Parent issues have to inherit the latest due date of child issues

[BenWade]

Hi everyone,

Currently, I have this hierarchy:

-Theme
--Initiative
---Epic
----Story
-----Subtask

I want parent issues to inherit the latest due date of their child issues.

A story should inherit from a subtask, an epic from a story, an initiative from an epic, and a theme from an initiative.

For instance, if a story has 10 subtasks with due dates, then the story should inherit the latest due date of the subtask and this should be applied for all levels. How can I achieve this?

If it is possible to set up automation for that, please share the automation flow.

Thank you in advance

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @BenWade 

You can accomplish that with this rule. In my example I an using the Start Date field, and setting the value to be the earliest value among the child issues.

To set it to the latest value you would use "max" instead of "min".

You also need to make sure that you have this box checked on the Rule Details page:

Additionally, if at any level an issue can have children in a different project, then you have to make the rule a multiple project scoped rule and include in the project scope all the projects where child issues might exist. Multiple Project scoped rules can be created only by Jira Administrators from the Global Automations page.

[Dave Rosenlund]

Hello, @BenWade.

Check out this post:

• Is there a way to use automation to update the start and end dates of epics to their subtypes, Story

They are talking about different fields, but I suspect the same logic might apply to your use case.

Hope it helps,

-dave

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @BenWade 

Adding on to Dave's suggestions...

This is a lot of issue type levels to roll-up, and so I recommend defining your assumptions before writing any automation rules for this.  That will help to identify test cases and limitations to the solution.

For example:

• Have you discussed this need / scenario with your Jira site admin?
• Is this for your entire Jira site or only for one specific project?
• Are Due Date values only set at the subtask level?  If so, how will that be enforced?
• What should be done if a Due Date is changed manually by a user at any level, other than the lowest one?
• What happens when issues are added to an existing parent: ignore that, adjust the dates, etc.?
• What do you want to do when issues are deleted?  Moved?
• How accurate does this need to be, as that will determine both how many rules are needed and the impact upon your automation rule usage?
  • It may take dozens of rules: 3 for field update (due to the levels), 3 for issue create, 3 for issue delete, 3 for issue move, x2 for manual changes, etc.
  • These rule updates will use lots of automation executions.  What is your licensing level for Jira as the limits have recently changed?  Please look here to learn more: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/announcements/cloud-automation-packaging-update

Kind regards,
Bill

[BenWade]

Great point, Bill.

you raised super relevant questions. I think it would be better to forget about this automation. This will overcomplicate everything. 

[Bill Sheboy]

You could also consider limiting the scope, such as only use the Due Date at some levels.  That would reduce the complexity and may still provide you the benefits you want.