Automation for Jira Cloud

[Julian Wienkamp]

Hey there,

I just saw the news that Automation for Jira will be natively included in the Cloud products in the next months. Great step so far. But then I saw that rule execution will be limited to 2.000 per month for Jira Software Standard. 

So do I get that right: The only way to get unlimited rules will soon be to upgrade to Jira Premium?

That would be a huge change for all Automation customers in my opinion as it is far more expensive to use Jira Premium instead of just Automation Pro... 2.000 Rules is just not a lot for customers with e.g. 50-100 Users.

[John McKiernan · Accepted solution]

Hey Julien,

thanks for your feedback here. 

We designed these changes in order to minimize any disruption to your work and with the assumption that most paid Automation for Jira customers would be interested in continuing to use the automation feature at scale.

You will get unlimited automation executions in Jira Software Premium. However, you will have at least 2000 rule executions in Jira Software Standard.

I'd love to chat through what this means for you specifically. Let me know if you want to arrange a time to chat through it (jmckiernan@atlassian.com). 

Cheers,

John

[Andrew Syme]

John

Like Julian I'm stunned by this.  We currently run circa 500 rules a month, but the majority are global or multi project.  With an 11 man team, with 3 also being SD Agents, this would mean a jump for $27.50 per month to $197 per month.  That is never going to fly which means the last 3 months work, since moving from Automation Lite are totally wasted.

It's a great product but a 700% rise in cost to retain the same functionality is just not economically viable.

Andy

[John McKiernan]

Hi Andrew, 

thanks for your comment here. I got your email also so I will reply in both places just in case. 

I definitely hear where you are coming from. 

2000 monthly rule executions (as a Jira Software Cloud Standard customer) is the number that we believed provides fair value to customers on Jira Software Standard. In your case, from a rule execution standpoint - it sounds like it would be sufficient and you would actually save on costs (as you wouldn't need to pay for the Automation for Jira app). However, I do understand where you are coming from with the need for Global / multi-project rules - especially with Jira Service Desk rules. 

I have gathered your feedback (along with other customers) and will relate it to the relevant teams. 

Thanks again for your honesty here.

John  

[Andrew Syme]

Thanks John

The number of rules is less important than how they are used.  The power and strength of Automation for Jira was that it worked across projects but either Atlassian have misunderstood how people use the software or they understand exactly how it's used and have done this solely to drive their revenue and at the expense of all the smaller companies using your products.

I could live with a tiered approach on number of rules run (it's less good than the current package but could see a justification at least), but cutting a key functionality benefit of Automation for Jira is a massive retrograde step for all but the largest companies.  Plus if I hadn't been able to try global projects in lite I would never have convinced the directors to switch up and pay for the main package.

I really hope Atlassian will think again as I don't want to switch to an alternative add-in but as proposed Automation for Jira will no longer be an affordable solution.

Andy

[John McKiernan]

Hi Andy,

I understand completely. I know how much work can go in to testing an app, going through procurement, etc. Let me present your feedback to the team.  

You have my email also so please reach out if you need any help or specific advice. 

Thanks again,

John

[John Funk]

Hi @John McKiernan  - It sounds like we use the tool pretty much the same way as Andy. Most of our projects are connected in different says. Plus we often have Service Desk projects that clone or create tickets on other Projects. So right off the bat, we have multi-project rules. This is for several reasons including the fact that you can't copy/move a Form from one project to another project, which we would need to do a lot, 

And we use MANY custom fields that have rules run against them for various reasons. So  again, right off the bat, we have several global or multi-project classic project rules (not just Service Desk). 

Why to we have to go to premium and increase costs across the board??? Why can't we just pay a little extra for different tiers of Automation? I am fine with paying the same amount as we pay now for the functionality that we have even though it will become a base tool in Jira. That made it sound like we were getting added functionality without paying for it for what we already have, But that's not the case - we either LOSE the functionality that we have or we pay more. LOTS more. That's a LOSE-LOSE for us. 

I am not trying to get something for free, but how in the world can you put the existing functionality in the base product and charge us MORE? Unless  you are making us pay for everyone else getting the lower functionality for free. That doesn't sound very fair to me.  :-(

[John McKiernan]

Hi John, 

I hear your frustration completely (as well as others on this page). 

Jira Software Premium was designed to help teams scale in confidence and while there is more than just automation in there, I understand, for existing Automation for Jira users, it does cost more. 

I can only answer honestly that I will take your feedback to the team and ensure it is heard. 

