Group by Epics in Business Projects

Question

There seems to be a known limitation that Business Projects don't allow for good grouping of tasks/sub-tasks by Epics. What solutions have you implemented to get around this limitation?

I'm currently considering just allowing teams that need that functionality to use Software projects but I hope there's a better way.

Thanks

Olga Cheban _TitanApps_ · Answer

hi @Royce Hodnett !

You’re right, grouping by Epics in Business projects is a real limitation. Company-managed Software projects give you that view natively, but moving everyone there just for grouping is a big ask.

A few common workarounds teams try are using labels, custom fields, or JQL-based dashboards. These can help, but they don’t give you a real parent-child view across projects, especially when teams work in different project types.

If the goal is a unified view, our solution Smart Hierarchy for Jira can help. It shows the complete work hierarchy in a single tree, regardless of project type. As a result, you can easily view your epic with all its tasks and subtasks in a nested view. This solution also works for custom hierarchy levels above Epics - if you have such levels configured, they will be displayed as well.

Here’s an example of what this looks like:

You can filter by project, assignee, or status, and expand each Epic to see its work items. The Smart Hierarchy view works in any work item, allowing you to see how it’s positioned inside the broader hierarchy. The view also shows progress on each task and roll-up values in the top bar, including the number of issues in different statuses and checklist progress.

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Rahul_RVS · Answer

Hi @Royce Hodnett

Welcome to the community !!

If you are open to try out an alternate mktplace solution to group Epics and view its children in a tree view, whether in a Business or any project types, take a look at

Issue Hierarchy

The app allows you to view your issues in a tree view along with the linked issues shown as child issue. Also you can filter your child issues as shown below.

In the hierarchy view you can view the % progress of your child issues as well. The app sums up the time spent / story points at each parent level. You can also view "%Completed" at each parent level based on status of child issues as per your requirement.

Do give it a try.

Disclaimer : I am one of the app team member

Paul Glantschnig _Appfire_ · Answer

One more option if switching project types feels like overkill.

If you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, JXL supports grouping by epic (and other hierarchy levels) regardless of whether you're in a Business or Software project. You get proper expand/collapse tree rows, and you can add sum-ups to see totals per epic.

Here's what that looks like:

It works with any project type, so you wouldn't need to move your teams off Business projects.

Full disclosure: I work for the team that builds JXL.