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Hierarchy level change

Tehmina Aslam_cedkdc

Hi,

I have a premium-level Jira Cloud subscription, and I want to establish the following hierarchy:

Epic --> Milestone --> Story --> Subtasks

Here's what I've tried so far:

1. Level 1:

Rename Epic to Milestone (Possible)
Select the issue type Milestone for the renamed level (previously Epic) (Possible)
Remove Epic as an issue type from level 1 (Unable to do this)

2. Level 2:

Unable to select Epic as an issue type for level 2. This might be because it's already selected at level 1. (Unable to do this)

3. Is it possible to achieve the above hierarchy? Specifically, can I make Epic the parent of Milestone?

4. If there is no Milestone under some Epics, will I be able to make Epics the parent of Stories?

I would appreciate any guidance on how to set up this structure.

Thank you!

Comments

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira

Hi @Tehmina Aslam

Jira generally only allows adding hierarchy levels on top of epics.

You can model what you're looking for though, essentially by (re-)naming levels and issue types pretty much like you did.

The one thing that won't work is to remove the built-in epic issue type from level 3 (i.e., the level that is originally called Epics). That's because the built-in epic issue type has certain "Epic-level" semantics in Jira, e.g. in how it is used on Software boards, etc.

I believe that you could rename the Epic issue type (in your case, to Milestone), and then create a new issue type that is named Epic - however, this wouldn't change the built-in semantics in Jira, meaning that what you'd call Milestone would still be treated as an epic e.g. in boards, and what you'd call Epic would not be treated as an epic.

To sum this up: Your hierarchy should be possible, but not without significant caveats. I personally wouldn't recommend it, and would consider re-imagining a hierarchy where Epic/Story/Sub-task sit at the bottom, and additional hierarchy levels are only added on top of Epics.

As an alternative, you can always define parent/child relationships between issues using issue links. This will give you complete freedom, however isn't well supported in native Jira features; you'll most likely want to use one of the hierarchy-focused apps from the Atlassian Marketplace to work with such hierarchy.

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira

... and just to expand on the last point, this is how this could look in the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira:

(I'm using an Epic/Story/Task/Sub-task hierarchy here, but it would work the same for the hierarchy you have in mind.)

For 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. These issue hierarchies can be based on Jira's built-in parent/child relationships (like task/sub-task, or epic/story), and/or based on issue link of configurable issue link types.

Any questions just let me know!

Tehmina Aslam_cedkdc

The issue is that changing the hierarchy affects all projects, not just one. We have different projects, and some may include milestones while others may not. This global change could disrupt the structure of projects that do not use milestones.

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira

Hi @Tehmina Aslam

that's correct, Jira's built-in hierarchy configuration is global (at least for all company-managed projects). There's no way around that. If you need multiple hierarchies, you'll likely need a Marketplace app. (JXL as described above can do this, and I believe there are others, too.)

Tehmina Aslam_cedkdc

I am having difficulty understanding the concept of multiple levels, especially when it's not possible to add a level between already established ones. This approach seems quite impractical.

SAD LIFE!!

Amay Purohit_RVS

Hi @Tehmina Aslam

I believe in Jira premium you can create levels above Epic. However you can use Issue Links to create a custom Hierarchy which will not impact your current project structure. If you would be interested in an add-on for this need, you can try out our plugin.

Issue Hierarchy

The app shows your issue hierarchy in a tree view. The app can help you easily Sum up values (time tracking/story point/custom numeric fields) to see overall progress for your Issues at each parent level. Also it provides excel like editing for all the values right on the report and see real time progress updates.

Do give it a spin.

(Disclaimer: I work on RVS, the vendor for this app)

Links Hierarchy - Create Linked issue animation.gif

Tehmina Aslam_cedkdc

Thanks for sharing, but i am already using a plugin (structure) for this...

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