Are there any restrictions on the work type hierarchy?

[Jan L]

I have a question about the work type hierarchy in Jira. I'm asking here because the Atlassian documentation and AI chats on this topic are unclear and contradictory. For Plans (Advanced Road Maps), I'd like a top-to-bottom hierarchy: Initiative -> Epic -> Feature -> Story.

I tried to do this in the work type hierarchy settings: url: company.atlassian.net/jira/settings/issues/issue-types
However, it's not possible to create a level between Epic and Story. Only levels higher than Epic are allowed, such as Initiative -> Feature -> Epic -> Story.

Perhaps it has nothing to do with the work type hierarchy and is a different setting or workflow.

Can someone help me figure out what the problem could be?

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

Hi!

Here! explained by the amazing Trudy and Valerie: 

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Issue-Types-and-Hierarchy/qaa-p/2936729#M1101724

Some more information:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Stories-to-features/qaa-p/3065055#M1136164

Regards!

[Jan L]

Thank you Aaron, appreciate your quick response.

Regards!

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @Jan L ! Welcome to the community!

Unfortunately, Jira doesn't allow you to insert custom levels between the default hierarchy levels (Epic (1) -> Task/Story/Bug (0) -> Subtask (-1)). It also doesn't allow you to add any custom levels below level -1. So, basically, in Jira Plans, you can only add new levels above Epic.

However, I can suggest using a workaround. You can have one more hierarchy level by adding checklists inside subtasks. In this case, checklist items will be at the -2 level of your hierarchy, and you will have 3 hierarchy levels below Epic instead of just 2.

As a result, your hierarchy will look like this:

Initiative (2) -> Epic (1) -> Feature/Task/Story/Bug (0) -> Subtask (Instead of Story) (-1) -> Checklist items (Instead of Subtasks) (-2)

Our solution, Smart Checklist for Jira, allows you to use checklists as a substitute for subtasks. For example, you can:

- tag responsible people

- add deadlines

- set custom workflow statuses for each checklist item

- add links, images, and details to the expandable sections below each checklist item

All this (and more) gives you most of the functionality you would get with subtasks, plus some new useful features, such as reusable checklist templates.

Here's an example of how it may look:

Please let me know if you have any questions!