Managing the dates for all affected dependencies... when a task in your plan is delayed

[Giancarlo Fiorletta]

Hi everyone.  I'm using Advanced Roadmaps / Plans to manage the projects we currently have under way.

The problem I have is with how tasks that have dependencies behave, in any situation where one of the tasks falls behind.

If I have a task that runs late, and it has 4 tasks dependant on it (which means we now cant start any of those 4 tasks on time and they need to be delayed until the original task is completed), is there any way for me to force those dependant tasks to push back in conjunction when I move the original task, without having to push them all to a later date manually?

I'm in a situation where I'm having to move around a lot of dependant tasks, then the tasks that are dependant on those tasks also have to be pushed... etc etc, and its making planning really difficult and time consuming!

I know there is the auto scheduling tool but this isn't really very suitable either, because it puts some of the non dependant tasks in the wrong places (even though they're not always dependant, some tasks still have to be done concurrently with certain other tasks).

So I guess what I need is... if i need to push back task 1 but 5 days... dependant task 2 also moves by 5 days, as does any other dependencies... then i can tweak my schedule accordingly after that... is that possible?!

Thanks in advance!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Giancarlo Fiorletta 

I wrote an article on the topic of updating dependent task start and end dates when a predecessor task end date changes, using an automation rule. You may find it helpful.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Updating-dependent-task-s-dates-when-predecessor-task-date/ba-p/2816977

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Giancarlo Fiorletta 

The article which @Trudy Claspill provides also covers the potential risks of using an automation rule-based approach to solve this need: service limits, rule halting, etc.

Ultimately, Jira does not have built-in features to handle such cascading date shifting at this time.  I have seen posts where Atlassian teams have experimented to add it to plans, yet none of those were rolled out.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Giancarlo Fiorletta]

Thank you @Trudy Claspill and @Bill Sheboy.  

Hopefully improvements get implemented to make this a bit better at some point as its fairly fundamental to my ability to plan across multiple projects, but for the time being I'll see if i can implement something by following your article (albeit the restrictions might cause some problems). 

Thanks again, much appreciated.

[Adrián García González]

Hi @Giancarlo Fiorletta, welcome to the Community.

You can use Automation for Jira to achieve this. So that the rule is triggered every time you change the end date field in the issues to change the dates in the related issues.

You would have to set up an Automation rule with the following steps:

(1) TRIGGER: Field value changed: Due date (or other field you use for the end date)

(2) BRANCH: For Related Issues / Linked Issues
Link Type: Relates (or other field you use to relate dependencies)

(3) ACTION: Create Variable
Name: dateDiff
Smart Value: {{issue.Start Date.toDate.diff(issue.Due Date.toDate).days}}

(4) ACTION: Edit issue
Field: Start Date
Value: {{triggerIssue.Due date.plusDays(1)}}}
Field: Finish Date
Value: {{issue.Start date.plusDays(dateDiff)}}}

Let me know if it helped, best regards!

[Giancarlo Fiorletta]

Hi Adrian,

This is interesting! I'll need to check out the functionality and see if I can get it to work as intended but not a solution I had considered before.  Thank you for the suggestion, a shame there isn't anything that might help with this natively though. I thought i might have been missing something.

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Giancarlo Fiorletta 

Welcome to the community.

You could look into using Auto Scheduling in the plan.

See, how-does-the-auto-scheduler-in-advanced-roadmaps-work 

[Mikel Garcia Bartolome]

Hi, Using Advanced Roadmaps Auto Scheduling for this specific scenario would not achieve the intended results.

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Mikel Garcia Bartolome 

Then you can look at automation, but of cours this is on an action you do on an issue and equivalent actions on linked issues.

But of course this is not a preview as can be done in a plan, but a direct action.

[Giancarlo Fiorletta]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for your recommendation.  I understand your point about the direct action as a result of the automation.  I haven't fully looked into the auto scheduler so maybe there is some functionality in there that would help.  I'll check out the article and see if it provides some assistance.  Much appreciated.

[Giancarlo Fiorletta]

Hi @Marc - Devoteam

I've just watched a video on the auto scheduler, and it suggested that when using the scheduler, the tool seems to take into account the direct relationship between the task that's being pushed back, and the tasks its directly linked to.  However, any subsequent dependencies appear to be ignored, and are actually just parked in the earliest sprint after the current one. 

Do you know if that's accurate or if there's anything you can do to make sure they are also taken into account?  Also, is there any way to be selective about which issues are being planned? Say I wanted to leave the ones that I know need to be completed concurrently?

Thanks again!

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi @Giancarlo Fiorletta 

Yes this is accurate, if using a scrum project.

As issues do to the scheduler are pushed out of the sprint, they will be moved to the next.