Jira automation to notify team members when wip limit is breached

[frankie_medina]

Can someone help me with setting up some automation. I have a scrum board with wip limits for a column called Dev In Progress. We have a WIP limit of 5 currently and I want to set up automation to notify team members assigned to an issue that is pulled into this column when is breaches our wip limit. 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @frankie_medina 

Rather than using a notification approach, please consider using your team's own practices to help.  I just answered an almost identical question and rather than repeat that response, please see it here: 

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Re-Has-anyone-come-up-with-a-good-automation-to-help-enf/qaq-p/2936492/comment-id/1101642#M1101642

Kind regards,
Bill

[Stephen_Lugton]

Hi @frankie_medina 

Set up your automation something like this:

When: Issue Transitioned (to "Dev In Progress")

Then: Lookup Issues (JQL: status = "Dev In Progress" and Project = "My Project")

If: {{smart values}} condition (First value {{lookupIssues.size}}, condition "greater thea", second value "5")

Then: Comment on Issue / Send Slack message / Send Microsoft Teams message / Send webhook request / Send email / etc.

How you send the notification will depend on what message type is best for you.

You could also change the Then to change the status of the issue back to whatever it was before moving to Dev in Progress and add a comment saying that it was moved back due to WIP limits

[frankie_medina]

this is great. thanks

[frankie_medina]

any ideas on how to filter off a board specifically vs a "project". 

[Trudy Claspill]

You would have to use the base filter used by the board to filter based on a "board". There is no way to select a board by name and use that as the basis of a filter.

[Jovin]

Hey @frankie_medina 

This could be achieved with an automation rule like the below:

• Trigger: Issue transitioned
  • FROM: Leave blank
  • TO: <list all statuses in the desired limited column>
• Action: Lookup Issues
  • JQL: assignee = {{initiator}} AND status IN (<list all statuses again>)
• Condition: Smart value condition
  • First value: {{lookupIssues.size}}
  • Condition: Greater than
  • Second value: 5 (or your target)
• Action: Send Email
  • To: Initiator, Scrum Master
  • Subject: Issue {{issue.key}} has caused {{initiator.displayName}} to exceed WIP Limit
  • Body: Recommend placing something on hold or back to To Do

You can obviously change up the email content to match what you want, or alternatively replace it with a comment on the issue, or automatically transition it back to the original or a target status.

Hope that helps! 

[frankie_medina]

i'll try this. thanks

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @frankie_medina 

Scrum boards don't support setting WIP limits on columns. Are you sure you are using a Scrum board? Can you show us how you have set a WIP limit on the column?

There is no direct way to access a WIP value for a board column. To detect that a WIP limit has been breached you would need to use a JQL that is based on the board's filter, and then add to it to identify issues that are moved into the statuses of the specified column.

[frankie_medina]

sure. here is a snapshot. They are considered column constraints: 

[Trudy Claspill]

Ah! Well, I learned something new. I have not seen column constraints used on Scrum boards before.

[frankie_medina]

My teams are using scrumban practices and this really helps.