How can I manage Multiple site code delivery against a single group of issues?

[Liam Gillen]

My application/organization is migrating to MyJira and we are trying to figure out how to organize our Project.

We have a single CodeBase of Delivery across 3 delivery sites.  Our release management team has requested that we link our Issues to an Epic that will have a defined Fix Version that will be used for them to track what is included in our biweekly release to Production.

Since Jira only allows an issue to be linked to a single epic we are not sure how we will be able to organize our items for release management without having to first duplicate our Issues for each of the different epics.

[Kit Friend · Accepted solution]

Hey @Liam Gillen  - Epics don't have to live in the same Jira Projects as all the work that makes them up (though that is the default). When scaling it's common to have a single central "Roadmap" or similar style project where cross-team epics (and other cross-team items - for example requirements being shaped where the team to engage isn't known yet) are held. 

For your scenario of Release management, the team might find that having a shared release calendar in Confluence or similar might be a better solution though. Normally Epics are literally " big stories" so you don't want one sitting open for ages just for tracking. Using the Fix Versions properly and some Release Note conventions is a good approach I'd say - I've seen good outcomes from having a special /RELEASE project where custom issue types are the Release notes and you link those to all the tickets included, pop in the release instructions etc. 

[Liam Gillen]

Thanks for the feedback, I will discuss this with my larger team and Release Mgmt and Tools Team partners!

[Capi [resolution]]

In addition to what @Kit Friend suggests, there are also options in the Atlassian Marketplace to add functionality to Jira and for example superpower your epics, create more complex issue hierarchies, or adopt cross-project release timelines. But the possible apps depend on your hosting type. @Liam Gillen are you on Cloud or on prem?

[Liam Gillen]

Thanks we are exploring options, but with a Giant company these things are not always possible.  Unsure, but would assume given our overall direction that we are in the Cloud.