As ever, just reach out to my email if you want to talk in more detail. 

John

Jmckiernan@atlassian.com 

[John Funk]

Thanks, John - feeling like you are being heard is a good first step.  :-)

And thanks again to you and your team for your Support and guidance through all of this. I don't say that often enough. 

[Andrew Syme]

Any more information on this?  

I understand that existing global rules will remain active but the tying of further cross site functionality to premium licence still is a major limitation on this function.

[John McKiernan]

Hi Andrew, 

I don't have any more information on this just now but I will update any changes here and via email as soon as I can. 

Apologies, I know it's frustrating as you look to organize your automation. 

Thanks,

John

[Lukas Krajnak]

Hi @John McKiernan,

Firstly I would like to say how much we love the Automation for Jira add-on. It is our favorite and most-used add-on. We find uses for it in everything we do, and it has become integral to many of our key business processes, so thank you for creating such a great product. Also, your team has always provided top quality support whenever we needed it. You were also very friendly when we met you at the Atlassian Summit in Barcelona in 2018.

I was quite taken aback when I realized today that the add-on is no longer available on cloud and after a bit of digging realized in shock and amazement that we now have no choice but to upgrade to Jira Premium. As a company, we have had no requirement to upgrade to Jira Premium. I am struggling with how I am going to explain to our management team that we will have to pay an additional $8,000 per year to Atlassian, just to retain the functionality we have. I cannot understand how you (Atlassian) are putting existing customers in this position. Surely loyal customers should be handled differently to new customers? Please take my feedback back to the Atlassian team.

Regards,

Lukas

[John McKiernan]

Hi Lukas, 

thanks for your message and honesty. It was great that we had a chance to catch up in Barcelona in 2018! 

I definitely hear where you are coming from here and I have gathered all feedback and presented it back. I'm sorry I can't give a more exact answer at the moment but we will notify Automation for Jira customers as soon as there is any change to the original limits. 

I know this is frustrating but I really appreciate your patience. I know how much customers rely on automation. 

If you want to reach out directly to discuss, email me at jmckiernan@atlassian and we can chat any time. 

Thanks,

John

[Meg Holbrook]

@John McKiernan  - It was a pleasure to speak with you recently on the web training call. However, I received the news on this pricing change shortly after the call and I am just absolutely appalled at the increase my organization will face if these changes go through. 

We easily run over 2k executions a month, as we have utilized the product to automate a lot of day-to-day tasks. We also have many multi-project and global rules running since we support different help desk units across the org. 

For our 36 total agents, we would have to pay for close to $8000 a year more for the premium service just to be able to continue utilizing your product, though we decided early on that premium was not something we needed. 

Really feeling like, as long-time customers, we're being fleeced for functionality that should have been in JIRA to begin with at an exorbitant cost. 

[John McKiernan]

Hi Meg,

It was a pleasure chatting with you recently at the training. I hope you found it useful!

Thanks for your honest feedback here also. 

The plan was designed to try and offer a fair use of automation across the different plans and help bigger customer scale but I understand this is a big change for existing customers to take into account. 

I have gathered the concerns and feedback from yourself and other customers and will present it back to the teams. In the meantime, if you want to talk through your specific situation, please don't hesitate in emailing me to arrange a time. 

Many thanks,

John  

[Rick van Twillert _TMC_]

Hi John,

How can a static value of 2000/5000 rule executions a month be fair compared to the various user tiers Atlassian offers? I believe the number of users runs pretty parallel with the number of rule executions, as most of the rules will be event-driven. And more users, means more events, correct? So basically Atlassian is saying, whether you have a 10 user site or a 1000 user site, they all will get the same amount of rule executions... this sounds very strange and unfair.

Secondly, in one of the announcements I read that codebarrell has implemented automation heavily in their own 10 user instance and has around 40.000 rule executions per month. Given this statement, how does Atlassian come up with the 2.000 rule execution limit for standard plan customers?

Thirdly, the Automation Cloud app is currently not available anymore for new customers and new Atlassian Cloud sites do not include the built-in Automation app yet. How do you expect customers that require automation or made commitments based on it to continue with their activities? This is very disturbing in all variations of its definition.

Last but not least, how do the rule executions apply to a combined Jira Software/JSD Cloud site? Let's say a customer has 10 JSD Agents and 100 Jira Software users. How many rule executions will they get? 2000 on the JS projects and 5000 on the JSD projects? Is this also the reason why global rules will be removed from the application? How will existing global rules that get triggered by both project types influence the rule limit in the above scenario?

