Automation for linked issues

[Yvonne]

Hello! 

We have Task linked (implements) to Story.

I wanted to create an automation rule for whenever Task has time tracking changes, we will recalculate Story’s all linked (is implemented by) issues’ total remaining hours and update it in the Story’s Story Points filed. Is it possible? Any suggestion?

[Yvonne]

As for “When you get the remaining time do you want the calculation to figure out the value as hours, and simply insert that number into the Story Points field?”

Yes, it would be great if I can get the value as days and insert to the Stroy’ story points field

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Yvonne 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Are you working with Jira Cloud or Jira Server/Data Center? If your URL is similar to

https://yourCompany.atlassian.net

...then you are using Jira Cloud.

The Story Points field is a simple number field. When you get the remaining time do you want the calculation to figure out the value as hours, and simply insert that number into the Story Points field? Will the users know that the Story Points field is being used for the Remain Estimate (in hours) for the "is implemented by" linked Tasks?

[Yvonne]

Hey Trudy, thank you for your reply!

The reason that I wanted to have the sum remaining time of link issues(is implemented by)  recorded is to have an idea of how long the story still needed to be completed. Because we are link the Task as sub task to Story instead of breakdown the Stories to sub task directly. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Will a Task every be linked to multiple Story issues with the "implements" relationship?

What would you want to do if it was linked to multiple Story issues?

[Yvonne]

It will happen if the Task implements multi Stories. In this case once time logged on Task, it need to find all it linked (implements) Stories. Then the Stories to find its linked (is implemented by) Task to get the sum of the remaining time and update Story points field.

[Yvonne]

Just checked I’m using Jira Cloud

[Trudy Claspill]

The rule you want would look something like this:

If you want this to run only when a Task type issue has work logged, then insert a Condition between 1 and 2 to check that the Issue Type for the triggering issue is a Task.

Step 2 is confirming that the trigger issue has issues linked to it such that the Task "implements" the linked issue.

Step 3 starts a loop to operate against all the issues from step 2.

If you only want to operate against Story type issues that are linked to the Task, then between step 3 and 4 add a Condition to check that the Issue Type is Story.

Step 4 is looking up all the issues linked by the "is implemented by" relationship to the issues that are linked to the Task by the "implements" relationship.

In Step 5 I am using a Log action to simply print the sum into the rule log. You would use and Edit Action to update the Story Points field with the same smart value.

Remaining Estimate is stored as seconds, so you need to use the divide() function to convert the seconds to the time value you want to record. In my case I selected hours (60 seconds * 60 minutes in an hour). If you want to convert it to days you would need to factor in the number of working hours you have defined for your days.

[Yvonne]

Hi Trudy, it worked! Thanks a bunch!

I got another question. I have Sub tasks of Task. If time is logged on sub tasks, can this be reflected in this automations as well?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Yvonne and @Trudy Claspill 

That expression appears to be missing a closing parenthesis for the divide() function call, and has extra spaces in it.  Please try this:

{{lookupIssues.Remaining Estimate.sum.divide(3600)}}

And if that does not work, you can try the smart value, alias for the Remaining Estimate field:

{{lookupIssues.timeestimate.sum.divide(3600)}}

Kind regards,
Bill

[Yvonne]

Hi Bill, thank you for the reply. I noticed the missing ) and tested. It worked perfectly!

But I noticed when the time is logged in Sub tasks of Task, it won’t trigger the automation. Is there any improvements I can make? 

[Bill Sheboy]

Yvonne, is the rule not triggering or is it not processing because it stops due to a condition, etc.?  You can check that by reviewing the audit log details.

I just tried this with a Jira Cloud automation rule and it correctly triggered when work was logged for a subtask of a task.

[Yvonne]

It's no action performed. In the log it says the issue (a sub task that I logged time) doesn't meet the linked issue condition. I thought it's due to step 2. The sub task was not linked to the Story so it doesn't have the "implements" link condition.

[Bill Sheboy]

That is different than your original question which Trudy helped with: summing up the issues which are linked with "implemented by".  If you also want the subtasks they will either need to be linked also or modify your rule to account for the issue relationships.

I suggest clarifying your scenario to help focus the ideas to try.  Thanks!

[Trudy Claspill]

@Yvonne 

Do you mean that when you log time against a Sub-task then you want to still update the Story that the sub-task's parent is linked to?

Is the Remaining Estimate of the sub-task's parent being updated automatically when you log work against the sub-task?

[Yvonne]

Hi @Trudy Claspill ,

Yes, exactly! Because when a Task is complex we will breakdown to Sub tasks and our team will log time on Sub tasks instead of the parent Task.

In the Task time tracking field I will tick the include sub task box so it shows the,time tracking which includes the sub task on the Task issue page. I don’t think ticking this box will be identified as updated the parent Task’s time tracking otherwise the current automation should be triggered.

[Trudy Claspill]

That is correct. If you check the box on the parent issue to include sub-tasks in time tracking, that does not cause the Log Work event to be triggered for the parent issue.

The automation is saying no actions performed because the issue where the work is being logged (the sub-task) does not have issues linked to it with the "implements/is implemented by" relationship.

You would need a different rule to handle the scenario where time is logged against a sub-task.

Do you have both tasks where you log time against sub-tasks, and tasks where you log time directly against the task?

[Yvonne]

Hi @Trudy Claspill ,

Yes, this is exact the situation. For simple Tasks, we will log directly to the Task. It will have no Sub-task.
For complex Tasks, we will breakdown and log to its Sub-tasks.