Understanding inward and outward link in terms of parent and child relationship,

Sameer Shaikh1

Hi folks,

 

I need some clarification for the linked issues,As I am new to jira,

I got the link from forum as https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA051/Outward+Link+Description+and+Inward+Link+Description ,

 

But need some clarity on this, Lets say there is one issue as issue-1 and there is a link to it as blocks issue-2 , so in this scenario which issue will be child issue and which issue will be parent,

So how do we interpret it

either : issue-1 blocks issue-2

OR : issue-2 blocks issue-1

 

Please explain what will be parent issue in this case and which will be child,

 

Thanks in advance,

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

There is no parent/child relationship in links.  What there is is a directional piece of information.

If you go and look at the link definitions you will find that each link type has "inward" and "outward" definitions, and you really need to be very clear when you define these, as in most cases, the language tells you the direction.

It helps to think of it in a sentence, much as you have typed in your question - "issue 1 blocks issue 2"

For "blocked", you want some language like

Inward: is blocked by

Outward: blocks

This way, you can accurately describe the direction of the link from either side, because it will say "Issue 1 is blocked by issue 2" or "Issue 2 blocks issue 1" - either way, it is clear which one is the blocker, and what it is blocking

If your JIRA has been amended to remove that directional language, I'd strongly recommend putting it back!  (It is directional by default)

One exception is in the defaults - when you want a non-directional relationship such as the rather vague "relates to".  Then you use the same phrase for both directions