How to display hierarchy Feature, Epic, Story , Task in Timeline view?

Question

Hello Community,

In my project, I would like to see the following hierarchy in the Timeline view:

Feature , Epic , Story , Task

My goal is to have a Task directly linked to a Story (not only as a Sub-task). For example:

* A Feature groups Epics.

* Each Epic contains Stories.

* Each Story contains Tasks.

At the moment, when I look at the Timeline view, I only see Epics and Stories displayed. Tasks are not showing up in the hierarchy.

In addition, when I create a Task, the Parent field only allows me to select an Epic. I would like to be able to set the parent to a Story as well, so that Tasks can be properly organized under Stories.

* Is it possible to configure Jira so that Tasks can be linked to Stories (and shown in the Timeline), instead of being limited to Sub-tasks or Epics?
* Or is there another recommended approach to achieve this hierarchy?

Any guidance or best practices would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your help

Best regards,
Vanessa

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Adding to this...

Jira natively has a three level hierarchy:

Level 1 - Epics
|-- Level 0 - "standard" issue types (Task, Story, Bug, etc.)
    |-- Level -1 - sub-task issue types

The Timeline tab you see when viewing a project board is capable of showing only Level 1 and Level 0 issues.

Jira does not supporting inserting levels between these default levels.

The parent/child relationship can exist only between issue types in adjacent levels. Level 1 issue types can be parents to Level 0 issue type. Level 0 issue types can be parents to Level -1 issue types

With a Premium subscription Jira supports adding levels above Level 1, and adding issue types to those levels.

To support the structure you described you would need to:

1. Add 2 levels above Epic.

2. At the top level (Level 3) add the Feature issue type.

3. At the next level down (Level 2) add the Epic issue type.

4. At level 1 add the Story issue type

In that manner you would be able to have a Story issue be a parent to a Task issue from Level 0.

However, this is a global setting so it would affect all Company Managed projects.

Team Managed project only support a three level hierarchy, with Epic at the top level.

Lastly, you would be able to display the hierarchy in the Timeline view of a Plan, created under the Plans menu.

Duc Thang TRAN · Answer

Hello @Vanessa Emmenegger

Based on your description, a Task on your instance  is treated as a subtask, so it can’t be displayed on the timeline yet.

You have a suggestion here https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-91572

I don’t think it’s possible to customize the hierarchy without a paid plugin like Structure (though Structure isn’t really meant for planning).

Alternatively, you can use Plan (Advanced Roadmaps) to view the timeline with the full hierarchy.

Hope this can help :)

Rebekka Heilmann (viadee) · Answer

Hi @Vanessa Emmenegger and welcome to the Community,

there is two aspects to your question.

Firstly, you would need to configure that hierarchy in your Jira settings. Assuming, you actually are on a Premium plan, you can customize the work hierarchy and add a Feature Level above Epic. Adding Tasks *under* Stories would be highly unusual as that would be the Sub-Task Level and normally be named as such: "Sub-Task". Sub-Tasks behave differently than Tasks on Boards.

Secondly, the timeline view only shows Epics and below. If you want a timeline view of the Feature level, you would have to create a Plan (formerly known as Advanced Roadmaps). That is a different kind of thing and can include multiple Projects or subsets of work items. For more info check out: Get started with plans | Jira Cloud | Atlassian Support