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How can I add a tier to the issue hierarchy?

Martin Freeman_kxd39o

In Jira I have: Epic -> Story -> Subtask.

Our project is structured along the lines: Feature -> Epic -> Story -> Subtask.

How can I model this in such a way that different Features still coexist on the same project backlog and Epics and Stories on the backlog can be organised and filtered by the Feature?

I don't see anything in Jira itself that enables this.

I've looked at Structure and it appears that using that I can create a Feature structure above Epic, but the documentation suggests that additional Feature tier only exists within the Structure plugin itself and so cannot be used to organise and filter the backlog. Which if that's the case doesn't seem very useful.

This Atlassian Agile coaching article Epics, Stories, Themes and Initiatives even describes exactly what is needed but gives no details on how to actually achieve it. It says stuff like:

Internally, we call our Initiatives “PC Tickets.” Project Central tickets are configured in Jira Software just like our epics.

and

Initiatives are collections of epics

...which implies that Epics somehow can contain other Epics. But the link in that article to Jira Epics Tutorial makes it clear that this is not possible.

Does anyone know how of a way to do this?

Accepted answers

All comments

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Your findings are correct

The "Atlassian Agile coaching" article is a little misleading as it doesn't explain that their upper level alongside Epic is simply another type of story-level issue with some links and reporting that replicate some of the Epic functionality.

That's broadly what Structure does too - its layers of hierarchy are an adjunct, a layer over the top of epic/story/sub-task and also works differently. The core of Jira Software and Service Desk still sees those issues as Stories.

However, Advanced Roadmaps (nee Portfolio) does implement themes and initiatives, which can be used as features, and if you're large and are thinking of scaled Agile, Jira Align may be worth a look.

Egor Tasa [ALM Works]

Hi Martin,

Let me add a couple of cents here. Indeed Structure can visualize any kind of hierarchy, even the one not present in Jira. Though if you use issue links, you at first build the hierarchy of arbitrary complexity in Jira and then reflect it in Structure. And what is important, you can use Structure to manage backlog or use Structured JQL to populate boards and filter. Not everything is possible this way, but it is possible your use case can be covered by Structure.

Regards,
Egor Tasa

ALM Works

Martin Freeman_kxd39o

What do mean by "build the hierarchy of arbitrary complexity in Jira", it seems pretty clear that this is not in fact possible in Jira. You have Epics->Stories->Subtasks and that's it.

Assuming what you say is correct and that this is possible in Structure is there any information anywhere on how I would go about that? I've looked through the Structure documentation and not seen anything that looks applicable.

If the answer is simply 'look harder' I'll dig into it some more because I have in honesty only skimmed the docs

Egor Tasa [ALM Works]

Hi Martin,

Using links like "depends on" or "blocks/blocked by" you can build any kind of hierarchy. Though such hierarchy does not necessarily affect any functionality in Jira, it is possible to build it, and Structure (and some other plugins) is a way to visualize it and calculate different metrics, manipulate and plan. You can check our sandbox for this, here is a good example of such hierarchy: https://jira.demo.almworks.com/secure/StructureBoard.jspa?os_username=demo&os_password=demo&s=152#

If you are interested in more in-depth demo of Structure, you can contact us at support@almworks.com

Regards,
Egor

Martin Freeman_kxd39o

That's very interesting. I'll have a look into that in some more depth.

Thanks.

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