Create US/Task under Initiatives (without Epic)

[Emilio Gómez]

Similar to it is in Jira Software where you can create tasks/US under a project and optionally nested under an Epic, I'd like to create in Advanced Roadmaps US/Tasks under an Initiative, but without linking them to an Epic.

In the end, the objective is that I, as a project manager, can create/plan tasks under initiatives that at a later stage each development team can assign to their own Epic. This considering that the current hierarchy level I have configured is Initiative - Epic - Task/US 

Is this possible somehow?

[Joe Lagana-Jackson]

I would love this feature as well for a different reason. Many times there is work in an initiative that doesn't really fall under an Epic, but supports all epics or is cleanup work.

Right now, we have to create epics like "tech debt" or "infrastructure", and we prefer to keep our epics customer facing in nature, and these above epics are more like categories than anything truly useful from my perspective.

I would love it if we could skip a level in the hierarchy. I don't believe there's a way to do this today.

[Rahul_RVS]

Hi @Joe Lagana-Jackson 

You can issue links to create your own hierarchy.

To visualize the hierarchy based on the issue links, we have created an app to track the progress at each hierarchy level,

Agile Tools - Epic Tree, Links Tree and Time in Status 

Key features of Links Hierarchy:

• Hierarchy upto 10 levels deep
• Progress % on "remaining estimate" or "original estimates"
• Edit Issue summary, time estimates, story points and assignee on the tree with real time updates in the progress
• Rolled up percentage completion at all levels
• Ability to add/remove the columns on the report

[Curt Holley]

Hi @Emilio Gómez 

Can't be done and I'm not convinced it would be a good idea or one Atlassian are likely to pursue.

So, in your case I would create a "Project Plan" Epic (or whatever you want to call it) and create your plan tasks in it. From there teams can either;

• Manage those tasks from there 
• Move them (by changing the Epic link) to wherever they want to visualise/work on them

@Joe Lagana-Jackson if you have infrastructure or Tech Debt work that needs to occur as part of the DOD of an Initiative, then it is part of the solution and should be as transparent as any other component of the Initiative. Incorporate into existing Epics, or create those "tech debt" or "infrastructure" ones. #tellitlikeitis

[Joe Lagana-Jackson]

@Curt Holley Yep, that's what we try to do. I usually get pushback because folks get bogged down if something goes across multiple epics. I don't see an issue with having "orphan" task. To me, this doesn't make it invisible in the plan, it just means it's not associated to an epic.

[Curt Holley]

Fair enough @Joe Lagana-Jackson 
What I've seen done is just using a link type (say dependency) direct to the Initiative from the misc stories.

Just a thought.

[Laura Reilly]

@Curt Holley I want to say that being able to add a Task to an Initiative without having to assocate it with an Epic is something we'd like implemented also. There is a need for this if I and others have gone out our way to to search for this and ask for it. Having this ability fits into the way Jira is being used withing our org. and saying 'it's not a good idea' is not relevant to the ask and therefore unproductive. 

When users Creates or Edits a Task, the Parent Link field is available and has text under the field that says "Choose a parent to assign this issue to" so this seems like it should already be supported and it's likely an easy fix and that should really be the takeaway here. Please support users and listen to their needs. We know what we want and need.