Adding Features Between Epics and Stories

[Holly Scott]

I'm working for a rapidly growing company from small business to insane business and Jira has ultimately fallen on me. I want to add in Features, but will Jira maintain work item links even if the work type name changes from "Epic" to "Feature" at the Epic level? I'm not as concerned about anything higher in levels. @John Funk

[Paul Glantschnig [Appfire] · Accepted solution]

Hi @Holly Scott ,

On renaming Epics to Features:

Yes, renaming the issue type preserves all existing links, parent relationships, and data. It's purely a display name change. However, be aware that level #1 in Jira's hierarchy (by default called "Epic") has special behaviour — it's how items appear in the backlog view, how the "Epic Link" / "Parent" field works, etc. So if you rename it to "Feature", everything still functions the same way, but it may confuse users who expect "Epic" semantics.

On adding a level between Epics and Stories:

This is the trickier part. Jira's built-in hierarchy only allows adding levels above Epics (requires Premium or Enterprise plan). You can't natively insert a level between Epics and Stories.

Common workarounds:

1. Rename levels: Rename Epic to "Feature" and add a new level above it (on Premium) called "Epic". This gives you Epic > Feature > Story, though the "Feature" level still behaves like Jira's level #1 under the hood.
2. Use issue links: Create a custom link type (e.g., "is feature of / has feature") and model the Feature-to-Story relationship through links rather than the built-in hierarchy. This is fully flexible and works on any plan, but Jira won't natively display this as a hierarchy in the backlog.
3. Labels or components: A simpler approach — tag Stories with a "Feature" label or component to group them, without adding a true hierarchy level.

Which approach works best depends on how you need to report on and navigate the hierarchy.

Just as food for thought — if you go the issue links route and want a way to actually visualise that hierarchy, my team and I work on JXL for Jira. It lets you define custom hierarchies based on issue links, so you'd see your Epic > Feature > Story structure in a table view with full nesting, regardless of how Jira's built-in hierarchy is configured.

Disclosure: I work for the team that builds JXL.

Best regards, Paul

[Holly Scott]

Thank you, Paul. This is very informative and will help me discuss these points with my superiors. Greatly appreciated!