Setting up automation rules to keep a parent issue's status updated based on the status category of its child issues in Jira is a powerful way to maintain project organization and ensure that the overarching status reflects the progress of its components.
Use cases cover most scenarios where a parent's status might need to be updated:
When a child issue is added to a parent issue
When a child issue transitions between status categories
When a child issue is removed from a parent issue
đźź© When an new issue is created and added to Initiative/Epic
An issue is created and a parent field is populated relating it to an Epic or Initative, this rule will run to check the status of the newly created issue, along with the statuses of the other child issues and update the status of the parent issue status accordingly.
Update Parent Epic/Initiative status when child issue added
Trigger
Issue Created
Conditions 1
Issue is not a sub-task - we are excluding these as parents would be Stories/Bugs etc.
Parent is not empty - this issue is related to an Initiative or Epic
Statuscategory = “In Progress” - issue is in an “In Progress” status category
Branch 1 to the Parent
Parent Condition - Parent statuscategory != “In Progress”
Parent Action - Transition to “In Progress”
Conditions 2
Parent is not empty - this issue is related to an Initiative or Epic
Statuscategory = “To Do” - issue is in a “To Do status category
Branch 2 to the Parent
Parent Condition 1 - Parent statuscategory != "To Do"
Parent Condition 2 - ALL children’s statuscategory != “In Progress” - there are no child issues “In Progress” status category
Parent Action - Transition to “To Do”
đźź© When an child issue is transitioned to To Do status category
When an issues that is related to an Initiative or Epic and it is transitioned to a “To Do” status category, this rule will run to check the status of the transitioned issue along with the statuses of the other child issues and update the status of the parent issue accordingly.
Set parent status to To Do when ALL children are in To Do status category
Trigger:
Issue Transitioned
Conditions:
Issue is not a sub-task - we are excluding these as parents would be Stories/Bugs etc.
Parent is not empty - this issue is related to an Initiative or Epic
Statuscategory = “To Do” - issue is in a “To Do” status category
Branch to the Parent
Parent Condition 1 - Parent statuscategory != "To Do"
Parent Condition 2 - ALL children’s statuscategory = “To Do” - all child issues are in “To Do” status category
Parent Action - Transition to “To Do”
đźź© When an child issue is transitioned to In Progress status category
When an issues that is related to an Initiative or Epic and it is transitioned to a “In Progress” status category, this rule will run to check the status of the transitioned issue and update the status of the parent issue accordingly. We don’t check the other child issues because the trigger issue being transitioned to “In Progress” would meets to requirements for the parent issue to be “In Progress.”
Set parent status to In Progress when any children are In Progress status category
Trigger:
Issue Transitioned
Conditions:
Issue is not a sub-task - we are excluding these as parents would be Stories/Bugs etc.
Parent is not empty - this issue is related to an Initiative or Epic
Statuscategory = “In Progress” - issue is in an “In Progress” status category
Branch to the Parent
Parent Condition 1 - Parent statuscategory != "To Do"
Parent Condition Note - We don’t check other child issues because if one child issue is “In Progress” parent issue should reflect “In Progress”
Parent Action - Transition to “To Do”
đźź© When an child issue is transitioned to Done status category
When an issues that is related to an Initiative or Epic and it is transitioned to a “Done” status category, this rule will run to check the status of the transitioned issue along with the statuses of the other child issues and update the status of the parent issue accordingly, unless the parent issue is On Hold. If so, it will remain On Hold.
Trigger:
Issue Transitioned
Conditions:
Issue is not a sub-task - we are excluding these as parents would be Stories/Bugs etc.
Parent is not empty - this issue is related to an Initiative or Epic
Statuscategory = “Done” - issue is in an “Done” status category
Branch to the Parent
Parent Condition 1 - Parent statuscategory != "Done" and status != “On Hold” - we don’t update the status if the Epic/Initiative is On Hold
Parent Condition 2- ALL children’s statuscategory = “Done” - all child issues are in “Done” status category
Parent Action - Transition to “Done”
đźź© When an child issue is removed from a parent issue
When a child issue is removed from a parent issue, the rule will check the status of other child issues and update the parent accordingly.