Jira Automation: Show # of Days (in decimal format) Once Sub-Task Transitioned to Done status

[Akash Panchal]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to add a Jira automation rule for the following:

- IF sub-task transitioned to DONE status, THEN show the # of days it took to complete the sub-task in a field on the sub-task screen

I have been able to accomplish this by adding the following within a field called "Total Duration":

{{issue.created.diff(now).days}} Days

The problem is that this displays the following:

- Example:

- Created: 8/24/23 & 8:00AM

- Transitioned to DONE: 8/24/23 @ 5:00PM

- Total Duration: 0

The total duration is rounding to the nearest whole day, not showing partial days. In the example above, the sub-task took 9hrs to complete which is 9/24 --> 0.375 Days. How can I get it to show days in a decimal format?

Thank you!

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Akash Panchal 

Have you tried using either:

• Diff on hours, and then divide to get your fractional amount, or...
• Use a much more complicated rule, accounting for working/non-working days and hours.  Such a rule would perform multiple diff(), remove weekends and non-working hours, etc.

The approach you use will depend upon your specific scenario / needs.

And also...what you seem to be measuring is often called Lead Time (i.e., from request to completion time).  If you want the actual working time you could use the built-in Control Chart report, or do something a bit more to measure in-progress time, like with this how-to for Age of WIP: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-discussions/What-is-your-most-useful-automation-Here-is-mine/m-p/1561072#M34

Kind regards,
Bill

[Akash Panchal]

@Bill Sheboy Thanks for the response. 

I was hoping that a simple change like below would work:

{{(issue.created.diff(now).minutes)/1440}} Days

Unfortunately, it doesn't. I'll look into your approach as well.

Thanks again!

[Bill Sheboy]

With that approach, you are close.  Please try this adjustment:

{{issue.created.diff(now).minutes.divide(1440)}} Days

There are two formats for math expressions: in-line and the longer form.  However they cannot be combined, which is what you were doing.

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-math-expressions/ 

[Akash Panchal]

The adjustment above does work, but it still seems to exclude any decimal points after the whole day value. 

[Bill Sheboy]

My mistake: the rule is trying to "help" by using the precision from the left-most value in the expression.  We can force this like this:

{{#=}}ROUND({{issue.created.diff(now).minutes}}/1440,3){{/}}

Please adjust the 3 in the ROUND() call to your desired precision.

[Akash Panchal]

@Bill Sheboy  This is perfect, I really appreciate your help. It works as expected. 

Thank you!