Need help building an automation for deleting work item if a field value IS NOT a specific value

[Christopher Carvalho]

Hi team!

I need help to build an automation with the following requirements:

If a dropdown/picklist field (such as assignee) has anything else but a specific value, that work item must be deleted;

Here is a screenshot of what I tried to build, but didn't work:

Am I missing something? The automation should delete the work item if the assignee field value changes OR has anything else rather than Christopher Carvalho.

However, after applying the automation, I'm changing the assignee of some work items back and forth but the automation won't trigger for them.

Any help?

[Mikael Sandberg]

The new conditions that you can add to the trigger may sometimes not work correctly due to a racetrack issue that Atlassian is working on. What you can try is to add the condition as its own component after the trigger and see if that works.

[Christopher Carvalho]

Hi @Mikael Sandberg 

Thanks for the tip, it's working for me now but I'm having troubles trying to make it work for items being created with the value that should trigger the automation.

For example: If an item is created with Group field value as B, then it should be deleted afterwards.

This isn't happening, I even created a second automation to cover item creation with the following parameters:

Any clues here? 

[Mikael Sandberg]

What does the audit log say? When you say it doesn't work, are you meaning it doesn't get passed the condition? Or is it the delete action that doesn't work?

[Christopher Carvalho]

I create an item with a value that should trigger the automation > automation doesn't trigger.

Apparently, it only triggers the automation if I create an item with any value for that field > after the item creation, I update that field with any values that should trigger the automation > the automation kicks in

The automation isn't triggering for items that are created with the unwanted values, only when I update an item that was already created that it triggers.

[Mikael Sandberg]

That is expected, the value added in combination with create will never happen, since the work item hasn't been created yet. If you change the value added to any changes to the field value it should trigger. But I would use the Work item created instead as the trigger, and then use a condition to check the field value.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Christopher Carvalho 

First thing, I recommend not deleting work items.  There is no "undo", increasing the risk of deleting something accidentally.  Instead, consider removing the "delete permission" from everyone except Product Admins, and instead ask people transition items to Done (or Cancelled), with a Resolution of "Abandoned".  Then the work items can always be recovered...and periodically truly deleted by the admin during cleanups of old items.

Back to your question...

Work item assignment has its own event and trigger; it does not trigger an update event.  Please see the Work Item Assigned trigger to learn more.

Kind regards,
Bill