Show Issues by Hierarchy: Epic, Story, Task Query? (JQL)

[Javier]

Hello everyone.

Is it possible to write a JQL search that shows all of my "issues" ordered by hierarchy: Epic, Story, Task to see all the pieces of an Epic and their status? 

EPIC

--STORY

----TASK

EPIC

--STORY

----TASK

Thanks!

EDIT: changed it from EPIC > STORY > TASK > SUBTASK into EPIC > STORY > TASK.

[Javier]

Thanks, however, paying an additional fee is out of the question.

Maybe I have a different way of working than most, however, it seems to me like such a basic view to have.

All of the issues that (I created and I am assigned to) OR (that I am assigned to), and order them hierarchically.

That there is no simple way to see all of my Epics/Stories/Tasks in Jira just blows my mind.

[Archana]

100% agreed. This is a basic feature that anyone would look for. It provides a quick view of the summary lines of each of the issues instead of clicking on each item to understand what is in it.  Hope they resolve it soon. Following this thread.

[Allison Stewart]

Ditto from me.  I come from an Azure DevOps background and the querying and structure that they provide is way better.  I like to see my work in minimal form and be able to see the relationships clearly.  Tree-views are best for that.  At present, all I see is individual issues in a list.  They are all related, but I can't see HOW.  You are not alone.

[Joe Sebol]

Amen.  I also come from using Microsoft's ADO application.  A hierarchy view seems like it would be the first visual you build.

[Beulah Prakash]

Same here, after working with AzDo, I find working with JIRA quite challenging. I've spent sometime today trying to find how to view all of the teams Issues and corresponding Subtasks in a hierarchical order, but have not been lucky. Every suggestion so far points to  taking an advanced version or an add on!

[heydayton]

Also from Azure DevOps background and this is out of the box functionality.  While there are aspects of Jira I like, the experience sours when all these little enhancements like this are 'nickel and dimed' * large subscription base which makes it difficult to justify paying for them as future subscription bolt-ons. 

[Shawn Oster]

I haven't used Jira for a few years, so when I switched back from Azure DevOps I was surprised that this still isn't supported.

Is this an industry tread to move more towards swimlanes instead of viewing things as hierarchies? My brain works MUCH better via bullet points and well-structured hierarchies (same way I build class libraries) so working with Jira has been a struggle.

On the plus side, go Microsoft for actually moving the needle forward to the point where Jira seems old and creeky 😆

[Micheal Planck]

Jira is a ticket-handling system. Tickets come in, you do them, mark them off, move on to the next one.

Literally everything else about Jira is a clumsy add-on by people who didn't know what they were doing or even where they wanted to go. The concept of hierarchy is so badly implemented that honestly, they shouldn't have bothered.

Right now, for instance, they are in the process of changing how epics are stored. The new way doesn't actually work completely and the old way is being deprecated. They can't figure out how to record a hierarchy, let alone display one.

The point is that you are not the one out of step with logic, or for that matter, the most basic lesson in software engineering (functional decomposition).

[Javier]

It seems to me I am not the only one interested in this:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/quot-Order-By-quot-Epic-How/qaq-p/294574

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Jira-filter-search-by-epic-name/qaq-p/61826

There are probably more.

[Sudarshan]

Yes, I Understand your point on this.

It has been an ask from a long time.

Let us wait for any other expert to support the answer as to why it has not been implemented till date (there could be many reasons like the add-on applications have gained more users to use it, adding a hierarchy view (a tree view) gets more changes to the Core UI of Jira  - some possible thoughts.

But, I am also eager to observe answers from other experts on this.

[adam.quinn]

Hello Javier,

If you have scriptrunner you have access to some more JQL functions

issue in portfolioChildIssuesOf("PROJ-####")

And if you would like to pull in more than one theme or epic

(issue in portfolioChildIssuesOf("PROJ-####")) OR (issue in portfolioChildIssuesOf("PROJ-####"))

We've had success with this on Jira Cloud

[Saisuraj Palavalasa]

Yes. This helped me also in querying Hierarchies. 

[Sudarshan]

Hello @Javier welcome

Direct answer No.

JQL is a direct query based flat output language using the basic Logic (and, or)

to achieve what you need -- I recommend Structures for Jira, this can give you the view you expect.

[mawi]

Yeah, this has been a need forever. github already has a good hierarchical table view...

[Rhys Diab _Agile Docs_]

Hi @Javier ,

To my knowledge this isn't possible in Jira natively but I put together an add-on called Agile Docs which does this.

I know you said you pay a good amount for Jira already but it sounds like it's exactly what you're looking for.

You can select any saved filter, specify the top level issue type you want (for example Epics in the example you gave) and boom!  Hierarchy of issues.

Or you can set the top level issue type to All Issues Without Parent which will also bring up any Stories which aren't attached to Epics.

Also has some nice progress reports based on rolled up story points or time logged. 

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Rhys

[Javier]

I did something kinda what I wanted, by customizing the search view

Columns:

Type, Epic Link, Summary, Assignee, Reporter, Status, etc.

And then this query:

(project = SHDW) AND (issuetype in (Epic,Story,Task)) AND (reporter=currentUser() OR assignee=currentUser()) ORDER BY cf[17231] ASC, summary ASC, issuetype ASC, created ASC

On of the problems is that EPIC_Link is not part of epics, so I get all of the Epics at the bottom as this is the main order column.

[Jerry Grzadka]

Can you define what the custom key "cf[17231]" refers too.  Is it epic link? I Believe the key is diferent for each customer/organisation.  

[Rahul_RVS_Support]

Hi,

If you would be interested in a ready made solution, you may want to try out our add-on to manage multiple Epics and their hierarchy on a single page.

Agile Tools - Epic Tree and Time in Status 

Manage and visualize your Epics with rolled up estimate progress reports.

Key features:

• Epic Sum
• Configure progress % calculation on either "remaining estimate" or "original estimates"
• Epic Tree directly on Issue Screen
• Display and manage Epics/Issues of your project
• Real time edit option for Issue summary, status, time estimates, story points and assignee on the tree on the Epic Hierarchy
• Rolled up percentage completion and at issue level as well
• JQL support for Epic Hierarchy screen
• Time in Status report using JQL
• Issue Tracker to view complete transitions on your issue screen
  • Status Transition : View all the status changes in a single tab along with average time and count in each status. Switch between graphical and tabular view to make more out of the data.
  • Assignee Transition : View all the assignees for the issue along with the time for which the issue was with each assignee. Switch between graphical and tabular view to make more out of the data.

[Javier]

Thanks Raul. Looks very nice, however, it is weird that this is not part of Jira for which we pay already a good amount.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

How have you implemented that hierarchy?  Off-the-shelf, Jira does not have sub-tasks of sub-tasks, it's just Epic -> Story -> Sub-task.

[Javier]

You are right, I just added sub-task by mistake.

The hierarchy is Epic > Story > Task.