Smartsheet-JIRA sync via formulas?

mbelinkie

Hi guys. I'm using the Smartsheet-JIRA connector. I have a workflow where the Status of each JIRA ticket flows back into Smartsheet. Then formulas in Smartsheet change the Priority of a row once its predecessor is complete. The idea is that you have a bunch of tickets in JIRA that are marked as priority Blocked if they have an uncompleted predecessor, and the priority in JIRA automatically changes once the predecessor is Done.

I set up the formulas in Smartsheet correctly - everything works on that side. However, it appears that the connector only syncs when you make changes in Smartsheet and SAVE a new version. I want to have the connector sync when any of the Smartsheet formulas update, even if the Smartsheet isn't even open. Is that possible?

Michael Weiland

Hello,

I understand that you have a formula that changes the Priority from "Blocked" once its predecessor is complete, and the Connector is only syncing the Priority value when the Priority value is changed and saved in Smartsheet. In order for formulas to run in Smartsheet, the sheet must be opened which will then trigger the formula to update the Priority values if the predecessor has been completed.

If you are opening the sheet and the Priority value is automatically updating, but the value still isn't updating without making a save to the row, please contact Smartsheet Support so that our team can investigate this further. To do this, fill out the form here: https://help.smartsheet.com/contact

Thanks!

Michael

Smartsheet Support

mbelinkie

Okay, so I can't use the connector to do any automatic formatting of JIRA tickets. Formulas will only work if I'm in the spreadsheet manually saving.

My best solution for making dependencies clear is putting the Issue ID of the dependency in the description of each ticket. ACT-168 might say: "Blocked by ACT-167." When ACT-167 is complete, the description for 168 says the same but "ACT-167" appears crossed out, because it's a live JIRA link. So I can tell my team members, "Look at the description for each ticket to see if there's a predecesor, and if that predecesor is done."

Is there a better way to handle predecesors? Basically I'm trying to transfer a plan that is very waterfall (Step 1, then Step 2, then Step 3) into tickets, and I need a way for the user to know what is ready to be worked on and what is blocked, without me manually editing every ticket. (Of course, 90% of the time the tickets will be tackled in sequential order so it's not a great mystery - I may be driving myself crazy looking for a technical solution when common sense would be fine.)