Flexible naming of epics is almost here! Sign up for early access to the new Parent field

[#1]

Update 11 Oct'23:

For those who have signed up to be in our early access, thank you!

We will contact you soon via email before we turn it on for your instance. Please note that we will be rolling it out cohort by cohort so you will hear from us at different times.

For anyone who didn't make it to the early access, we will be rolling this out to everyone a few weeks after the early access group. So stay tune! Cheers!

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Hi Jira Community! 👋

For the past year, we've been working on bringing flexible naming of epics to Jira Software, and we're excited to announce that from next month, we’ll be opening up our Beta program to all customers!

What is flexible naming of epics?

We want Jira to be able to reflect the way teams work, no matter what framework you may or may not use. These updates give you the flexibility to shape our tools to the way you work:

• Use your preferred terminology for epics to create consistent - and SAFe compatible - naming in Jira Software Cloud – rename the epic level and see this reflected throughout your site. This part of the experience is already available to all users.

• A new Parent field is replacing the existing Epic link and Parent link fields to provide a more consistent experience across both company and team-managed projects.

✨ Want to learn more? We’ve been sharing updates on these changes over the past year – check out these posts to dig into the detail:

• Upcoming - Rename ‘epics’ in your company-managed projects

• Upcoming changes to epic fields in company-managed projects

• Introducing the new Parent field in company-managed projects

What's involved in the Beta program?

You’ll be part of a group of users with an early release of flexible naming of epics in Jira Software.

• The Parent field will be turned on for your instance while the Beta is running
• You’ll see this new Parent field in your company-managed projects, including when creating new issues, viewing the details of an issue, editing your workflows, and setting new automations
• We’ll show messaging in some areas of Jira to encourage you to stop using the Epic link and Parent link fields

• You’ll be able to give feedback in Jira Software through our Beta Community Group

We’ll begin switching on changes from mid-October to customers who have requested early access to our Beta experience.

📵 Please note that some capabilities may be limited on Jira Cloud mobile apps.

How do I sign up?

It’s easy to get early access – just fill out a short survey letting us know you’re interested by Oct 6, 2023.

• ➡️  Sign up here  Update Oct 11, 2023: This sign up is now closed. 

We’ll be in touch closer to launch with confirmation of your enrolment and details of any next steps.

What if I’m already in the Beta group?

You won’t need to do anything! Customers already in our Beta cohort will continue to have access to all our latest changes.

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As we move towards bringing flexible naming of epics to Jira Software, we’re looking forward to sharing and continuing to shape this experience with you.

We’re excited to hear your feedback, as we continue to improve your Jira experience. Thanks again!

[Yatish Madhav]

thanks for this, I have signed up for our production and sandbox instances @Josh Sherwood .

Here are all the tabs I have open around the epic/parent field updates ... still trying to catch up :| since we have many power users / admins and even sprint/project managers that this may impact ...

• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Flexible-naming-of-epics-is-almost-here-Sign-up-for-early-access/ba-p/2470456 
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Upcoming-Rename-epics-in-your-company-managed-projects/ba-p/1874726 
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Upcoming-changes-to-epic-fields-in-company-managed-projects/ba-p/1997562 
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/Action-required-Atlassian-is-changing-how-epics-and-issue/ba-p/2205529 
• https://community.developer.atlassian.com/t/deprecation-of-the-epic-link-parent-link-and-other-related-fields-in-rest-apis-and-webhooks/54048 
• https://community.developer.atlassian.com/t/update-deprecation-of-epic-link-parent-link-and-other-related-fields-in-webhooks/62893 
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/REST-APIs-and-webhooks-deprecation-of-the-Epic-Link-Parent-Link/ba-p/1873986 
• https://support.atlassian.com/requests/JST-787036/ 

[Gabriel Roth]

Is this going to give instances the ability to create a more SAFe friendly structure (Theme, Initiative, Epic, Feature, Story) without breaking reports and other internal Jira mechanisms?

[Tim Nelson]

What plans is this available on?  Is it available for Standard, or only Premium? 

Thanks! 

[Deleted user]

Sounds good, but also sounds like this is only available for Software projects. Will this be coming to Jira Work Management projects too? The epic handling over there is poor, and a lot of requests come in for it from the community

[Marion Richardson]

I have the same question as @[deleted] Thanks! 

I am desperate to get away form the word Epic. 

[David Holman]

"Flexible epic naming" has been in the works for a year … 😕

[Marion Richardson]

In the Work Management projects it still has the word 'epic'

[Irene]

@Gabriel Roth yes this is part of that big piece of work. However just want to note though that you can already do this now - you can create the structure you want: Add new hierarchy levels, include multiple issue types, and rename the hierarchy levels. 

This particular work on Parent field simplifies the parenting experience for these multiple hierarchy levels.

[Irene]

@Tim Nelson the Parent field is a new field that will be rolled out to all plans.

[Irene]

@[deleted] , @Marion Richardson the new Parent field will be in Jira Work Management and Jira Service Management too. 

Re: the "Issues in this epic" on the screenshot you sent, @Marion Richardson , yes you're right - that's the current situation, but will soon be updated (you'll see the change in Beta).

[Irene]

@David Holman that's right! So cheer us as we are getting this to the finishing line 🙌 

[Marion Richardson]

Maybe I missunderstood. I thought we were talking about Parent Issue (usually known as an Epic). In my settings these are a purple logo. In the list view of a JWM template I have the logo now showing (broken image) when a parent issues is added. 

Will this be fixed too? Looking forward to more improvements in JWM!!

Thanks!

[Irene]

@Marion Richardson , that is unrelated to this change. The new 'Parent' field we describe in this post refers to a field inside Jira issue screens that is used to add a parent to the issue you are viewing. 

It's unrelated to the Epic issue type and unfortunately I also wouldn't know without looking at your instance further why that icon is not showing in inline create. You might want to check if your fellow teammates also seeing that broken logo and check with the Jira admin if they can troubleshoot it. Otherwise submit a Jira support ticket. 

[Marion Richardson]

Thank you Irene. I've logged my Epic logo issues in another question for the community.

[John Elder]

@Josh Sherwood I am very interested in getting connected to the early access program, as we have an internal concern around this change that we would love to address in advance.  If any slots open up for additional early access participants, please do let me know.  I would greatly appreciate it.  :)

[Mike Vitale]

This is great! Question regarding the reverse. If I have a standard hierarchy of issue in Jira, where the parent of an Epic is an Initiative, will there be support to add a child within an Initiative which can then be an Epic? We often use Initiatives as larger projects, Epics as phases, then tasks as work within each phase.

[Irene]

Hi @Mike Vitale , in that example you give, yes in Initiative issue view, you'll be able to add a child issue, which will be an Epic.

[Mike Vitale]

@Irene hello! Just wanted to follow up on the example I provided where we have an Initiative as the parent of an Epic, and would like the ability to add a child under the initiative in the issue view via an add child button. I am seeing the parent field now available on our Epic and Task schemes, do you know when the add child feature will be available within our Initiative scheme?