Can I create an Initiative without Advanced Roadmaps?

Question

I work for a relatively small company and we have the normal Jira setup without the Advanced Roadmap (Plans or however you call it today) plugin. At this point, the plugin would be an overhead for us.

I need to have a new issue type like an Initiative to be larger than an Epic and have various Epics linked to it.

How can I create it myself and set the right hierarchy to it? I am an Admin, in the Standard Jira plan?

Craig Nodwell_7eve9b · Accepted Answer

Hi @Maria Chec

You create the issue type

Create a link type that reflects the parent/child relationship

If you have something like scriptrunner you can also create a scripted field to do that linking but not necessary.

Pramodh M · Accepted Answer

Hi @Maria Chec

You can plan to have a new Issue Type named "Initiative" and configure the linking as "parent of" and there is no way we can show the heirarchy in Standard Plan.

Thanks,
Pramodh

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Accepted Answer

Hi @Maria Chec

regarding your question on how to properly visualise an issue-link based hierarchy, that's not really well possible in "native" Jira; however, there's a number of hierarchy focused apps in the Atlassian Marketplace, of which some can show issue-link based hierarchies. As an example, I myself work on an app called JXL for Jira, where this can be configured easily. E.g., in the below clip, there's two hierarchy levels on top of epics, both via issue links:

You can trial any Marketplace app for free for 1 months, and depending on the app and the size of your site, some may be free forever. So if that's a possible route, I'd recommend trying out a few apps and seeing which one works best for you.

Hope this helps,

Hannes

Kathryn Vargas _Tempo_ · Accepted Answer

Hello @Maria Chec,

Jira allows you to create an issue type above Epics, but as you and others have noted, it won't be possible to view this hierarchy without Advanced Roadmaps or a third-party app in the Atlassian Marketplace.

One of these third-party app options is Structure, which lets you visualize default parent-child relationships in Jira (like epic > story > sub-task), but also any other issue links between stories, tasks, and other issue types (like initiatives above epics). We've written an article on how to create a hierarchy above epics using the app.

Structure then allows you to add any Jira field as a column, so that pull all your work together in one spreadsheet-like view (for reporting, sprint planning, backlog grooming, etc.). From here, you can also sum up values in any column that contains numeric values, like Story Points and Estimates.

Here's Structure in action with a 5-level hierarchy that uses a "Linked Items" rule:

I'm part of the Structure team and wanted to expand on what was mentioned – I hope this helps!

Best, 
Kathryn

Rahul_RVS · Accepted Answer

Hi @Maria Chec

You can use issue links to create your own hierarchy above and below Epics or infact at any level.

To visualize the hierarchy based on the issue links, we have created an app to track the progress at each level,

Issue Hierarchy Reports

Key features of Links Hierarchy:

* Hierarchy upto 10 levels deep
* Progress % on "remaining estimate" or "original estimates"
* Edit Issue summary, time estimates, story points and assignee on the tree with real time updates in the progress
* Rolled up percentage completion at all levels
* Ability to add/remove the columns on the report