I want to use the Planner to show stories for all epics in a program increment

[Kevin Norris]

I want to use the Planner to show stories for all epics in a program increment.  I have configured the issue source for epics for a given program increment.  The results say all the stories are EXT

[Kevin Norris]

I am using Jira Plans.  I think the issue is that I can define a source that returns both epics and stories for those epics.  Logically, I would like to define my source as select all epics for a given PI, but PI is not an attribute of the Stories, so I only get the Epics.  If I create a source for the stories as select all stories where the sprint is in (sprint list...), then I don't get the Epics.  Am I making my self clear?

[Joshua Brock _ Seibert Group_ GmbH]

Hey Kevin...

Yup, understood.

The good news: you don't need one source that returns both. Plans takes the union of your sources and rebuilds the Epic→Story hierarchy from the parent links, so the two-source setup is actually the intended way.

The rub is that your story source has to be broad enough that no Story that your PI Epics own falls outside it. A sprint/list filter only catches stories in those exact sprints, so anything unassigned or in another sprint ends up as EXT.

Just some thoughts...

• Source 1 (Epics):
  • filter for the PI — e.g., issuetype = Epic AND PI = "PI 2026.1".
• Source 2 (Stories):
  • broad — project-level, e.g., project = ABC AND issuetype = Story.
  • Plans pulls every Story in the project, then visually hides the ones whose parent Epic isn't in the plan, so you only see Stories under your PI Epics.

If loading all project stories feels too much, the alternative is a sprint-list source covering every sprint your PI Stories live in...plus a sprint is EMPTY clause if any are still in the backlog.

Last thing I can think of, checking plan settings → Hierarchy. If the Epic level is toggled off, child Stories still load but lose their parent grouping, which can feel/look like the Epics aren't linked.

Maybe see if swapping to a project-level Story source clear up the EXT?

Hope this helps....that's the best I can think of. I'm guessing others here will have some thoughts!!

Best - 

Joshua

[Joshua Brock _ Seibert Group_ GmbH]

Hi @Kevin Norris, and welcome to the community!

The "EXT" you're seeing is Plans' way of saying those child stories aren't covered by any of your configured issue sources. Plans evaluates each issue source independently rather than automatically pulling children of in-scope epics, so when the story-tier source's filter doesn't match those stories, Plans classifies them as external to the plan.

There are two native ways to address it: 

1. Add a project-level source (e.g., project = ABC) for the story tier so every child story is in scope. Plans will then associate stories to their parent epics via the parent link.
2. Widen the sprint filter on the story source to cover every sprint that holds work for the PI's epics. If even one sprint is missing, the stories in that sprint render as EXT.

(Issue sources behave as a union across sources, but each source is self-contained — a story has to satisfy at least one source's filter to be "in" the plan.)

Not certain if you and your organization are familiar with, or following the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®), but Plans isn't built around SAFe semantics. Once you start thinking in Program Increments, ARTs, cross-team dependencies, ROAM risks, and PI objectives, you're working outside what Plans is designed to model.

Disclosure: I work at Seibert Group, the team behind Agile Hive.

If you're running SAFe in Jira, this is exactly what Agile Hive (agile-hive.com) was built for:

• Native PI scope. Define a Planning Interval once, and every Epic, Story, and Task linked to it appears in the PI views automatically — no juggling issue sources, sprint filters, or parent-link gymnastics.
• Full SAFe hierarchy. Portfolio Epics → ART Epics → Stories → Tasks, enforced by the data model rather than reconstructed from filter combinations.
• PI Planning board with cross-team dependencies, capacity, confidence vote, and ROAM tracking built in.
• Stays in Jira. No separate system of record, no sync — your work items remain Jira issues.

If the Planner setup is for actual SAFe work (not a one-off plan), it's worth a look. There's a free trial on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Hope this helps, best of luck, and again, welcome!

Joshua
Content Writer & US Representative
Agile Hive & Aura Apps (products of Seibert Group GmbH)

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Kevin Norris 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

When you say "the Planner" do you mean the Plans feature available in Jira?

If so, exactly how did you configure the issue source? Did you use a filter? What filter did you use? Did you construct the filter so that it will get not just the Epics but the child issues of each Epic? You would need the latter in order for those child issues to be included in the Plan.

[Kevin Norris]

I found the only why to get it to work was to use our Board as the source.  I tried creating a source for epics filtered on PI and then a source for stories filtered by sprint.  Are the query results a union all or an intersection.  Anyway, that didn't work.

On another note, I can seem to construct the queries such that the EPIC is not grayed out - it is very difficult to see.  Once expanded the Stores under the EPIC display fine.

Thanks.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Kevin Norris 

Unfortunately you have not addressed the question I posted. It is difficult to provide authoritative answer without that context.

If you are able to provide that information then I am willing to try to help you address any remaining issues you are facing.

If you are satisfied with the result you have obtained on your own, please let us know that is the case.

[Trudy Claspill]

If you are using the native Plans feature then the scope of the plan is the aggregation of all data in your sources. It is not limited to the union.

Essentially what you need is a source for your epics and a source for your stories.

With native Jira JQL you can get the child items under a single epic with the following:

Parent ={epic item key}

Jira doesn't natively provide a JQL function to get child items for a list of Epics nor for a set of Epics derived from a filter. You would need the above JQL for each Epic.

There are apps that provide such capabilities, with functions such as

issueFunction in issuesInEpics("type=Epic and PI='value'")

Do you have any third party apps that extend JQL functionality