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Can TFS4JIRA update the issue type or work item?

Can TFS4JIRA update the issue type or work item?

Overview

Both Jira and Azure DevOps allow you to change the type assigned to an issue or work item. If an issue is already linked with a work item through TFS4JIRA, how will the change impact the synchronization?

Impact

Changing the type should not break the synchronization between the issue and the work item unless the new type uses a different workflow with different statuses and states that are not mapped in the synchronizer. However, the synchronizer will not update the type of a linked ticket, meaning:

  • A Bug issue in Jira is synchronized with a Bug work item in Azure DevOps.

  • In Jira, the issue is changed to a Task.

  • The work item in Azure DevOps remains a Bug.

If you want to update the issue or work item type in a linked ticket, the best practice is to break the link between Jira and Azure DevOps and let the synchronizer create a new item with the updated type.

Breaking the link in TFS4JIRA self-hosted

If you use Custom Fields to store the Jira Issue ID and the Azure DevOps Work Item ID, clear these fields in both linked items and allow the synchronizer to recreate them with the new type. If you use comments in Azure DevOps to store Jira Issue ID, please follow this article to break the link:

How to unlink issue/workitem pair if using history to store the Jira issue key

Breaking the link in TFS4JIRA Cloud-native

Currently, you can’t break the link between items if they are synchronized using the Cloud-native plugin. Therefore, it is recommended that a new item be created instead of changing the item type.