Change state of related issue in different project

[Matthias Schablowski]

I would like to change the state of a related issue in a different project when creating the link. Example:

I link issue XXX-001 from project A to issue YYY-999 in project B.

At the point in time, I would like to automatically transition issue YYY-999 to state "abcde".

What conditions would I need to use for that?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Matthias Schablowski 

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

Are you an administrator for Project B, or a Jira Administrator?

Which issue link type are you using? What is the relationship between the issues? For example one link type is Blocks, and when two issues are linked with that link type then issue1 "blocks" issue2, and issue2 "is blocked by" issue1.

It is possible to do this through Automation, but the exact steps depend on which link type you are using and the relationship between the issues, and if you have any level of administrative access.

[Matthias Schablowski]

I am not the Jira Admin but Project Admin for both the projects. The link type is simply “Related To”.

[Trudy Claspill]

When two issues are linked with the "Related to" link type and you view each issue and look at the Linked Issues section, what does it say in each issue for the link relationship to the other issue? Does it say the same thing in both issues?

If they say the same thing, that makes this much more difficult.

Automation for Jira has a trigger to detect that an issue has been linked, however it is triggered by the link addition to the "source" issue. For instance in the blocks/is-blocked-by link relationship, the issue that is causes the blockage is considered the "source" issue. If the link type you are using shows the same link text in both issues, as I showed in the images above, then you don't know which issue is the one that the rule would consider the trigger, or source, issue. That makes it harder to figure out which one needs to be changed.

Based on experimentation in my system with the Relates To link, it appears that the issue from which I created the Relates To link is always considered the trigger/source issue in this case. So, if you created the link from the Project B issue to the Project A issue, then the project B issue would be considered the trigger/source issue, and you could create the automation rule in project B to transition the Project B issue when the link was created.

If you always or sometimes create the link from the Project A issue, though, you would have to use branching to get to the issue in project B to transition it. That would make the rule a multi-project rule, and only a Jira Administrator can construct a multi-project rule.

[Matthias Schablowski]

Ok, I tried using the "Relates To" link type as shown in the image. As I understand, I would need to get rid of the rule restriction. How can this be done? Checking the details as mentioned in the comment does not allow me to do so.

[Trudy Claspill]

I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say "the rule restriction". Can you clarify that statement?

Did you add the rule to project A or project B?

Is the rule operating as you expect?

[Matthias Schablowski]

It is working now. The critical part is that it is not possible to transition an issue in the "other" project (i.e. the one of the target issue) but only within the same project (i.e. the one with the source issue).

[Trudy Claspill]

It is possible to transition the issue in the other project, but it requires creating a Global Automation Rule, which can be done only by a Jira Administrator.