Adding the Parent Feature Name and Program Increment (PI) Fields to Jira Software

[#1]

Jira Align has the ability to push Program Increment (PI) and the Parent Feature name data to a custom field in Jira Software from Jira Align Features to Jira Epics.

Whether this custom field is already in place or one is being created for the first time, please be aware of the following best practices: 

Jira Configurations

This is a one-way push from Jira Align to Jira Software — only Jira Align can push Program Increment and Parent Feature data as these fields are not native to Jira Software. Jira Align is the system of record for these fields upon integration.  

Within Jira, Navigate to Settings > Issues > Custom Fields > Click "Add Custom Field".  In the top right of the application Select Advanced Field Types > Select "Text Field (read only) > Create a custom field for Parent Feature Name and repeat for Program Increment.

Add these fields to the create, edit, and view screens within your integrated Jira Projects.

Jira Align Configurations

To connect Parent Feature Name and Program Increment data to your Jira Software custom fields, log into Jira Align and navigate to Administration > Connectors > Jira Settings > Jira Setup > Custom Fields. Next, scroll down to the Parent Feature Name and Program Increment fields and enter your custom field IDs in the following format: customfield_100xx, where "100xx" is the ID located in Jira Software.

Note - after adding these fields you will need to update the work items in Jira Align to force the sync on legacy work items.   

[Dominic Giroux]

I've used this before successfully with a 3-tier hierarchy:

• Portfolio Epics
  • Program Features
    • Team Stories

In that context, there was no confusion as Features were the children of Epics, and the parent Epic field worked as expected.

Now I just started with another client who uses solutions and capabilities.  The hierarchy becomes:

• Portfolio Epics
  • Solution Capabilities
    • Program Features
      • Team Stories

Can someone confirm what the integration will replicate to the custom field configured as the "parent epic" in this configuration?  Will it populate the parent capability?  Or the grand-parent Epic?

(sorry, just started on this account and don't have a test environment available yet to just try it; anyway, it probably does not hurt for this article to document the behavior precisely)

[Alexander Klingspor]

Note here: You will need to make sure the custom fields are added to all screens which are used in the projects the features are synced to.

It is currently required to manually update another field (like description) to trigger a push to Jira on all items.

[Victor Galli]

Hi @Kent Baxley, since the images you've included in this article are hosted on imgur, we aren't able to see them on our corporate machines since our SSE (Security Service Edge) provider (specifically Zscaler) is configured to block imgur-hosted files.

Would you be willing to edit this article to make the images directly hosted on this site/on this page so that we can view them? An example of what I mean can be found in this Jira Align "Why?" button article. You'll notice the images in the "Why?" button article are directly hosted on this website (thus, allowing anyone with on our SSE provider's configuration to see the images).

For as long as the images remain on imgur, we'll see errors display when we try to view them on our corporate machines.

Thanks for your help! 

[Jason Victor]

What happens if you try to configure these fields and some Jira projects don't have those fields configured?  Will it fail to sync to those projects?  We have a lot of complex Jira project configurations. 

[Kent Baxley]

i attempted to make the edits just now so that the images are in line and won't be blocked.  The imgur links are no longer present. Hopefully this helps. @Victor Galli 

[Victor Galli]

@Kent Baxley: This is great! Thank you!