What is a Feature in Jira

[Randy Ellefson]

Hi,

I have a free account to experiment with. I can create an item, and along with epic, task, story, etc., another option is "feature."

I've googled this repeatedly just now and can't find an explanation of this. Can someone explain how this relates to the rest? I know what the others do, just not "feature."

Thanks.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Randy Ellefson 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Natively Jira offers a three-level work item heirarchy 

Level 1: Epic

|-- Level 0: "standard" item types

    |-- Level -1: subtask item types

This is a parent-child hierarchy. Parents and children are in adjacent levels.

Natively there is just one work item type at Level 1, and it is named "Epic".

Jira provides a variety of other work items added to new Spaces when you create them, based on the Space templates you choose. Generally there will be just one item type at Level -1 also. All the other item types are created at Level 0; Story, Bug, Task, and so on. Feature is at this level.

From a technical perspective all the items types at Level 0 are treated the same by Jira. You can customize Jira to handle them in different ways.

You decide through your business process what each of these mean. Jira itself does not define what it means to be a Feature.

[Trudy Claspill]

On a side note, if you are new to Jira you may want to take advantage of the free, on-demand training available through the Learning link at the top of the Community pages. It has courses for all levels of experience, both on general topics and report dives into specific topics.

[Ollie Guan · Accepted solution]

Hi @Randy Ellefson ,

In Jira, “Feature” does not have a single, universal meaning. Atlassian uses the word feature in documentation (e.g. “new features policy”) to mean a product capability, but that is not tied to any specific Jira issue type.

In your Jira project, Feature is just a standard issue type at the same level as Story/Task/Bug, unless your admin has configured a custom hierarchy (e.g. in Advanced Roadmaps). Jira itself does not treat Feature as special: it has no built‑in workflow, reporting, or semantics different from other standard issue types.

Because of that, how to use “Feature” is a process decision for your team, not a platform rule. Common options are:

• Don’t use Feature at all; just use Epic + Story/Task/Bug.

• Use Feature at the same level as Story to distinguish functional work from technical Tasks.

• In larger setups, define Feature as a larger capability (grouping multiple Stories) and configure the hierarchy accordingly.