Road map: Automation Rules vs. Workflow Transitions

[Sebastian Penhouet]

The new automation rules look very nice but it is unclear to us how this will integrate into Jira.

Will the automation rules replace workflow transitions?

Because workflow transitions are for free but automation rules are not. The current 500 limit looks like a joke to us (Standard Plan). Having many simple issue status transitions will fill this up in no time.

Do we need to prepare that Atlassian is planning to retire workflow transitions over automation rules?

Maybe you can make only some automation rules (specific events, conditions, actions) count against the limit? Or massively increase the limit?

[Jack Brickey]

Probably more of a discussion than a question. IMO post functions, along with conditions and validators, are still a vital component independent of Automations. There are a lot of considerations when choosing which path. 
Project level rules are unlimited. In fact in the new JSM Global automations disappear in Standard so new JSM standard accounts never see global option.

I believe as long as Classic projects exist there will be PFs. Obviously Automation is the only option currently for NG. 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

JSM? PF? NG? 

From the context, do I understand correct that for the next-gen Jira Projects the automation has no limits and the limits are only applied for the classic projects? Or only if we use a global configuration of these instead of a project local one (which we definitely would wand to avoid)?

What will happen to workflow transitions in the future? Will this slowly be removed and / or no longer maintained?

I'm all for the new automation rules. Looks much cleaner and even more powerful and easier to configure but it should be free and part of the Standard Plan. Or set the limits to something only large companies reach.

[Jack Brickey]

JSM- Jira Service Managent

PF - Post Function 

NG - Next-gen

Global Automation limits depend on whether you are on Standard or Premium. Also, as stated above it seems that anyone starting today with standard account don’t get global rules feature. Project level automation rules are unlimited (today) even on standard. 

I don’t know what will happen in the future and don’t think anyone here does. 

Automations are much more powerful than PFs and understandably so. 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

I don’t know what will happen in the future and don’t think anyone here does.

Atlassian should know. They will have some plan / some road map. Or are you suggesting that these who do know are not answering here? Could someone forward this issue to the respective responsible person?

Thanks for the clarification on the current state and how it currently works.

[Jack Brickey]

Maybe an Atlassian will chime in. However in my experience and opinion, this forum is not a place to answer futures questions. Decisions about futures change frequently and commitments need to be carefully considered. For me, even if an Atlassian stated here that PFs will never go away, for example, I would take with grain of salt. 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

I just tried to reconfigure a workflow transition trigger and there is this message:

I guess this makes Atlassian's road map very clear.

[Jack Brickey]

I guess this makes sense. I do think that at a minimum there will need to be some cleanup on PFs. Maintaining multiple ways of achieving something in SW is expensive and causes confusion to users. It will be interesting to see if this extends to every PF. In some cases I think PFs make more sense than automations but maybe that is just what I’m currently comfortable with. Time will tell. 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

I'm curious what your differentiation between post functions and automations is? The automations are also post functions to me. They are now just more generic and simplified. To me it is mostly a reimplementation of the UI.

I'm all for the new automation UI and to remove the old workflow UI and from a company point of view it totally makes sense to charge on a number of automation runs basis especially since similar things are done by other companies in this area. From a customer standpoint they are basically starting to charge for a feature that was originally free. So either the general prices need to drop or the limits need to match their price tiers. Jira is great for its automation features (workflow, ...) but if you get charged for the number of automation runs you will think twice about every automation rule. This defeats the purpose.

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hello @Sebastian Penhouet ,

Just following up on your questions relating to your comment:

Atlassian should know. They will have some plan / some road map. Or are you suggesting that these who do know are not answering here? Could someone forward this issue to the respective responsible person?

We do not have any extensive public roadmap for upcoming cloud features or public ETA on the features, covered in more detail in the "Implementation of New Features Policy" 

However, while we do not post ETA's on a feature by feature basis we do publish some ETA details on these items via the "Cloud Roadmap" that covers the current high-level product initiatives we are focusing, such as features that related to regulatory compliance.  as well as Atlassian Cloud release notes blog, and the What’s new in Jira Software Cloud Blog.

Regards,
Earl

[Stuart Capel - London]

Hi Sebastian,

I can't find reference to the 500 limit on Jira automation - could you share a link please?

I've not hit the limit before and we use automation rules quite extensively. We're trialling Premium so I wonder if this is something new?

Only reference I could find was here (below screenshot) and I believe it's a bad link as it goes to the 'Premium' product page where I still couldn't see anything about limits on rules being triggered.

[Jack Brickey]

Stuart, read more here - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

I can only see the limits unter the "usage" tab. 

If you click on "view details":

If you click on "view plans" you will just be redirected to here: Jira Pricing - Monthly and Annual Subscription Cost per User (atlassian.com)

But there is no mention of the limits:

[Jack Brickey]

Yep. Here is an example from my instance. You will see that I get 500 for JSM and 500 for Jira each month. Now these limits ONLY apply to global OR Multi-project rules. Any rule that is associated with a single project is unlimited. The pricing page used to provide the limits but was a bit confusing TBH. The best place to check is you admin>system page. 

[Sebastian Penhouet]

The pricing page used to provide the limits but was a bit confusing TBH.

Will this information be readded? It currently is not clear from the pricing page that limits exist and also how they are set between the different versions.