How to create custom hierarchy Under Epics ?

Question

I want to create a hierarchy of EPIC > "custom issue type" > Story/Task > Sub Task.

I am only able to find options to add custom issue type which can be placed above EPIC, like Initiative, Themes, etc ( And all these are already present in my case)

I am trying to manage a multi team project dependencies and one section of work is defined with an EPIC. But there are various swim-lines of work that belongs to this EPIC, thus I want to define with them as sub-EPIC and create relevant Tasks and sub tasks for each of those swim-lines.

I have already read the various responses in the community where it mentions that, we can't share the 3 basic hierarchy layers i.e. Epics>Tasks>Sub-Task. 
But I'm sure many would be facing similar challenge like mine, would like to know what other alternative is possible to overcome this issue.

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Answer

Hi @Saikat Das ,

just to add to @carlosughini 's answer, there's actually a number of Marketplace apps that enable flexible hierarchies; Structure is well-known, but there are others.

As an example, I myself work on an app named JXL for Jira, a spreadsheet/table-style issue editor and organiser that supports any levels of hierarchies, based on Jira built-in parent/child relationships, based on issue links, or any combination of these. E.g., here's how this looks for a 5 level hierarchy:

As was indicated before, it's generally a good idea to add levels "of top" of the epic level, regardless of which tool you use. This being said, you could add a level below epics based on issue links; the disadvantage would be that core parts of Jira (like the Jira Software board and backlog) wouldn't "understand" that level.

In case you want to try a Marketplace solution: You may already know that you can trial any app for free for 1 month, and depending on the size of your site, it may be free forever. So perhaps try out a few and see which one works best for you and your team!

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes

Saikat Das · Answer

Thanks  @carlosughini .

Well how can I do it with structure? Can you help me with multi level hierarchy when that is not present in the JIRA as described above.

carlosughini · Answer

Hi Saikat,

Unfortunately that's not possible.

Jira Software's hierarchy is Epic -> Story - Sub-task, and that is fixed.

Projects are not relevant to the hierarchy because Epics are expected to go across projects.

If you add Advanced Roadmaps or other scaling apps, you can extend that upwards, putting layers above Epic.  If you do that, then you can rename Epic to Feature, to make the naming match your scheme.

However, you can also use the Structure app to build any hierarchy you want, including layers that appear to be between Jira's Epic and Story levels.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Carlos