how to skip a level of Hierachy as a parent - Child relationship within same project

[Noopur Agarwal]

We have a product requirement where we should have a flexible Hierarchy e.g. 

Initiative ---> Feature --> EPIC --> Story 

and withing same project there will be some work items which will have following relationship 

Initiative --> EPIC--> Story ( skipping the Feature as parent and directly linking EPIC to Initiative) 

is it possible to have such relation using native "Parent" link ? we tried a sample in our test Env and could no achieve it. Hence need help 

has anyone implemented it , with or without additional plugin ?

[Gabriela · Accepted solution]

Short version: native parent-child can't skip a level, so what you saw in your test is the expected behaviour rather than something you set up wrong.

Jira's hierarchy is a single ordered stack of levels - in your case Initiative > Feature > Epic > Story - and the Parent field only ever links an item to the level directly above it. So an Epic's parent can be a Feature, but not an Initiative while a Feature level sits in between. There's no concept of an "optional" level that some items skip and others use; the depth is uniform across the whole hierarchy.

A few ways people handle wanting that flexibility:

If the skip cases are occasional, the pragmatic move is to use an issue link instead of the parent for those - link the Epic to the Initiative with a normal link type (relates to, or a parent/child link). It represents the jump fine, with the caveat that it's a link and not a true parent, so it won't roll up in Plans or the timeline the way a real parent does.

If you genuinely need variable-depth trees as a first-class thing, that's the territory of a dedicated hierarchy/structure app from the Marketplace - those let you build arbitrary parent-child depth outside the fixed native levels.

And one sanity check worth doing: if Feature is something you end up skipping fairly often, that can be a sign it's better modelled as a grouping - a label, a component, or a field - rather than a hierarchy level. That keeps the native tree clean at Initiative > Epic > Story and still lets you tag the "feature" grouping wherever it actually applies.

If you tell me roughly how your teams plan day to day, I can point you at whichever of those fits best.

[Rahul_RVS · Accepted solution]

Hi @Noopur Agarwal 

Welcome to the community !!

You can create a custom hierarchy using issue links and skip any level as per your requirement. However you would nee a mktplace app to view/manage this links hierarchy. If you are open to try out one to view linked issues (cross project as well) take a look at,

Agile Tools

The app allows you to view your issues in a list view along with the linked issues shown as child issue. Also you can filter your child issues with multiple criteria.

Do give it a try.

Disclaimer : I am one of the app team member

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Accepted solution]

Hello and welcome to Atlassian community @Noopur Agarwal 

There's already open feature request related to that.

Summarizing this AI Wall of text from top, nope native it's no achievable.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-89913 

Best,

Arek 🤠 

[Gabriela]

Ha, fair hit. You compressed my whole wall into one line. Agreed though, no native way to skip a level, so JRACLOUD-89913 is the one to watch. Thanks Arek.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Noopur - There is actually a loophole that you might try to exploit with the hierarchy. You cannot create a work item manually and skip over a level in the hierarchy. But if you create the work item using an Automation flow, it will actually let you link to any level above it as the parent. The question becomes how would you identify the parent? Would it be a trigger work item? Would it be a hardcoded value like ABC-123, etc. So it depends on your use case. 

[Pasam Venkateshwarrao · Accepted solution]

Hi @Noopur Agarwal ,

No, this isn't natively supported in Jira Cloud, and what you saw in your test is expected behavior, not a misconfiguration on your part. Jira's issue hierarchy (Advanced Roadmaps/Plans) is strictly level-based, not path-based. I have used Big Picture, which has its own "Structures"-like flexible tree separate from the native Jira hierarchy.

If you want to avoid an add-on, use a custom issue link type  like delivers or implements between Epic and Initiative when Feature is skipped. It won't show up in the native Roadmap/hierarchy view, but it will be query via JQL : issue in linkedIssues(...) and visible on the issue itself. The Parent field and any rollups/reporting that depend on it won't pick it up, though.

Thanks,

venkat

[Joshua Brock _ Seibert Group_ GmbH]

Greetings @Noopur Agarwal and a warm welcome to the Community here!

As you've read, short answer: no, native Jira can't skip a level.

The issue hierarchy is a single fixed stack — in your case Initiative > Feature > Epic > Story, and the Parent field only ever connects an item to the level directly above it. There's no concept of an "optional" level that some items use and others skip, so an Epic can't have an Initiative as its parent while a Feature level sits in between.

What you saw in your test environment is expected behavior, not a misconfiguration. A few practical ways teams handle this:

• If the skips are occasional, use an issue link (a "relates to" or a custom link type) between the Epic and the Initiative for those cases. It represents the jump, with the caveat that it's a link, not a true parent — so it won't roll up in Plans, reporting, or the timeline the way a real parent does.
• If you genuinely need variable-depth trees as a first-class thing, that's the territory of a dedicated hierarchy/structure app from the Marketplace.
• Worth a sanity check too: if Feature gets skipped often, it may be better modeled as a grouping (a label, component, or field) rather than a hierarchy level, which keeps the native tree clean.

If the reason you need this flexibility is that your teams are scaling toward a SAFe or portfolio operating model, it may be worth stepping back from patching the native hierarchy and looking at a tool built for it. That's the problem space our app, Agile Hive, is designed for:

• Enforces the full Portfolio → Solution → ART → Team hierarchy through its data model, so the structure is consistent rather than something you assemble from links.
• Runs natively inside Jira — no separate platform and no data sync to keep in step.
• Adds native PI execution and a planning board on top of that hierarchy, so roll-ups and reporting actually follow the structure.
• Covers end-to-end SAFe including Lean Portfolio Management, not just PI planning.
• Typically deploys in days to weeks rather than months.

You can read more at our website, and there's a free trial on the Atlassian Marketplace if you'd like to try it against your own hierarchy. And just a note on full disclosure, I work at Seibert Group, the team behind Agile Hive.

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

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