Please give us some insights on the above points. Thanks in advance!

[John McKiernan]

Hi Rick, 

thanks for your message and raising these valid points. 

There has been similar feedback regarding the proposed rule execution limits and I have taken it all back to the team for consideration. 

Rather than respond to each of your point here, if it's OK with you, I'll come back to these questions when I have something clearer to tell you. 

We will be communicating to all AFJ customers soon if there are any updates and at that point, I can answer your questions best.

I appreciate this is not ideal but I want to make sure you have the correct answers. Really appreciate your patience and if you want to reach out for a direct chat, just email me at jmckiernan@atlassian.com

thanks,

John

[Rick van Twillert _TMC_]

Thanks for the feedback @John McKiernanlooking forward to any updates!

[Rick van Twillert _TMC_]

Hi @John McKiernan

Just wanted to thank you for the outcome concerning the AFJ usage. Honestly, I didn't expect much of it, but it looks like Atlassian really listened and I believe you played a big part in that. Very much appreciated!

[John McKiernan]

Hi Rick,

I appreciate that. It can be tricky to find the right balance sometimes but I think these new automation limits are a great outcome for all. 

Hope all is well and you are staying safe :)

John

[WasimBuden]

Hi,

Is Automation for Jira plugin not available for cloud?

[Jack Brickey]

It has been pulled from the Marketplace while Atlassian rolls out the integrated solution. Stay tuned you will have it in your instance soon.

[Justin Merrow]

What does "soon" mean?

[Jack Brickey]

i can't answer with any official word since I don't work for Atlassian. I had heard this would be in Q1 or very shortly thereafter. Sort of expected it might be part of the Summit announcement but just a guess.

[John McKiernan]

Hi @WasimBuden ,

thanks for your message (and thanks Jack for jumping in!). 

I appreciate your patience while there is a gap between the Automation for Jira app not being available in the marketplace and it being a native feature in Jira Cloud. 

To answer your question - existing Automation for Jira customers now have access to the functionality natively in Jira Cloud. It will be available natively for every Cloud user within a matter of days (rather than weeks or months).

I hope that helps clarify!

Cheers,

John

[Justin Merrow]

I am VERY happy to report that I found that the native Automation feature had already been enabled in our account - and the functionality is still amazingly valuable.  It is amazing how much having the Automation functionality expands what you can do with Jira!

Thanks for everything!

Best,
Justin

[Jack Brickey]

I understand that there will be 5000 for JSD and 2000 for JSW on the Standard plan. At least that is how I read the email that came to me.

I agree with others that the limits are way to restrictive however, I will not upgrade to premium regardless as the value simply isn't there for my situation. It doesn't mean I don't still love JSW/JSD, I do. But, I will be much more stingy w/ my automation rules. There are also other very good alternative addons that could augment A4J and keep me in check w/ the limits.

[John McKiernan]

Hi Jack, 

thanks for your message (also thank you for all of the support and automation help you have provided AFJ customers over the years :) 

We have heard this feedback from customers (on this page and in emails) and I have presented it all back to the teams. I hope to have a definite answer for customers really soon and will email all AFJ customers (and updated this page) if indeed there are any changes. 

I apologize this is somewhat of a vague answer but I really appreciate your feedback and patience as we try to get the balance right. 

Thanks,

John 

[Rigoberto Nava]

Our organization is going through the same situation, we don't consider it fair to force ourselves to upgrade to Premium for a functionality that we are even paying as an add-on ($ 295 USD).
We are paying $ 1500 USD for the standard service desk and $ 850 USD for the Jira Software standard, now Atlassian tells us that we must upgrade to Premium to use the functionalities that we had with an addon. If we switch to premium, we would be paying $ 2,600 USD for Service Desk and $ 1,650 USD for Jira Software.
We are losing a lot and in this global pandemic.

Does anyone know how this is going?

[John McKiernan]

Hey @Rigoberto Nava ,

Thanks for your message. I hear you entirely and will do my best to reply openly below.

You have probably read everything on this thread but I'll summarize also just for clarity.

The app Automation for Jira is now a native part of Jira Cloud. 

All former Automation for Jira customers went on an extended 6 month free trial of Jira Premium which will end on the first billing cycle after Sept 2nd. At this point, you would no longer pay for the app but you would pay for the Premium license. 

