it seems you are targeting a narrow set of conditions around that specific version.  I recommend incrementally recreating that JQL to see if there is a scenario error or a problem with Jira running it. 

For example, and reordering a bit:

type = Epic
 AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17"

Then...

type = Epic
 AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17"
 AND fixVersion CHANGED TO "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2023-12-12"

Then...

type = Epic
 AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17"
 AND fixVersion CHANGED TO "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2023-12-12"
 AND (    fixVersion WAS NOT "EDS FW PI17" BEFORE "2023-12-13" )

Finally...

type = Epic
 AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17"
 AND fixVersion CHANGED TO "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2023-12-12"
 AND (    fixVersion WAS NOT "EDS FW PI17" BEFORE "2023-12-13"
       OR fixVersion WAS EMPTY BEFORE "2023-12-12" )

Kind regards,
Bill

[Andrew Frayling]

Thanks @Bill Sheboy , those known issues are useful.

I tried the JQL step by step and the unexpected tickets are appearing at step 2:

type = Epic
AND fixVersion = "EDS FW PI17"
AND fixVersion CHANGED TO "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2023-12-12"

Looking at the unexpected tickets they all have multiple values for fixVersion so I think either those known issues are coming in to play and skewing the results, or it's expected behavior.

E.g. I've got TICKET-1 that had a fixVersion of EDS FW PI17 on Oct 2nd 2023. TICKET-1 was updated on Dec 14th 2023 to add EDS FW PI18 to the fixVersion. So TICKET-1 now has EDS FW PI17 and EDS FW PI18 and I guess you could argue that it matches:

fixVersion CHANGED TO "EDS FW PI17" AFTER "2023-12-12"

because it changed to "EDS FW PI17", "EDS FW PI18" on Dec 14th.

Not what I'm looking for, but I can see an argument for that being expected behavior.

I'll see if I can tweak things to filter those out without over filtering.