Best practice: project automation or workflow trigger automation?

[Ellis Carvalho]

Hi!!

We have two options to create automated triggers between statuses (when PR is created, merged, closed...): edit the workflow and add a automated trigger to a transition OR create a project automation rule to do the same thing.

Is there a best practice to choose one or another?

[Guilhem Dupuy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ellis Carvalho , 

As a mater of fact there is no bad practice in both of these options; my opinion would be to create an Automation rule in order to keep the Workflow as simple as possible in case  you intend to reuse it in another project one day, but adding a trigger in the Workflow is also good otherwise.

I am not quite sur of what you call an "automated trigger", maybe you could explain it to me so that I can be a bit more specific ?

[Ellis Carvalho]

Thanks, @Guilhem Dupuy  !

I meant adding a trigger to a transition inside workflow configuration. I think you understood correctly, given your answer.

And I liked your opinion, it's a good point! However, if I want to use the workflow in another project, I probably would want the automations too. So I'm always confused about which option to choose, you know?

Anyways, I know it depends on many factors and probably there isn't a right answer to that, so thanks again for your point of view! :) 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Ellis Carvalho 

"Yes, and..." to what @Guilhem Dupuy  and @John Funk are saying: there are no best practices here, only better ones for different situations.

Each of these tools can help solve automation needs, and what you problem you are solving may drive which to use.  For example, to limit a status transition workflow seems better.  For automating notification or system interaction (Slack, DevOps, etc.), rules may be better.

Please consider looking over the examples in this community forum or the examples from Atlassian to get ideas of how to solve problems.  For example, here is the library of automation rule examples:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/automation-template-library#/label/all/1453

Best regards,

Bill

[John Funk]

Hi Ellis,

I agree with @Guilhem Dupuy  - there's probably no bad practice either way. If you are limited on the number of rules you can execute with Automation for Jira, then you might consider using post functions and triggers on the workflow. Otherwise, Automation allows you to not have to add the functionality to every workflow, but can be done more globally.