Upcoming reintroduction of Jira connector sprint assignment logic

In version 11.9, we’re reintroducing an enhancement to Jira connector sprint assignment logic, addressing suggestions JIRAALIGN-4006 and JIRAALIGN-2010.

• Note: These changes will initially ship to cloud environments using our normal release cadence. On-premise environments will receive these changes in a future release.

As a result of this enhancement, story and defect sprint assignments will be able to snyc between Jira and Jira Align, depending on your connector settings. We originally released these changes in version 11.1, but rolled them back shortly after hearing some environments were seeing unintended sprint assignment changes while managing misaligned sprints.

Review this announcement to understand how Jira connector settings will affect story and defect sprint syncing behavior going forward, and how you can successfully manage misaligned sprints.

• Control sprint sync behavior
• Manage misaligned sprints

Control sprint sync behavior

As called out in the 11.8 release notes, we’ve changed the name of the Allow Jira Align to assign stories to sprints Jira connector setting to Story sprint assignment sync direction, to provide more clarity about the setting’s functionality. In version 11.9, this setting will control how sprint assignments are synced when various actions are taken:

When Story sprint assignment sync direction is set to Bidirectional:

• After moving a story or defect to the unassigned backlog in Jira Align, matching issues in Jira will be moved to the backlog.
• After closing a sprint in Jira, any open issues will have their matching stories or defects in Jira Align moved to the unassigned backlog.

When Story sprint assignment sync direction is set to Jira to Jira Align:

• After closing a sprint in Jira, any open issues will have their matching stories or defects in Jira Align moved to the unassigned backlog.

Manage misaligned sprints

Some administrators may correct misaligned sprints by deleting sprints inside of Jira Align and then forcing a connector sync, bringing in new sprints based on Jira data. This operation can still be performed, but to prevent unexpected changes in Jira, we’ll warn you when bidirectional syncing is enabled.

Warning message

When the Story sprint assignment sync direction setting is set to Bidirectional and a sprint is deleted in Jira Align, the following wording will display in the sprint deletion warning message:

This warning clarifies that any stories or defects associated with the deleted sprint will have their matching issues in Jira also moved to the backlog.

Fix misalignments while maintaining sprint assignments in Jira

If you need to delete your Jira Align sprints and use bidirectional sprint syncing, you can do the following to maintain current sprint assignments in Jira:

1. Change the Story sprint assignment sync direction Jira connector setting from Bidirectional to Jira to Jira Align.
2. Delete the sprint(s) in Jira Align.
3. Force a sync between Jira and Jira Align inside connector settings by doing one of the following:
   • Run a JQL query from the Jira Integration tab of the Jira settings page.
   • Select the Resync Future Sprints or Sync Board Now buttons from the Jira Sprints tab of the Jira management page.
4. Once the sync has completed and created new sprints inside Jira Align, change the Story sprint assignment sync direction setting back to Bidirectional.

Note that during the time the setting is changed to Jira to Jira Align, other intentional changes made to story or defect sprint assignments inside Jira Align will not sync back to Jira, and once the setting is reverted to Bidirectional, the connector will not catch up on such edits. Changes will sync based on existing logic: Items updated first in Jira will write to Jira Align, and items updated first in Jira Align will write to Jira.

We recommend using this method to fix sprint misalignment issues during low utilization hours, to reduce the risk of missing updates made by other users, especially during any planning events where sprint assignment changes are common.