Is there a way to use "Epic Link" and "Parent Link" in an issue?

[Sindy Richter]

Background: We are working with SAFe and want to use the portfolio hierarchy level extention provided by JIRA Portfolio. We want to link User Stories with an long-term Team "Epic" using the Epic Link. The "Epic" is still an container, to structure work on the team level. Using SAFe, we created a new level above the "User Story" Level for issues of the type "Feature". A Feature can be broken down in "User Stories". To aggregate all Story Points of an "User Story" issues to a "Feature" issue (done in one PI) we have to use the "Parent Link". Using parent link and epic link in an issue is not valid. An error message is shown.

How can the UseCase be implemented in JIRA Portfolio, without this option?

[AnnWorley]

To get the story points to show as part of the Feature, please add the Epic beneath the Feature, similar to the Initiative level in this article:

Configuring initiatives and other hierarchy levels

[Sindy Richter]

Hello Ann, thank you. But the answer doesn't help. I will add the same Story to a long term "Epic" (using issueType epic, without any story point aggregation) and to a medium-term issueType "Feature" (using parent link, with story point aggregation). But using Epic link and Parent link is not allowed.

Portfolio hierarchy:
Initiative (Portfolio level)
Feature (Program level)
Story (Team level)
Sub-task (Team level)

The Epic is to get an long term overview in team level (like a category), it's not part of the hierarchy.

[Rik de Valk]

Hi @Sindy Richter,

Unfortunately, Epic is a hard-coded part of the Jira hierarchy. To apply SAFe in Jira, you need to consider Features as Epics. 

Renaming Epics comes with all sorts of trouble.

So I recommend using a structure such as:

Story < Epic < Program Epic < Portfolio Epic

Or 

Story < Epic < Initiative

A team level category sounds more like something permanent. If so, that doesn't require a workflow. And thus, doesn't require a issue. You could use a custom field for that. Or a label. Or a Component if Components are not used for anything else.