Automation rule needed - Create Sub-Task when no activity or no updates on multiple issues.

[Mike Bowen]

Hello, 

Scenario:  My analysts are busy working with clients. We have two stages POC and Production clients. Because POC is very busy, the Production clients are being ignored, which is not great.

The analysts are meant to have regular meetings with all clients, but these POC clients take their time, and they forget about the Production clients. 

Each client, whether POC or Production, has an Issue ID or their own card on a Kanban Board.

All tickets generally have a priority of medium. I have created one extra priority called Contact Client.

I want to create an automation that picks up on Issue IDs that have not been updated for more than four weeks. By updated, I mean "comments added to the ticket", as this is the most common task.

Ideally, I would like the automation to be triggered automatically, but I can't find a way to do this. Something must trigger the rule. 

My initial thought was that the comment could trigger the automation rule (E.g. Analyst adds a comment to the ticket, and then if there are no further comments or ticket updates in 4 weeks, an automation kicks in and does the following:

1. Creates a sub-task with a summary (Contact Client).
2. Sets the due date to 5 business days from now. 
3. It sets the priority to Contact Client or High or whatever! 
4. Sends an alert to Slack regarding the sub-task. 

Has anyone built a rule or trigger similar to this or could advise a simple one for me? It must work across the Project Board against all tickets. 

Currently, I have the following manual trigger, which only seems to work on a ticket-per-ticket basis, which is not ideal. (we have hundreds of tickets).

When: Manually Triggered (User must be in a group DAPB).

Updated is before three weeks ago

Then: Create a new sub-task

Parent issue: Current Issue

Summary: Contact the client

Due Date: {{now.plusBusinessDays(5)}}

Client: Copy Client from Current Issue

Assignee: Copy Assignee from Current Issue

Priority: Update Client

Thanks,

Mike

[Sam Nadarajan · Accepted solution]

You're awfully close! Instead of a manual trigger, do a scheduled trigger instead so it's runs automatically. Then for the branch rule select JQL and use the JQL clause updated < -4w . If you want to specifically query by the last commented date, then you would need a marketplace application such as JQL Search Extensions.

I've included screenshots below that may get you what you are looking to do:

Hope this helps!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Mike Bowen 

Adding to Samuel's suggestion:

From what you describe, I do not have a good understanding of how long the parent items for the clients are "in progress".  Are they on the board indefinitely or do they have a completion point?

If they have a completion, or "done", point...consider adding some criteria to the JQL for the scheduled trigger to only check items which are not completed.  Otherwise new subtasks would be added to the done items.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Mike Bowen]

Hi @Sam Nadarajan 

This is why I love the Atlassian Community. 

You are right, I was so so close to figuring it out, but to be honest, I had not seen the Scheduled trigger in the list. It was late; I had tried multiple things.
Note to me: Go to bed, look at it again in the morning with a fresh pair of eyes :-)

However, I am thankful I came on the forum as my last resort before going to bed and asking the question because there is nothing more rewarding at the beginning of the day than trying out the provided solution and having that Aha! Moment and seeing the solution work perfectly. 

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Mike

[Mike Bowen]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 

All the parent tickets on this board are either in a transition of POC (In Progress) or PRODUCTION (In Progress). They can never be in a DONE state because they are Live customers. However, the sub-tasks can be set to a transition of DONE, which will be a manual transition handled by the analyst completing the sub-task. 

The solution I have works, which is the main thing; I was simply after the automated trigger, which @Sam Nadarajan kindly reminded me of. 

Thanks for your comments.

Kind regards,

Mike