An Alternative for Initiative issue type

Question

Hello, would be happy to hear your thoughts:

I would like to create one Jira project for a software team to manage all their missions there.

They are working on some long-term plans (let's say more than 4 months or even ongoing), and every such should be divided into smaller phases.

I assume the correct way is to create an initiative for every big plan and underneath to create Epics.

But -

What should I do if the client won't purchase Jira Premium? Can I create a higher hierarchy above Epic without the Premium?

Thanks ahead

Kelly Arrey · Answer

Hi @Ifat Keren,

We use Structure by Tempo to implement a hierarchy above Epics. Here are links to an article and a webinar explaining how we did it in some detail.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Structure by Tempo except as a happy customer.

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Answer

Hi @Ifat Keren

as already mentioned, there's a few ways to "hack" (for the lack of a better word) an additional hierarchy level, e.g. via issue linking, or by using certain issue field values. The challenge is always that Jira wouldn't "understand" that these things are supposed to represent a hierarchy level. This being said, there's various apps from the Atlassian Marketplace that can help with that. Chris was kind enough to mention the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira. Just to provide a bit more context:

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also comes with a number of advanced features, including support for configurable issue hierarchies (based on Jira's built-in parent/child relationships, and/or issue links), issue grouping by any issue field(s), or any combination of these.

With these, you can organise your issues in any hierarchy that you want, using any of the two mentioned approaches. In the following, I'm switching between an field-value approach (in this case, based on labels) and an issue-link based approach:

Once you've set up your perfect view, you can work on your issues directly in JXL, trigger various operations in Jira, or export your issues with just one click.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

Rahul_RVS · Answer

Hi @Ifat Keren

You can use generic Issue Links to create your own hierarchy. But Jira will not recognize that and you will need a custom solution to visualize this type of structure.

If your client is open for a mktplace solution (cost efficient too), you can try out our add-on.

Issue Hierarchy Reports

Disclaimer : I am part of the team which developed this app