Situation

After arranging issues into a hierarchy, you want to automatically update the assignee for each sub-issue to match it's parent-issue. For example, make all stories within an epic share the same assignee as the epic.

Solution

We will use a simple formula and Effectors to update the Assignee field for each issue to match it's parent issue.

In this example, we've used Insertand Extend generators to build an Epic > Story hierarchy. Each epic has been assigned to a team member, but the stories are still unassigned. We're going to use the Attribute to Issue Field Effector, along with a Structure formula, to change the assignee of each story to match its corresponding epic.

Structure with Unassigned stories

Step 1: Add a Formula Column to Capture the Parent's Assignee

Click the icon to the right of the column headers, and select Formula...

Give the column an appropriate name, and enter the following formula: PARENT{Assignee}

Step 2: Add an Effector

Now we need to take the information from our formula (which is only available in Structure) and write it to the Assignee field (so it is available anywhere in Jira).

Open the Automation menu and select Effectors.

Select Effectors from the Automation menu

Choose Attribute to issue field...

Attribute to Issue Writer

On the Effector settings screen:

  • The name field is updated automatically as you select the Effector properties. If you prefer, you can also click the edit button to enter a custom name.
  • Get Value From: Select the formula column we created in Step 1
  • Set Value To: Assignee
  • Limit To: Since we're getting our Assignee value from Epics, we want to make sure their Assignee value isn't changed - so we've added the following JQL Filter: Issuetype != Epic
  • Select whether email notifications should be sent when the Effector writes values to Jira

Effector Settings Screen

When you're finished, click Save and Run to run the Effector immediately, or click Save to simply add the Effector to the structure but not run it yet.

Step 3: Run the Effector

You can run an Effector directly from its settings screen (see above), or you can locate the Effector at the top of the structure, click the Action button (the three dots to the right of its row) and select Run.

Run Effector

You have the option to Preview effects before applying. This allows you to view and approve every change that will be made by the Effector. Effectors update live Jira data, so we highly recommend using the preview option. Click Run to begin.

Run Effector

Once the preview is finished, you will see a list of changes that will be made by the Effector. You can select which changes you want made, or click Apply All to apply all changes.

Apply Effector Changes

Once you've applied the selected changes, the Assignee field for each child issue should be updated to match its parent's Assignee:

Assignee fields updated to match parent's Assignee