Automatically transition Epics AND Stories as sub-tasks transition?

[Lloyd Mangnall]

I'm currently using Automation for Jira Cloud, but I'm open to ANY solutions that will work in the Jira Cloud. I'm able to transition Epics when 1st-level child issuesTypes transition. I'm also able to transition the 1st-level child issueTypes when their sub-tasks transition. However, I'm unable to figure out a way to have the sub-task autotransition up through the hierarchy. Is it possible for the transition of a sub-task to automatically transition its parent issueType AND automatically transition the parent's corresponding parentEpic? 

Our use case is that Epics always have Issues, but Issues don't always have sub-tasks, so people-driven transitions could occur at either the issue or sub-task level.

If anySubTask -> In Progress
then anyParentIssue -> In Progress
then parentEpic -> In Progress

Also doing the same for Resolving the sub-tasks, issues & epics, but I assume solution would be basically the same if it is possible.

If allSubTask -> Done
then allParentIssue -> Done
then parentEpic -> Done

I have the same problem with Portfolio's custom "Parent Link", but I'll save that for another discussion.

[andreas]

Hi Lloyd,

So this type of things is a little complex at the moment, however it should be possible.  I think the specific problem you have is, that you are struggling to access the Epic issue when a sub-task is transitioned (since that's 2 levels up in the hierarchy via the sub-task's parent issue).

To get access to this you can use a related issues action and select 'JQL'.  Then use this in your JQL:

key = {{issue.parent.fields.Epic Link}}

So this would be for the rule that's triggered when a sub-task transitions.  What this action will do is to run a search for an issue with the key, that matches the sub-task parent's epic link value (the issue key of the epic).  It will then put that issue into the context on that branch and you can transition it.

So your rule would look like:

• Trigger: issue transitioned
• JQL Condition: type = sub-task
• Related issues action: (with parent)
  • Do stuff for parent issues
• Related issues action: (with the jql above)
  • Do stuff for the epic

Hope this helps. Also apologies for the slow response - we were at Atlassian Summit last week!

Cheers,
  Andreas

[Mariana Kyrova]

Andreas, thank you so much for this! Works perfect for me :)

[BURMA RAJASHEKAR]

Hi @Mariana Kyrova , 

Even am facing the same issue which you have been faced recently about the automation hierarchy, So please could you share me the automation which you have configured, that would be very helpful for me to configure the rule in our instance.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,

Burma Rajashekar

[Rob Lion]

Andreas - Thank you for this solution, it worked perfectly for me!  After over 5 years, your answer is continuing to help folks out there in the Jira community!

Thanks,

Rob

[maichriedler]

I've written a small service that transitions Epics automatically if the status of linked stories is updated. It can be easily integrated into JIRA.

The source code is open source on GitHub here. I've also described in a blog post how it works here.