How to link parent between SS & Jira using connector?

Angie Hatfield

Use case:

Project created in SS using Epic, Task, Subtask (Parent, child, grandchild).

Rows are indented to identify tasks and subtasks.

Using Jira connector, data is pushed into Jira.

Epic, tasks, and subtasks are created in Jira.

Jira does not recognize the parent of a task or subtask.

No parent is pushed back to SS since it's not linked in Jira.

Tasks and subtasks become Epics in SS because they do not have a parent in Jira.

How do I resolve this? It's been suggested we manually connect them in Jira, however the Jira user isn't going to know without going into SS. Doing this manually kind of defeats the purpose.

Edit: I did try automating it in SS but because it's a formula, Jira connector doesn't work with formulas.

Thanks in advance!

Angie Hatfield

@Georgie Hi We actually found a solution without using an automation in Jira.

We wanted to do this in Smartsheet rather than Jira to keep our Jira automation numbers from increasing. There's so much automation in Jira that it seems we frequently need to review for next tier of automations allowed.

Solution:

We created 2 parents columns and added a column formula to each.

One column "Parent Linking" points to the "Task" (which is the primary column) =PARENT(Task@row).

The other column "Parent Key" points to the "Issue Key" =PARENT([Issue Key]@row).

For initial export to Jira, we set up the connector to point to the "Parent Linking" column. Everything loads into Jira cleanly, with proper parent and task type. This "Parent Linking" column is only used for this initial export.

We then changed the workflow, so it points to the "Parent Key" column instead of the "Parent Linking" column.

All future tasks (stories) and subtasks link correctly. Everything existing stays as is and everything new links to the correct parent in Jira (and back).

It's interesting that although they're both formula columns, they will work. I'm not seeing that with other formula columns.

I hope this is helpful to others.

Georgie

Hi @Angie Hatfield,

It looks like your question has been answered by @Allen T on this related thread - do you have any other questions on this? 

Thanks,

Georgie

Angie Hatfield

@Georgie Hi We actually found a solution without using an automation in Jira.

We wanted to do this in Smartsheet rather than Jira to keep our Jira automation numbers from increasing. There's so much automation in Jira that it seems we frequently need to review for next tier of automations allowed.

Solution:

We created 2 parents columns and added a column formula to each.

One column "Parent Linking" points to the "Task" (which is the primary column) =PARENT(Task@row).

The other column "Parent Key" points to the "Issue Key" =PARENT([Issue Key]@row).

For initial export to Jira, we set up the connector to point to the "Parent Linking" column. Everything loads into Jira cleanly, with proper parent and task type. This "Parent Linking" column is only used for this initial export.

We then changed the workflow, so it points to the "Parent Key" column instead of the "Parent Linking" column.

All future tasks (stories) and subtasks link correctly. Everything existing stays as is and everything new links to the correct parent in Jira (and back).

It's interesting that although they're both formula columns, they will work. I'm not seeing that with other formula columns.

I hope this is helpful to others.

Georgie

Hi @Angie Hatfield,

Thanks so much for posting your solution! I'm glad you got this resolved 😊

Georgie