The first thing to call out is that every instance has unlimited access to single-project automation. The limits are only for multi-project and global rules. 

Also there is a lot more than just automation within the Premium package. For example, we have just launched Advanced Roadmaps which is included and available to you now. 

An important thing to call out too: you are using both Jira Service Desk and Jira Software so you would likely only need to upgrade one of these products. Your global automation limits are shared between products so if you have unlimited automation rules in JSW, you can use these across JSD.  

*I'm not sure of the particulars of your use case (how many users, what features you use, etc so I can get more granular with my answers if you give me more. If you prefer to do it privately, pop an email to jmckiernan@atlassian.com

I hope this helps but please let me know here or via email if you have any other questions.

Cheers,

John

[Aaron Matthys]

Pay for individual automations feels like paying for minutes and text messages from the early 2000s cell phone plans. 

[charles.tawa]

If an Automation rule ends up in a status other than "SUCCESS" (lets say like "No Action Performed"), does that count against the number of monthly executions you are entitled to?

[Jack Brickey]

yes. the counter is incremented by the Trigger regardless of results.

[John McKiernan]

**I am just reposting my response from the bottom of this thread to save new folk from scrolling for the correct answer**

The short summary is that every Jira Cloud instance has unlimited single-project automation rules. 

• Every instance has access to global/multi-project rules also but these are limited depending on your plan. 
  • Free Plan has 100 global / multi-project rule executions per month
  • Standard Plan has 500 global / multi-project rule executions per month
  • Premium Plan has 1000 global rule executions per user, per month (ex: if you have 100 users, then 100,000 automation rule executions which you can use across all of your Jira products)

To briefly give some context to the background: 

• Initially (back in January 2020) we communicated what the limits for automation would be and that is where this thread is born from. 
• We received feedback from customers and realized we got it wrong. 
• We updated it so all Cloud customers had free access to unlimited single-project rules and the limits would only apply for multi-project and global rules (as above)

This article explains it greater details. Hope this helps clarify but let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

John

[Cameron Taylor]

Why am I receiving an email talking about reaching "50% of my 1,000 rule execution limit" and not the 2,000 rule limit that you talk about in this thread? Seems like I'm getting the short end of the stick and that this 2,000 rule limit for Jira Standard is a myth.

[Cameron Taylor]

[Jack Brickey]

@Cameron Taylor , I believe where things ended up is 1000 (premium) for Global rules and unlimited for project rules.

this article might be useful - how-is-my-usage-calculated 

[John McKiernan]

Hey @Cameron Taylor ,

Thanks for your message (and thanks also Jack for jumping in). 

The short summary is that you have unlimited single-project automation rules and 500 global/multi-project rules per product per month on a Standard plan). If you are on a Premium plan, you would have 1000 global rules per user, per month (ex: if you have 100 users, then 100,000 automation rules which you can use across all of your Jira products)

To briefly give some context to the background: 

* Initially we communicated what the limits for automation would be and that is where this thread is born from. 

* We received feedback from customers and realized we got it wrong. 

* We made it so all Cloud customers had free access to unlimited single-project rules and the limits would only apply for multi-project and global rules. 

The article Jack posted above explains it greater details but let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

John

[Karyna Alieksieieva]

Hey!

Could you please tell me when the monthly limit (that I have while being Standard Plan user) will be reset to zero?

Thanks!

[John McKiernan]

Hi @Karyna Alieksieieva ,

You can see the date it resets to zero in the usage section of automation. Hope that helps :)

[Karyna Alieksieieva]

Thank you!
It really helped to answer my request!

Have a great day!

[swagner]

Hello, I am not sure this is the right place to ask this, please direct me if not.

I am trying to add Automation rules to a Project - that looks really cool, easier than Notification Schemes, etc..   

I am tying to send an email notification to a Group when transitioning from Open to New status for Issue Type = Bug.  I created the rule and enabled it.

But the automation rule is not getting triggered?

[WasimBuden]

is the email address a distribution list?

[swagner]

It is a Group, which is intended to be he distribution list.

Cannot I not use Groups?

Should I be using email addresses, email distribution lists?

[WasimBuden]

I have configured and was able to send automated Slack messages and emails. The email ID should be part of the project.

[swagner]

Now I am trying email addresses, but still not being triggered.

I see this when I click on Automation...Rule Executions for the Issue.

[WasimBuden]

Have you added these email IDs to the current project under 'People' or Customers?

[swagner]

I have tried a few things with no luck.

