Automating Jira workflows can help any company improve process efficiency, reduce repetitive work, develop consistency, and gain better visibility into project and task progress.
Because any project runs into its share of snags and your project management environment is always changing, rigid project structures can cause problems. Say you’re trying to manage a software task in a project initially designed for marketing campaigns. The mismatch between project type and task makes tracking difficult and creates confusion. In a situation like this, being able to move issues between projects easily becomes crucial, because it helps you maintain flexibility and align tasks with evolving needs.
Moving issues with Jira built-in automation
You can use Jira’s integrated automation to move an issue within a project as part of a workflow transition. But you can’t move an issue into a different project with a simple automation.
There is a workaround — you can use automation to clone the issue to the new project and delete the original.
Here’s how you do it:
- Add a “Clone issue” action and select the project you want to move the issue to.
- Add a “Delete issue” action to safely delete the original issue.
For more flexibility, use third-party add-ons to move issues between projects more smoothly and efficiently. Clone Plus for Jira, for example, can help you retain many of the values that aren’t cloned via the above workaround (like attachments, watchers, comments, and links). And it even enables you to clone issues in bulk.
Best practices and tips for moving issues
Here are six best practices and tips for moving issues from one project to another.
Define clear criteria for the issue movement
Understanding when an issue should move from one project to another should be your first step. Do you want it move when the status changes from Triage to In Progress — as it’s handed over from the project manager to the team? Or should it move based on a specific status update, like when the support team is handing it off to engineering? You’ll want to clearly define the criteria for the move before setting up the automation, so you know the input and output state of the issue.
Implement conditional transitions
Conditions help you ensure that automation only moves the issue in certain situations. The automation will only continue running if the conditions are met. For example, It’ll move the parent issue when all sub-tasks are completed.
Another way to add control to the transition is using workflow validators. Validators can you make sure that any input is valid before a transition is performed. E.g., it'll perform the transition only if the required fields are filled out correctly.
Conditions and validators ensure that your automation only works in the exact scenario you’ve defined. This way, you maintain workflow efficiency because only specific issues are moved.
Although Conditions and Validators aren’t available in Jira’s built-in automation, Atlassian marketplace apps like JSU or Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) offer an easy-to-use way to customize your workflows with conditions and validators.
Consider the Impact on Existing Workflows
The origin and destination projects will have their own workflows that the moved issues may impact. A deep understanding of the destination project and its workflows will help you decide whether it can handle the incoming issues so you’re not left with a mess.
For example, are there extra steps in the workflow that add different data to the same fields in both issues? Or maybe you’ll need to add a new step to the workflow to manage data from the new issues.
Ensure Data Integrity
If you’re using the above workaround with Jira built-in automation to move issues, keep in mind that Jira doesn’t bring over all the information (e.g., attachments) in a cloned issue by default. So you’ll want to review the clone options and verify the new issue to make sure everything you want is there.
Do this by including an issue validation step in the automation rule to prevent unintended data copying or missing information. To ensure full data integrity when cloning issues, try Appfire’s Clone Plus for Jira app. Clone Plus enables you to build admin-defined clone operations that include conditions for when clone options are available, defaults for what is copied and changed, logic for dynamically populated fields, and more.
Notify teams about status changes
Many Jira issues have notifications enabled, meaning relevant team members are notified whenever there’s a status change. This can be handy for keeping stakeholders informed, too, as you move issues between projects.
In addition, you can set up custom email notifications using apps like Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) or Power Scripts for Jira to make sure that, if issues are escalated or moved to a critical status, the right team members are informed and can jump in.
Error handling
If things go wrong, you’ll want to be prepared. If an issue can’t be moved for some reason, you need to understand why the cloning action failed, log the error, and work with your administrator to ensure the issue is quickly identified and addressed.
Improving productivity by automating issue movements
Automating repetitive tasks like issue moving and cloning reduces redundancy, increases collaboration, and saves time.
With the right setup, you can create an automation that clones issues based on pre-defined criteria, saving your team hours because they wouldn’t have to create, edit, and assign issues for each project. Team members could be automatically notified by other branched automations that are kicked off by the new project issues, ensuring that everyone works towards the project’s end goal with minimal fuss and oversight.
Moving issues is one of those mundane tasks that used to take hours and prevented team members from doing the valuable work they were hired for. By setting up an automation to handle the move, you eliminate that low-value time and replace it with high-value work. Team members reclaim hours of admin time, reduce errors, and improve communication and cross-team visibility.
Using third-party apps like Clone Plus can extend what you can do with issues. Clone one or do it in bulk and create optimized automations that match your unique workflow, processes, and products. With apps like JSU or Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) you can set up guardrails for how issues move via conditions and validator rules. And for more advanced scenarios, Power Scripts for Jira can help you set up issue movement automations based on advanced logic using scripts.
To discover how much you can get done with automation in Jira, reach out. Our automation experts can help you with custom automations to optimize your workflow.
