Story epic link failure

Question

Jira cloud standard, software kanban company managed project.

In trying to create / update a story with an epic link value from the create/edit issue and roadmap (linking to an epic) i receive the following message;

Something went wrongYou can only set epic links for issues on the Story level. Please check your hierarchy configuration settings.project settings, issue hierarchy reveals;
Why can I not link a story to an epic?

Esther Strom · Answer

Hi, @Joe

Bill is correct; a screenshot of the actual event would be helpful, but I think the problem has to do with your hierarchy setup. You have your Story issue type set to be higher in the hierarchy than your Epics. Epics are intended to be parents of stories, bugs, and tasks, and the Epic Link will only work if you're trying to add a child to an epic. Epic should be just below Initiative in your hierarchy.

This is what ours looks like, for example. The Story level shown encompasses all issue types that are using the "Standard issue type" category in Jira. For us, that's stories, bugs, tasks, test cases, and several others. We don't have to specifically define them in the hierarchy.

You also will need to make sure the Parent field is added to any issue types higher than epic to allow Epics to be children of (in our case) Initiatives, and for Initiatives to be children of Programs.

More info on configuring hierarchy here.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Joe

Would you please show a screen image for the create/edit issue view you describe where you see that error when trying to add an Epic Link to a Story?  That may provide some context for the community to offer suggestions.  Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bill