How do I close an issue in Jira without depending on the status of child Epic issues

[Igor Fernandes]

I’m trying to configure Jira so that I can close an issue (feature) even when there are open Epic child issues. Here are some more details of what I need:

• The scenario involves issues that have Epic child issues that sometimes remain open.
• I need to be able to close the parent issue without requiring all related Epics to be closed.

Main question: Is there an automation, workflow, permission, or other setting that would allow me to ignore the status of child issues (Epics) when closing the parent issue?

I’m open to alternative suggestions that are practical and efficient for teams working with large volumes of issues and dependencies. I appreciate any help or guidance!

[Anandhi Arumugam _Cprime_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Igor Fernandes Welcome to the community!

Technically, if you don't have any specific workflow conditions or other validations that block you from closing parent issue based on child issue status, you should be able to do so. The system allows you to close an Epic or any parent without closing child issues unless you have some configuration done that prevents it. You don't need an Automation to allow this behavior.

But as per best practices, closing a parent means all related work is also closed. So I would suggest to revisit the need for this use case here. :)

Hope this helps!