Automation rules to stop a "duplicate" sub-task being created

[Heather Millar]

I recently asked about creating linked Stories from Epics automatically, and got responses to help me setup Automation Rules (Here, for info: Solved: Automatically create a linked story when moving an... (atlassian.com))

I need to try and take it a step further by ensuring that if the Epic is moved out of In Progress, back to Ready, then later moved back to In Progress it doesn't create an additional story using the original rule. I have tried using If/Else components to reference the "labels" field in any existing stories or other linked issues - if it has any stories with the label set to "documentation", don't create another story. The steps are;

1. Epic is transitioned from "Ready" to "In Progress"

2. If there are no sub-tasks linked to the Epic with "labels = Documentation", create a story, linked to this Epic, with a label of Documentation in the Technical Writing project (The Epics will be in different projects)

At this point everything is fine. If the Epic is moved back to Ready (it's not common, but it is possible) and then at some time in the future transitioned back into In Progress, then currently the rule is run again and a duplicate story is created in the epic. What I'd like to happen is that it finds one or more stories with the label set to "Documentation" and so doesn't create a duplicate one, instead just logs a message in the audit log (this was the only option I could find as a "Do Nothing" option)

I'm not sure if it's because the stories are created i a different project or if I'm just not creating the rule correctly or in the best way. I've attached a screenshot of the current rule.

[BHANU TEJA]

Hi @Heather Millar 

As per my understandings  If an epic is transitioned to Ready to InProgress  if no story matches with the label then it should create a new issue in Tw project

And when we transaction from Ready to InProgress for the same epic it is creating Duplicate ticket In Tw project is my understanding Correct?

[Heather Millar]

Hi @BHANU TEJA 

Yes, that is correct. So, the Epic is moved from Ready to In Progress for the first time, a story is created in the TW project. If, for some reason the project is delayed it get's moved back to Ready and then when it goes back to In Progress again, a duplicate story is created.

[BHANU TEJA]

Hi @Heather Millar 

This scrn shots might help you it might work for your sceneri

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Heather Millar 

Would you please post an image of the audit log showing two cases when the rule works as expected and when it does not?  That may provide some context to help.

Until we see that...

You note the issues (epic and stories) are in different projects.  In that case, this rule must be either global or multi-project in scope for the condition on the JQL to find the issues.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Heather Millar]

Hi Bill,

I suspect the issue is going to be do do with not having multi-projects set, I haven't been able to work out how to do that, but I was beginning to suspect that might be the issue. I don't want to create it as a Global Rule, as there are too many projects I don't want affected.

Also, haven't been able to find a way to view the audit log in a project.

Thanks

Heather

[Bill Sheboy]

For the audit log, when you are viewing the rule, the audit log will be shown at the top-left.  Find the one for the rule execution, and select "Show more" to see the details of the steps run and what happened.

Regarding rule scope, if you can identify the projects impacted by the rule, you can then work with your Jira site admin to move the rule and set it up correctly as multi-project for those ones.