Skipping hierarchy with Initiatives/ Portfolio

[Jam]

Hi Atlassian Team,

while checking out Portfolio I have a question about grouping issues/ big picture with initiatives:

1. We allowed the ticket type "initiative".
2. Sometimes I want to assign STORIES, which are not part of an EPIC, to INITIATIVES anyway.
3. By doing this I attempt to break the hierarchy Initiative > Epic > Story.
4. It seems to be impossible.
5. But sometimes it makes, if it is a rather small thing that does not justify an epic.
6. Or do I have to use a dummy wrapper epic in this case?

Side question on setting up Initiatives:

1. I found the tip online to create a dummy project for initiatives only so that this managementy level of info does not interfere inside my actual project.
2. (Also how you set up Jira + Portfolio for multi-project usage?!)
3. When I tried to add the main project and the dummy project to Jira Portfolio, I got an error message that initiatives as a type are in no selected project.
4. Error only went away when I allow Initiatives in the main project directly.
5. But then, initiatives can be selected as ticket type and initiatives appear as backlog items in main project – undesirable.

I would love to get some guidance here.

Thx
Jam

[Phil]

Hi Jam,

as far as I know, it is not possible to break the Initative > Epic > Story hierarchie.

Regarding your second question:

There are two ways:

1. Add several projects/boards from JIRA to a plan in Portfolio.

2. Use only one project per Portfolio plan and create a program for an overview: 

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfolioserver/programs-931037964.html

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfolioserver/creating-and-deleting-programs-931037970.html

Regards,

Phil