User Walkthrough
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Who should read this?
Jira end-users (Software, Work Management, or Service Management) who need to set up their own Out-of-Office rules.
Teammates interested in learning how to manage their individual coverage, comment messages, mention tags, and basic automation.
What you’ll learn here
How to navigate to the app
How to create and activate personal out-of-office rules.
How to reassign issues or delegate approvals to a coverer.
How to use mention tags and issue context to display your availability.
How to navigate and manage your personal rule list.
1. Launch the Out-Of-Office Rules List
Once the app is installed, you find a new menu entry "Out-Of-Office Assistant" in the user options drop-down menu in the upper-right corner.
A click on it will launch the Rules Manager, where you find all your active out of office rules.
2. Add your first rule
Click on the "Add rule for myself" button to create your first rule.
Keep reading: Adding and Modifying Rules
A form will display where the rule details have to be filled in.
Every rule has three sections that need to be define:
Schedule: When is the rule active?
Scope: To which issues does the rule apply?
Effects: What does the rule do to newly assigned issues?
Scheduling: Start and End Date
Select a start and an end date for your leave.
You can switch off the end date for open-ended leaves.
By default, we use the timezone of your browser – but you can also set the timezone of your Jira instance.
If you want to change the timezone, just do so in your JIRA profile.
Rule scope
Then choose the project scope or define a JQL filter to determine which issues should be considered.
The project scope defaults to "All Projects".
When more than one rule is defined for a specific date, rules based on JQL queries are evaluated first, followed by rules with specific projects and last rules with "All projects" selected.
Effects
Rules consist in three automation options that are executed on newly assigned issues falling under the rule scope:
Reassigning issues to a backup owner, or coverer.
Delegating approvals to an approver coverer
Posting an Out of Office message as a comment to the issue
Coverers
Then you can select one or more coverers
If you do, then the Out-Of-Office Assistant will try to assign the issue to one of them when it is assigned to you.
If there is more than one coverer, it will be assigned to the one that got the least reassigns yet.
If a coverer is also out of office then the assistant will assign a coverer for him (if available).
Approval Coverers
It's also possible to select coverers for approvals provided that there is at least one JSM project in the scope of the rule.
Keep reading: Delegating Approvals with Approver Coverers
Out of Office message
Then you can write a message
If a coverer is defined but the message field is empty, comments are not added.
If a coverer is defined and there is a message, the app will automatically add the line “The issue was reassigned to {coverer} by the Jira Out of Office Assistant
Mention Tag
You can decide whether you want to add an Out of Office tag to your name whenever you are mentioned by others across Jira.
By default, no tag is added
Tags can be added only during the leave or with 3 days in advance
You can also choose between several labels
Sharing messages with JSM customers
Out of Office messages can also be shared with customers provided that there is at least one JSM project in the scope of the rule.
By default, messages are NOT shared with customers over the customer portal/ email.
Keep reading: Sending Out of Office Messages to Customers
3. Assign an issue and see it reassigned
Select an issue in JIRA and reassign it to the user for which you just added an out of office rule.
The defined coverer is now assignee of the issue (if you defined one)
In the comments section, you find an entry with the out of office message
In the history, you will find an entry with the reassignment, which also displays in the app’s issue context (see next section)
4. Check whether issue assignees are Out of Office
Within each issue, you can also check whether the assignee is Out of Office from the app's issue context. This is useful to double check, for example, that the coverer for an issue is currently active.
Keep reading: Assigning from the issue context
