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Feature linked to a Story

Shamsur Mahmud

Hello,

My question is pretty similar but with a little twist. I asked my Jira admin to include Feature (issue type/ layer) in the existing hierarchy for my project and board.

Existing hierarchy: Epic > Story > Subtask

New hierarchy: Epic > Feature > Story > Subtask

I can now create a Feature as a child of an Epic. However, when I try to create a Story as a child of a Feature, I only see Sub-task as a issue type/child, no option to add/create a Story from the Feature. If I create a Story as a stand alone issue, I cannot link it to a Feature as its parent. I only see issue type Epic available as a parent for the Story.

This tells me there's no linkage created between Feature and Story in Jira by our admin even though hierarchically Feature is sitting above Story.

Once I brought this up, Jira admin mentioned making that change/ linkage will impact everyone in the company. So basically everyone will have to create Features in between their existing Epics and Stories for their Projects and Boards.

Currently, almost all the projects and boards, in my new company, use Epic > Subtask. But I plan to use Epic > Feature > Story > Subtask to bring more structure to the process. Based on Jira experience a while back, I thought there was a way to create your own hierarchical relationship by each board. But my admin is not sure if that's possible.

Question is, how do I achieve this new hierarchy for my projects and boards without messing up others? Thanks a lot for your help.

Accepted answers

John Funk

Hi Shamsur - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Your Jira Admin is correct - there can only be one hierarchy for the company. That being said, if no one else is using Feature in the hierarchy, then you have some flexibility. Can you get a screen shot of the current hierarchy as it is in Jira? Your Jira Admin might have to get it for you.

All comments

John Funk

Hi Shamsur - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Michael Yaroshefsky - Visor for Jira

Hey @Shamsur Mahmud welcome to Atlassian Community.

It seems the best way for you to do this would be to use an app like ours (Visor).

Visor has a bi-directional integration with Jira, and people use Visor to:

Visualize and use their Jira data in a range of ways that isn't possible within Jira itself
Work with Jira data without affecting Jira itself (or conversely to push updates back into Jira after you've used Visor to make changes)
Share Jira visualizations and data with stakeholders that don't have Jira access.

E.g. the example below where I've created a Gantt chart in Visor, and grouped my epics by a custom Visor field I created called Product.

What you're asking to do (to create a custom hierarchy level between epics and stories without establishing it in the hierarchy in Jira itself) is a bit less straightforward, but possible.

Is your admin open to creating another issue type and calling it "Feature"? It doesn't need to sit anywhere in the issue hierarchy.

If so, then you can do this:

1. Import your selected Jira projects into Visor

2. In Visor, drag and drop your Features issues below the matching epic, and drag your stories below the matching Feature (see closeup screenshot below)

3. Click on Sync & Import, then click the Settings cog icon,

4. Click on "Show default data structure options" and select "Ignore Nesting From Jira"

Now when you sync and import updates between Jira and Visor your Visor views (tables, Gantt charts, timelines, etc.) will maintain your custom nesting.

This gives you a way of visualizing your Jira project data as epic>feature>story without needing to implement that across your organization

Visor is completely free to try, so see if it works for you and if you need any help troubleshooting chat to me or someone in our team we will be happy to help.

Here's our marketplace listing:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1226209/visor-spreadsheet-gantt-chart-for-jira-with-excel-export?tab=overview&hosting=cloud

Screenshot 2025-04-23 at 5.20.29 PM.png

Screenshot 2025-04-23 at 5.58.18 PM.png

Shamsur Mahmud

Thanks for the response. My main goal to introduce a new hierarchy is to be able to track effort/ time on various projects, Data and Analytics and IT goals to the CIO level. Time logging is done using Tempo in Jira and reporting using EasyBI.

I an not sure if Visor fits in the mix and be able to deliver what I am looking for. But I will look into it.

John Funk

Still looking for some screenshots of your current hierarchy.

Shamsur Mahmud

do not have a screen shot but the admin sent this.

Current hierarchy

Initiative: 2

Epic: 1

Feature, Story : 0

Sub-task, Auto Request, Software License Request, Technical Task: -1

For my purpose what I need is this:

Initiative 3

Epic 2

Feature 1

Story 0

Subtask and everything else -1

Issue is, other boards or projects are using Feature and Story as sibling, as children of Epic. If we change the hierarchy to what I want, then others will lose the current parent child relationship they have.

Even if I introduce a new issue type (that no one uses in my company) instead of Feature, the fact that I need that to sit in between Epic and Story, that will break the current parent-child relationship that exists between Epic and Story in other boards/ projects. Is that correct?

Michael Yaroshefsky - Visor for Jira

@Shamsur Mahmud Right, that makes sense. We're actually adding rollup calculations next, and once this is in place you would be able to rollup child values for example to display the total time spent on all stories under each feature...but just to be 100% clear you won't find them in Visor yet - sorry if that's not quite what you need and thanks for taking the time to check out our app, really appreciate it!

John Funk

Yes, you will not be able to get what you want if the Jira Admin is not willing to change the current hierarchy. You might question them harder as to why they have Feature and Story sitting at the same level - that is not a standard agile practice. They could leave story there and add some other indicator that it is a feature if they want, like a Component or a custom field.

Dmitry Astapkovich _Colined_

Hi @Shamsur Mahmud ,

You can try an alternative method by using Pivot Report we develop:

This demo report is available here: https://demo.colined.com/plugins/servlet/pr/report?report=3

Basically, you can define your custom hierarchy based on issue links. It can be done on the saved report level or applied universally on Jira level. That allows you to easily experiment with reporting without any interference to other users and projects.

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