1. I tried adding the Group that has the people in the intended distribution, to the Automation rule action Send Email.

2.  I replaced the Group with the email addresses in the action Send Email.

3. I have added the People (from the Group) under the Project - they are already users in Jira.  I could not add their email addresses explicitly under Add People, it finds them as existing Users.  But they now appear as People under the project.

4. I reverted back to using the Group instead of the email addresses in the action Send Email.

I now get this below.  Is our Jira Software Cloud instance not tied to the Automation service or something?

[swagner]

@John McKiernan  @John Funk  please help!

[John Funk]

Can you share the Audit Log for when the rule runs?

[swagner]

From the message I get above, "No executions recorded against this issue yet", it seems that the rule is not running.

Is our instance hooked up to the Automation service?

AM I having problems because I starting solving for this using custom events and notification schemes, and Automation does not run with those components enabled or something like that?

[John Funk]

Can you go to the actual Audit Log for the Rule? Not from the issue, but the list of rules?

It should look something like this:

[swagner]

Yes, it just shows CONFIG CHANGEs.  There have been no successful executions of the rule.  Do we have to enable Automation service somewhere in our System config or something?

[swagner]

I may need to check the permissions of the Automation app user?  I see a note about that.

[John Funk]

But you are definitely moving a card from Open to New on the project that this Rule is attached to?

[swagner]

Yes

[John McKiernan]

Hey @swagner ,

You don't need to enable anything and I don't think this is a permissions issue.

The audit log shows us that the rule isn't actually triggering at all so the problem lies somewhere before the trigger. 

* Do you have any Jira workflows, conditions, post functions, etc set up that might interfere with this rule? 

* Are there any other automation rules running that might stop this one? 

 Thanks,

John

[swagner]

* Do you have any Jira workflows, conditions, post functions, etc set up that might interfere with this rule? 

Yes, I think it is related to that.  I started with mode A, configuring custom events, workflows, and post functions related to Status transitions.  I had problems getting that to generating the email notifications to Jira Groups. 

So then someone in the community suggested that I set up an Automation rule, mode B.  The Rule is also based on Status transitions/changes.  So I think there is a conflict with mode A and B trying to do the same thing re: the same Status transitions?

As an experiment, I change the Rule trigger from being a Status transition to a new Jira Comment, and the Automation/Rule did triggger.

[John McKiernan]

Ah yes that sounds like the problem @swagner 

My advice would be to use the automation engine for as much as you can. It is easier to use, easier to track and it means everything will be in the one place. 

You can then, if needed, go back to Jira workflows for anything automation is unable to do.

You were right to change the trigger to debug. The best trigger to change to is a 'manual trigger' so you can just click the button, then follow the trail from the audit log. 

Hopefully once you disable the workflows, everything should work neatly for you :)

[Bojana Vasic]

Hi @John McKiernan ,

Can you please confirm if Automation app is included in Jira Core Cloud?
Correct me if I am wrong, Automation Pro app is integrated in Jira Cloud, but with limited number of executions per month, depending on the plan we are on?
What if we have Core 100 users and JSD 50 users, how many executions would that be, 500 or 1000? The only way to extend the number of executions is to upgrade to Jira Premium, in our case JSD premium - right?

Trying to see the whole picture ;) Many thanks in advance! :)

[John McKiernan]

Hey @bojan ,

I hope all is well! 

• Automation is indeed available inside Jira Core Cloud. However, as you mentioned, there is no Jira Core Premium. 
• Every instance has unlimited single-project rule executions. However, there are automation limits for global/multi-project rules depending on the plan you are on. (Standard has 500 global rules per month, Premium has 1000 per user, per month, pooled across all products. 
• If you have Standard plans for Jira Core and JSD - then you would have 1000 global rules per month (500 + 500)
• Yes the only way to extend that would be to upgrade to Premium and in your case, JSD Premium would be the right option. 
• In JSD Premium, you would have 50,000 global automation rules per month to use across both JSD and Jira Core (1000 per paid JSD agent)

The easiest way to see is through your usage tab in the automation space. 

To be honest, I think this could all be a lot clearer for customers. We will try to improve the clarity so maths isn't needed :)

Hope that helps but let me know if you have any other questions.

John

[Bojana Vasic]

Hi @John McKiernan ,

Great! Many thanks for clarification! :)

[John Funk]

@John McKiernan  - Any thoughts?

[John McKiernan]

Thanks @John Funk