How to display other Epics under one main Epic?

[Pammi Khanna]

Hello,

Scenario: We are currently upgrading phones in 5 different sites and each site has their own Epic>stories>tasks. 

What I am trying to do: I have created an epic called Q1 2020 Phone Upgrades. Now, under this epic I want to display all the other epics as children, how do I do that on Confluence? The children macro does not work as it only displays stories/tasks. 

Example: it should look like this on the Confluence page:

Epic: Q1 2020 Phone Upgrades and when you open this page, it should display all the other Epics for all the sites.

 - Epic: California Phone Upgrades

- Epic: New York Phone Upgrades

- Epic: Chicago Phone Upgrades.

Please advise as soon as possible. Thanks. 

[Ste Wright · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pammi Khanna

KJ's answer is a good solution for displaying this information in Confluence - from a Jira-perspective, an alternative is to consider how this information is grouped. Some options to use rather than parent / child Epics:

• FixVersions / Releases: If each of the parent Epics will be a quarter, you could track these as a release. This is placed in the FixVersion field, allowing you to report on progress towards quarter completion.
• Components / Labels: These can be used to sub-categorise issues within project(s). If all of these Epics are in one project I think Components is the best option - if not, consider Labels as these are more universal whilst Components are per-project.
• Jira Portfolio: This can be used to expand the hierarchy, adding additional parent layer issue types above the base Epic > Story > Sub-Task layers. Portfolio is more than just hierarchy - but if you feel its too wide try another app such as Panorama or Structure.

Ste

[KJ · Accepted solution]

So while you cannot technically have a "Parent Epic" you can display it this way in Confluence. 

In Jira, on the "Parent Epic," link your other Epics with a "relates to" link. 

Now in your Confluence Page, in order to view both your "Parent" and "Child" epics, you will add 2 Jira macros. 

First macro will be your "Parent Epic" using this query:

key = XXX-1234 where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

If you want to give it more presence, I would recommend displaying it as a table and choosing the columns you want to display. 

Then you will add another Jira macro to pick up the "Child Epics" using the following query: 

issue in linkedIssues(XXX-1234,"relates to) where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

This one you definitely want to display as a table, choosing the fields you want to display. 

In the new editor, I tweaked the width of each one of the macros and the final result was this Related Epics page:

I hope this helps. 

[Pammi Khanna]

Hello there,

Sorry, another follow up question. How did you add the list of projects right under the other one? When I try to add under JIRA I can only see one project/Epic and if i try to add another one so it goes under the first one, it actually replaces it. Can you please share the steps so I can turn the epics into a list like this one? Thank you

[KJ]

They are 2 separate Jira macros. One for the "Parent" and one for the "Children."

[Pammi Khanna]

Understood. Are you able to share the steps you took to create those children tasks so they are below one another? 

[KJ]

1. Insert Jira macro 1 from the macro drop down or type /jira and select Jira from the popup
2. 
3. Edit the macro with the following query:

                      key = XXX-1234 

      where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

4. Click on Insert.

5. To make the Parent wider in the new Confluence editor, click on the middle or right screen icon when you hover over the area.

6. First macro done.

7. Under that macro insert Jira macro 2 the same way as before (/jira).

8. Edit the macro with the following query:

issue in linkedIssues(XXX-1234,"relates to) 

   where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

9. Click on Insert.

10. By default, this list will not be as wide as the first one as we are not editing width.

11. Second macro done.

[Pammi Khanna]

Thank you however still having issues adding the children epic under the same jira table... please see below:... tried writing (HELP-432, "246) or without the quotation.. does not work. Please advise. 

[KJ]

Are the "Child" Epics related to the "Parent" Epic in Jira with a link type of "relates to"?

In order to get the linked issues, you need to indicate what type of link. 

issue in linkedIssues(KJKT-1016,"relates to")

In this query to pull the Child Epics, KJKT-1016 is the "Parent" issue they are related to.

[Pammi Khanna]

Love the quick response and help. This was great. Thank you both so much.

[Pammi Khanna]

Thank you both. @KJ  how do I run/create these:

key = XXX-1234 where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

issue in linkedIssues(XXX-1234,"relates to) where XXX-1234 is your "Parent Epic."

I am editing a Confluence page so I can add all these one one page just like you showed it in your images however I am not sure where to go to add to add the macros. What are the names of the macros that I need to add?

[KJ]

You can Jira add the macro from the macro list. You will use this same macro twice, just with different queries/filters. 

When you go to edit it, it will look like this for entering the Key.

It will look like this for entering the query. This one also shows display options.