Will inserting another level above epic into our Jira Issue Heirarchy break anything?

[Georgina Stutzer]

We currently have the following issue hierarchy defined.

1. Epic

2. Story

3. Sub-task

I would like to add another level above Epic so that the new structure looks as follows. 

1. Initiative

2. Epic

3. Story

4. Sub-task

Will the parent child links of any existing Stories/Tasks/Sub-tasks be impacted? I would think not because the new level is at the top right?

Will any filters or boards be impacted?

I was hoping to create a test project and test this out, but the Issue Hierarchy appears to be global and there is no way I can try this safely to see the impact of this change on my project.  

[Els Bassant · Accepted solution]

Hi Georgina,

No this won't impact the existing parent / child links.

I see that you are on the premium plan, which means your organisation should be able to create sandbox environments. These can be super helpful when testing changes that impact the whole instance and I highly recommend using them.

[Georgina Stutzer]

Thank you, @Els Bassant
We are looking into setting up the Sandbox.