Why am I unable to execute a rule that creates tasks and subtasks when a new Sprint starts?

[Michael Priest II]

Hi Everyone,

I'm working on a Scrum Board with 2-week Sprints. Since in Scrum a Sprint Planning Meeting is necessary every Sprint, I thought it would be a good idea to automate the creation of a Sprint Planning session, described as a task in JIRA, when a new Sprint starts.

I created the following automation rule: http://puu.sh/GSk0Y/c13032bec9.png. 

Here's what I did for the Trigger: http://puu.sh/GSkfz/ec80a24503.png

Here's what I did for the first action: http://puu.sh/GSkdu/d78484e095.png

And here's what I did for the 3 subtasks actions: http://puu.sh/GSke9/0a9661f39b.png

When I clicked create Sprint, the tasks nor subtasks appear. When I checked the audit log I saw the following error messages: http://puu.sh/GSk38/b4f365b690.png.

I'm not entirely sure what I did wrong. I set the "Project"  to the "same project as trigger" and the "issue type" to  "task" and made sure the "parent issue" was the "trigger issue". I tried setting the "parent issue" to "current issue" but that didn't work either. 

My guess, though really I have no clue, is that I need to use a component to put the subtasks in a separate branch. After watching Attassian's YouTube tutorial, it's seemed fairly straightforward. Clearly, I'm missing a step or a piece of logic. If anyone could provide some insight into what went wrong, I would greatly appreciate it. I'd love to automate all the Scrum Events so that I wouldn't have to input that information every single time over the course of a project's life with multiple Sprints. Thank you in advance. 

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Michael Priest II,

That is an interesting case you have here. As I was triggered (pun intended) by it, I tried to set up something similar in a test instance, to find out afterwards that I was in a Next-gen project - but that shouldn't matter for the rule.

I came up with this, which led to a working result:

 

A couple of differences with your setup:

• I explicitly set the project where I want to create the issues. My guess is that may be your problem, as the trigger that a sprint was created is not associated with a project, but a board. And although it may not effectively be the case in your setup, a board can be associated with multiple projects. So if you know where your issues should go, just make the project explicit.
• I did indeed add a brach after the creation of the issue to make sure the subtask creation gets linked to the just created issue.
• That you see 2 different ways to create subtasks is just because I decided to add more fields to the first one; it has a summary and a description

[Michael Priest II]

Hi @Walter Buggenhout ,

Thanks so much for taking a look at this issue. That's true, I wasn't thinking about the difference between the board and the projects within the board.  You're right. It's just as easy to specify where I want things to go if I have those things already created.

I'm just getting started with JIRA automation (literally I started earlier this week), so that thought process will be super helpful moving forward. Initially, I found the Branch Rules and Conditions a little intimidating, but I'll play around with some test cases to get familiar with them.  Thanks again!

[Walter Buggenhout]

Glad that I could help! If it worked, would you mind accepting the answer here as well ;-)? That makes it easier to find for other users with similar challenges.

All the best in making your tools work in the best possible way for your team!