Parent Link - Only bottom-up linking possible?

[Fabian Dengel]

As per title: It is my understanding, that the "parent link" can only be set on the corresponding child issue (ie. bottom-up). Is there a possibility to link a parent to several child issues or can this only be done child>parent and not vice-versa?

Thanks in advance and kind regards
Fabian

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Fabian Dengel,

For the relationships between Epics > Stories and Stories > Sub-tasks it has always been possible to create issues from the issue view directly:

 

When you do so, the parent-child link is created automatically. And in a way, that is a top-down approach. But it does only apply at the moment of issue creation and in these specific scenarios.

For the levels above Epics, in the Jira UI you are right: you can only select an issue's parent and not vice versa. However, you can do something similar as what I described above when you create issues from the advanced roadmaps scope view. When you create child issues inline there, the same parent-child relationship is created automatically between the parent issue and the level below. Two caveats there: you don't have a full issue view available there when creating issues and you need to review your changes and push them to Jira before they actually appear there.

Hope this helps!

[Fabian Dengel]

Hey @Walter Buggenhout 

Sorry for the delayed response! Thanks for sharing the inline approach in AR, I was mainly focused on the Jira UI itself so this did not occur to me. While not ideal, it is still helpful to know!

Thanks also for confirming, that if we speak strictly "Jira issue view" it is indeed not possible to create a "parent -> child relation" for existing issues and this can only be done on creation. Also the latter would be limited to "Epic" type issues (as "Base" type issues do not have this "add a child" button availabe). All in all good info there from your side, appreciated!

Have a nice day and kind regards
Fabian