Automation: Sync Idea status in Jira Product Discovery with Delivery ticket status in Jira

[Michael Schwienbacher]

Hi everyone,

we are using Jira Product Discovery to document all our ideas. Once an idea is fully defined, we directly create a delivery ticket from the Jira Product Discovery issue so that everything is nicely linked together.

Example - how the delivery ticket is created from Product Discovery

Example - end result of the delivery ticket linking the Discovery Ticket

Now I’d like to set up an automation that updates the status of the idea in Jira Product Discovery whenever the status of the delivery ticket changes in Jira.

I’ve already seen solutions that work with connected work items, but this doesn’t work for me because ideas created in Jira Product Discovery and their linked delivery tickets are not connected as “connected work items.” Instead, they are linked in a different way (idea → delivery ticket), as shown in my last screenshot.

Ideally, the trigger should be a status change on the delivery ticket, but I’m not sure whether it’s possible to configure the automation to recognize the way Jira + Jira Product Discovery link these tickets.

Has anyone already solved this?

Thanks in advance!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Michael Schwienbacher 

As you found, when Jira Product Discovery (JPD) uses the "Delivery Ticket" feature, that is a special type of link.  And the Story work items are in different projects than JPD, requiring:

• the rule to have a global or multiple project scope, and
• to have special handling due to the differences in Status type configurations.

Putting those together, your rule could look like one of these approaches, created from the global automation area to set the scope:

Using conditions...

• trigger: work item transitioned
• condition: type is one of Epic, Story, Task, etc. (the ones you connect to the Ideas)
• related issues condition: use the JQL function linkedIssues() to check if there is an associated Idea using  (FYI -- the documentation is wrong as the functions have not changed yet for the renaming of "issue" to "work item".)
• if / else block
  • condition: status is Done
  • branch: with JQL to the linked Idea
  • action: transition the Idea to its "Done" status
• else / if
  • condition: status is In Progress
  • branch: with JQL to the linked Idea
  • action: transition the Idea to its "In Progress" status
• ...

There is a template rule based on this approach in JPD projects, but it only handles one status type.  Please look at that template if you want to use that:

When a delivery ticket is done → mark idea as done

Another way to do this is with the REST API to transition the status, eliminating the need for the if / else block.  Although that is shorter, it has additional complications:

• trigger: work item transitioned
• condition: type is one of Epic, Story, Task, etc. (the ones you connect to the Ideas)
• related issues condition: use the JQL function linkedIssues() to check if there is an associated Idea using  (FYI -- the documentation is wrong as the functions have not changed yet for the renaming of "issue" to "work item".)
• action: create a lookup table to map the delivery ticket status values to your Idea status transitions
• action: Send Web Request, to call the REST API endpoint for a transition

Kind regards,
Bill

[Michael Schwienbacher]

Hey Bill, thanks for your input. I'm having trouble with the linkedIssues() function when trying to find the associated Idea. According to the documentation, it's possible to find a linked ticket of a particular type, but I can’t manage to translate that into a proper JQL query. Could you please send me the exact JQL statement?

[Jeroen Poismans]

Hi and welcome to the community!

Short answer: Not directly
Long answer: With a workaround

Here is what you could do with automation:

• Trigger on Idea linked to Delivery work item
• Link the items with a regular link (behind the scene), keeping the JPD Idea link
• Then build automation as normal: On status change of the Delivery work Item

The automation trigger for Idea linked is a bit tricky, something you just need to know:

Use the Polaris issue link type to detect the link. What I did here is comment the triggering and destination issue to see which is which.

Issue = Delivery
Destination = Idea

Using this you can link them together via the regular link. A workaround, but the only thing I can come up with.

Hope this helps!

[Michael Schwienbacher]

Hi Jeroen, thanks for your quick reply.

I don’t see the link type “Polaris issue link” in the trigger “Work item linked”.

I can choose from three types:

- Polaris datapoint work item link (added to idea, is idea for)

- Polaris merge work item link (merged into, merge from)

- Polaris work item link (is implemented by, implements)

Which type should I use? I assume it’s type 1 (Polaris datapoint work item link)?

We’re on the standard version of Jira and Jira Product Discovery premium.

[Jeroen Poismans]

Work items is the new terminology for what used to be issue. So the last one.

[Michael Schwienbacher]

Okay, thanks. Now I have the problem that {{destinationIssue.key}} doesn’t work in the comments. It gives me an empty output, meaning it doesn’t write the key into the comment.

[Jeroen Poismans]

Make sure you are looking at the comments of the correct work item (idea or delivery).