How to get parent issue irrespective of issue type.

Question

Is there any way to close parent issue irrespective of issue type where all the child issues status are in Done stage.

As you can see in the above snap, it "Closed" Epic parent once all child issues are "Done".

But what if the parent issue type is "Improvement", "New Feature" etc.

Thanks in advance!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

I think there may be a misunderstanding of relationships and types here, and I think it's worth just explaining that there are several different relationships that issues might have with each other.

The language in this area is also fuzzy, even when talking in Jira-speak.  I am actually going to avoid using the phrases "parent" and "child" because while they make sense, they do not always make clear what the differentiations between relationships are.

Jira Software has a three level hierarchy:  Epic -> Issue -> Sub-task

* In the Epic level, there can be only one Epic type, and most of us never change its name, so the word "Epic" almost always means just "Epic"
* At the issue level, you can create many types of issue.  Story is the name of one standard issue type, but other issue types at this level all behave the same way.  So Features, Issues, Improvements, Stories, Penguins, whatever, all behave the same
* Sub-tasks are similar to issues in that you can have many types and (except in team-managed projects where you only have "sub-task" available)

Hence, there are three relationships that could be formed:

* Epic -> Issue
* Issue -> Sub-task
* Epic -> Subtask

The important point here is that these relationships are done totally differently in Jira.  The relationship between Epic and Issue in Jira is totally different to the relationship between Issue and sub-task.

This means you need to consider the type of relationship the issues have whenever you are doing searches or configuring things that rely on relationship.

So, bearing in mind that Issues (stories) are not sub-tasks of their Epics, you need to look at what relationship you are trying to select for.  Is it the Epic -> Issue, or are you looking at Issue -> sub-task?

Mohini Chandwani · Answer

Hello @Darryl Lee

For child as Subtask is possible and working too.

But in my scenario, child issues are of "Improvement","New Feature","Task" etc. type.

And there is no branch available for this, either Epic parent or Subtask is possible not other issue types.

Darryl Lee · Answer

Whoops! I forgot the last bit of that rule, where you change the Parent status to Done.

But also, there's a Template that's similar to this:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library/rules#/rule/140671