Using Automation to link due dates?

[VAlesbury]

I am trying to use automation to link all tasks within a project based on estimated timings. For example I would like to be able to change the due date on a  task and use a rule to get the previous task to end 3 weeks ahead of this? Is this possible? I would also like a rule that changes all child tasks to match the due date of a parent task?

thanks!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @VAlesbury 

Scenarios related to cascading date changes are challenging with automation rules, primarily due to the variety of ways issues can be "linked" and the execution service limits of rules.

Starting with your second question first:

I would also like a rule that changes all child tasks to match the due date of a parent task

Yes, that is possible when the number of child issues is 100 or less.  There are several cases to handle for this scenario, and you should consider how much accuracy you want to decide what to implement.  For example:

• when a parent changes Due Date, loop over the child issues to copy that Due Date
• when child is added to a parent issue, copy the Due Date
• when a child issue changes to a new parent, copy the new parent's Due Date
• when a child issue clears the parent field, then do ???
• when a person manually changes the Due Date in a child issue with a parent, then do ???
• etc.

For your second question:

I would like to be able to change the due date on a  task and use a rule to get the previous task to end 3 weeks ahead of this

How do you determine if a task is "previous" to another?  Knowing that will determine if / how this can be implemented.

Kind regards,
Bill

[VAlesbury]

Hi Bill,

thank you for your feedback, I know it was a long time ago but been caught up on the projects! so I have now set up child issues to follow the parent issue date using automation. The big question is if I can get a list of tasks to automatically change dates when the end task is changed. Timings are based on the 'Final release date' so any actions that need to be take should adjust if this is moved back or forth. Basically we need to work on certain tasks allowing a set time in weeks before the final release date. See my attached screenshot - overly complicated and very much a waterfall project that i can trying to fit into this tool. 

[Bill Sheboy]

First thing, you may want to read this article from @Trudy Claspill on automating the shifting of dates for dependent, linked issues.  There are some "gotchas" to be aware of, such as I noted in my original post for this thread.

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

Back to your question...

The big question is if I can get a list of tasks to automatically change dates when the end task is changed.

For scenarios like this, the initiating event is typically when a date field changes in a specific issue.  Then we identify which issues to update, and by how much time.

When you note the "end task", what does that mean?  If there is a connected chain of tasks, such as by issue linking, a rule could move down the chain to update them. 

• When the issues are all linked to a single first (or parent) issue, a rule can update a maximum of 100 issues
• But when the issues are in a chain, one by one, this approach can only work for up to 10 issues, otherwise it will exceed the service limits for automation recursion