Close a Story When All Sub-tasks are Closed

Owned by Daniel Barrow
Last updated: Oct 20, 2023
4 min read

Scenario

When all related Sub-tasks for a Story are completed and closed, automatically transition the Story to Done.

Resolution

This solution uses the Transition issue post-function and requires conditional execution using a Nunjucks script. When an issue is closed, the script refers to the related Story of the issue being closed (if there is one), and checks the status of all sub-tasks for that Story. If it finds a sub-task that has a status other than “Resolved”, the post-function will not run and the Story will not be transitioned. If all sub-tasks for the related Story are closed, the post-function will run and the Story will be closed.

Note: this configuration is an example of a post-function executing on a target issue versus the current issue. The current issue is the issue that triggers the post-function to run; the target issue is the issue that will be updated by the post-function. The post-function configured below will run whenever any issue is closed, but it will trigger a transition on a different issue than the one that initiated it.

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Steps to Create

1. Add Transition issue(s) post-function

  1. Log into your Jira instance as an Administrator.

  2. In the upper right corner of the window, click Settings ( ) and select Issues.

  3. In the left-hand sidebar, click Workflows.

  4. From the list of Workflows, click the Action button ( ) for the appropriate workflow and select Edit.

  5. Edit the transition:

    1. When viewing the Workflow in Diagram view (Figure 1, right), select the Transition and click the Post Functions link. Click Add post function at the top of the list of existing post functions.

    2. When viewing the Workflow in Text view, click the name of the Transition then select the Post Functions tab. Click Add post function at the top of the list of existing post functions.

  6. Select Transition Issue(s) (JMWE app) from the list of post-functions and click Add.

Edit Transition
Figure 1 - Edit Transition

 

2. Configure the post-function

When using the Transition issue(s) post-function, the target issue will be moved through its workflow based on the post-function configuration. Generally, the post-function can be configured with a prioritized list of transitions to trigger and it will move the issue through the first transition that is appropriate to its current status. In this scenario, the post-function is configured with a single transition - Done - and uses conditional execution to only execute the post-function under very specific circumstances. See Transition issue(s) for more information.

Note: The configuration below has a few pre-requisites in order to function as described.

  • The parent Story is in a status immediately preceding the Done status, or the transition to Done is available from all other statuses.

  • The Nunjucks script included under Conditional execution checks for a status value of “Resolved” to determine if each sub-task is closed. This value will need to match your status value for the Done status.

Set the following configurations:

  1. Issue(s) to operate on (Point 1, Figure 2, right) - Set Target issue(s) to Parent issue of the current sub-task.

  2. Transition(s) (Point 2, Figure 2, right)

    1. Set Transition(s) to Trigger on of the following transitions.

    2. Set Transition name or ID to Done, or the appropriate transition to move the issue to a closed status. Click Transition picker to open a window where you can search for a specific transition.

    3. Once you have set the Transition Name or ID, click Add. (Point 3, Figure 2, right)

  3. Run As (Point 4, Figure 2, right) - Set as needed; it is recommended to leave the default Add-on user value unless required for specific reasons.

  4. Transition Screen (Point 5, Figure 2, right) - Set as needed.

    1. If any fields are required to transition the issue, add them here.

    2. In the example (Figure 2, right) the Comment field has static text added to the parent Story - This issue has been closed because all sub-tasks have been resolved.

    3. Set Comment visibility as needed.

  5. Conditional execution (Point 6, Figure 2, right) - Enter the following:

    1. Check the box Run this post-function only if a condition is verified.

    2. In the Condition field, enter the code:

      {% set subs = targetIssue | subtasks("status") %} {% set trigger = true %} {% for sub in subs %} {% if sub.fields.status.name != "Done" %} {% set trigger = false %} {% endif %} {% endfor %} {{ trigger }}

  6. Delayed execution (Point 7, Figure 2, right) - Set as needed.

  7. Click Add.

Figure 2 - Configure the Post-function

 

3. Publish and Verify