What is the advantage to using Epics vs. Linked Issues?

[Alexandra LaMar]

For Project Management tickets, my team currently links a group of tickets to a parent ticket to group bodies of work for a project function. We are considering converting the parent tickets to Epics, but given we are not performing Sprints nor developing code, we are not sure if this would provide us extra value given the time investment. 

To summarize, what are the additional features/functionalities Epics offer for grouping  tickets that could not be achieved by linking tickets?

[Jonny Adams]

@Alexandra LaMar There are a couple of conveniences of using Epics in place of linked issues. One of which is that there is a nifty pop out Epics tab under the Versions tab which runs parallel to your project toolbar. You can use it to quickly view how many issues are in the Epic, what needs to be completed, what has not been estimated, estimated points, and a progress bar. 

Filtering is easier with Epics due to the "Epic Link" option. 

Also, if you are using Confluence then you can link pages to each Epic. Which is great if you documented plans, design, requirements, etc and don't want to have to do a lot of rework. You can just create stories in your Epic in Jira from your requirements page in Confluence.

[Alexandra LaMar]

@Jonny Adams - Wow, great features! I'll pass those on to my team - I think we would benefit from easier viewing, filtering, and Confluence linking capabilities. Thank you so much!