Trying to create a new story via automation and set story points to 1

[Paul Merrill]

I'm trying to do something that should be very easy but it seems that Jira is making it frustratingly difficult to.

I have created a Task Creation Automation that when a story transitions from In Progress to In Review I want Jira to create a new story and assign that new story 1 story point.

The story creation works fine but for the life of me I cannot get the automation to assign 1 story point to the new story. The new story is created fine but the points are not set.

How does this need to be coded?

You can see in the picture below on the right, I have set Original Estimate to 1 in the box and Actual Story Points to 1 as well but when the story is created, no estimate is set. This is so not obvious. I don't know if I need to put 1 in the box or {1} or some other format.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Paul Merrill 

Please show us the details in the Audit Log for an execution of the rule.

Please also show us an example of an issue created by the rule, including showing us each of the fields you expect to be set by the Automation.

What is the type of the project in which you create the issue? Get the project type information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

If you create the same type of issue in the same project manually through the UI are you able to set the fields manually during issue creation?

[Paul Merrill]

Here's an example of the task created.

The TYPE information says Company-managed software.

If I open the new story created by the automation in Jira I can go to Story Points and put in 1 and then close and it works fine. What I'm trying to do is set Story Points to 1 from the Automation.

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for that additional information.

I am a little confused. You say that want to set the Story Points field in your automation rule. But in the rule you showed us there is no evidence that you are attempting to set a value for that field. Instead it shows you setting values for the Original Estimate and Actual Story Points fields. Where is the evidence that you are trying to set the "Story Points" field in the Automation?

In the Create Issue action have you actually selected the "Story Points" field and entered a value for it? If not please update the action to include that. Then execute the action that triggers the rule.

If the resulting new issue does not have the "Story Points" field set, please provide the following:

1. A new screen image showing the modified Create Issue action in the rule. Show all the information in that action, please.
2. A screen image of the newly created issue showing the "Story Points" field.
3. A screen image of the details of the rule execution Audit Log for the execution of the rule. Find the link to the rule's Audit Log summary page in the upper right corner, above where you enter the details for the rule steps. That screen will show a list of time stamped entries for each change you made to the rule and for each time the rule executed. Find the entry that coincides with when you triggered the rule. Click the Show More link to the right of that entry to show the log details for that one execution. Provide a screen image of the details.

Lastly, rather than trying to manually edit the field in an issue created by the rule try manually creating such an issue from scratch. Click the Create button. Select the same Project and Issue Type referenced in the rule. In the Create Issue dialog do you see an entry field for "Story Points"? Can you enter a value in that field and save the issue?

[Paul Merrill]

Perhaps let me explain differently. I have an automation that has two steps. The first is when an issue transitions from In Progress to Review, then I want an automation to create a new story. This part does work. In the Then: Create a new story in the same project I can see on the right hand side:

I've added in the rule Original Estimate and Actual Story Points and set them to 1.

Now for some reason, the new task is created correctly, except the Original Estimate and Actual Story Points in the new task created are blank.

If this is the wrong way to do it, then I honestly think the interface to create an automation is obtuse. It's a simple automation and it shouldn't be this hard to create.

[Paul Merrill]

I think I may know what you're saying but again, the UI sucks. What I'm hearing you say is don't bother with the Original Estimate field or the Actual Story Points Field, leave them blank. Fine.

Under the More options there is an additional fields section that has a bunch of text in it (see below). Am I correct if I say that I need to put "code" in this section to set story points of the new task I'm creating, perhaps something like, {"Story Points": {1}}

Here's the text in the additional fields section I can see:

{
"fields": {
"environment": "Thanks for raising {{issue.key}}.",
"labels": [
"bugfix",
"blitz_test"
],
"Custom Field Name": {
"value": "red"
}
}
}

[Paul Merrill]

Here's another approach to solving my problem. I have an automation that is used to create a new story when a user drags any story from In Progress to Review. What I want to do is have the automation create that new story and set the points of that new story to 1. My automation creates the new story fine it just that I don't know how to set the story points to 1. Can someone tell me step by step how to set the story point to 1 for that new story?

[Trudy Claspill]

I wrote a reply after your post on August 1, but either I didn't save it or it otherwise got lost.

You do not need to use JSON code in the More Options section to set the Story Points field. The text you see there is sample code that will be ignored unless you edit it.

To set the Story Points field in your Create Issue action:

1. Click the Choose fields to set... button

2. Type Story into the search field. This should reduce the field list to a set that includes Story Points (3)

4. Check the box next to the Story Points field that should be displayed in the result set.

5. This should move the field to the Selected Fields section at the top of the pop-up with the box checked.

6. Click somewhere in the white space of the Create Issue dialog outside of that field selection box.

7. That should make the field selection box close and you should see the Story Points field displayed in the Create Issue dialog.

8. Type a 1 into the entry field below Story Points

9. Click the Update button above the Create Issue action dialog to save the change to your rule.

10. Execute the actions that cause the rule to run.

11. Review the new issue created. The Story Points field should show a "1" in it.

If it does not, please do the following to help us help you debug the issue.

11. Provide the output from the rule execution Audit Log.

11.a. Find the link to the rule's Audit Log summary page in the upper right corner, above where you enter the details for the rule steps. Click that button.

11.b. The Audit log screen will display. That screen will show a list of time stamped entries for each change you made to the rule and for each time the rule executed. Find the entry that coincides with when you triggered the rule. Note that this should have a status like Success, or Some Errors, or Failed. The ones that say Config Changed are from when you made changes and saved the rule.

11.c. Click the Show More link to the right of that entry.

11.d.  That will show the log details for that one execution. Provide a screen image of the details.

12. Lastly, rather than trying to manually edit the field in an issue created by the rule try manually creating such an issue from scratch.

12.a. Click the Create button.

12.b. Select the same Project and Issue Type referenced in the rule.

12.c. Do you find the Story Points field in that dialog?

12.d. Enter a value in that field, complete all other required fields, and save the issue. Then review that newly created issue and confirm that the Story Points field has the value you entered.

[Paul Merrill]

Trudy, many thanks this worked fine. The new story is created with an effort of 1.

As a recommendation to Atlassian, I'm a firm believer in the 80/20 rule, or even the 90/10 rule.  The interface to the automations currently caters for 100% of the users, it is very feature rich, very nuanced and probably very powerful. However, I suspect that 90% of the Jira users don't use it and those users that do, like me, only need very simple automations. If I were the Product Manager I would maybe think of having a toggle on the automations page that has Automations: <Simple/Complex>. Complex would expose all the functionality to the user, while Simple perhaps only has 5-10 field that you could programmatically change, like effort and others. If Atlassian did a review (via an analysis script) of all the automations for all users, they could probably determine where to draw the line to make it much easier for the average users. There may even be 2-3 groups that could be catered for Basic Level (like me), Advanced Level (more complicated), Genius Level (full access to everything to perform magic). I bet that 90% of the users would sit in the Basic Level and 1% may be in the Genius Level...but happy to be proved wrong!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Paul Merrill 

I'm glad my final answer was able to help you get the results you wanted. Please consider clicking on the Accept Answer button to mark your post as Solved.

To get your feedback directly to Atlassian I recommend that within Jira you click on the Help button(the question mark near your avatar on the menu bar) and selecting the Feedback option there. As this is a user community it is not the best way to ensure your feedback is seen by Atlassian.