Automation to change Epic/Parent link to Issue type

[Melina Parisi]

Hello! 
I have a team working with support tickets (issue type = Support task) and they track those tickets on a monthly basis, using an Epic. We set up an automation to add those tickets with this specific issue type to the current Epic, but I was wondering if there's any way to automate the monthly epic and change it in the automation.

Thanks in advance! 

[John Funk]

Hi Melina,

Probably so - what is your exact scenario?

[Melina Parisi]

Thanks for the answer, John. My scenario is: every month we create a new Epic (named Support tasks July, Support tasks August, etc). We would like to automate the creation of the monthly epics + the assignment of the Support tasks to the current month Epic (to avoid editing the existing automation I have, that assigns parent link o issue type but then every month, when we have new Epic, I would have to manually add the new Epic)
I hope I'm explaining myself. 
Thanks in advance 

[John Funk]

Thanks for that. See if this article helps you. 

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Creating-a-Flexible-Recurring-Task-Issue/ba-p/2040862

[Melina Parisi]

Thanks again John. That article was super helpful, but only for the first part of my problem: automating ticket creation. What I still don't know how to solve, is to automate the Epic assignment to specific issue type. Any idea how to connect both?

[John Funk]

So help me to understand a little better. So the Epic gets automatically created, then exactly what do you want to happen? 

[Melina Parisi]

Sure! I have a team working with support tickets (issue type = Support task) and they track those tickets on a monthly basis, using an Epic. We set up an automation to add those tickets with this specific issue type to the current Epic, but I was wondering if there's any way to automate the monthly epic and change it in the automation.

[John Funk]

We should be able to figure that out.  :-)

I am thinking that you could create a Component called Monthly Support Epic. Add that to your Epic. When the Epic gets Cloned then that Component value should be in the new Epic. And there should not be any other open Epics with that Component value. 

So then you create an automation rule based on an Issue Created trigger. Add a Condition for Issue type = "Support task"

Then create a variable called MonthlyEpic. Use JQL for project = ABC and issuetype = Epic and Component = "Monthly Support Epic" and issueCategory != Done

That should get the only open support Epic. 

Then add an action for Edit Issue

Select the Parent field. Type in and select {{MonthlyEpic}}

That should provide the value from the variable, which is the single Epic. 

[Melina Parisi]

Thanks John, this might be a good solution. I will try it next week when I have a bit of time and get back to you! 

[John Funk]

Sounds good. Good luck!