How to Set Up Jira Plan with Specific Epics

[Cyril James]

Hey Team, I am trying to use the "Plan" feature to run a project.  My project would have a short list of Epics pulled in from several data sources in Jira.

My problem is, for every Epic I try to add, all the linked stories are greyed out.

I might not understand the "Plan" functionality which I think is also called Advanced Roadmaps?

Is the "Plan" feature designed to show all Epics from a selected data source.  

Thank you!

[Cyril James · Accepted solution]

Hi Trudy, I created the filter using basic search to pull in the epics but the filter is not showing the associated stories, so the Plan also does not show the stories.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Cyril James 

Welcome to the Atlassian community!

When you are viewing your plan, click on Plan Settings and select Configure.

What do you have in each of the Source Date configuration pages?

Have you included in Issue Sources the projects in which those greyed-out issues reside?

Are they listed under the Removed Issues page?

[Cyril James]

Thank you for the response. Yes, I have my "Project" set for issue sources and still things are greyed out.

[Trudy Claspill]

Do you have a filter applied to your plan?

When you have a filter applied issues in the plan that are not within scope of the filter will be grayed out.

[Cyril James]

Thank you.  I get that concept.  So, what is the logical way to get Epics and their linked stories to show using a filter.  The only other way I can think of is to create a label and go through the hassle of giving every epic and story a label.  

[Trudy Claspill]

If you have a list of Epics that you want to include, and you also want to include all their child stories, then you can create a Saved filter that retrieves those issues.

issue in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys>) or "Epic Link" in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys>)

You can then use that Filter as the Issue Source by selecting Filter instead of Project on the Issue Source configuration:

Note that does require you to have an explicit list of Epic issue keys. 

If that doesn't address your scenario could you please provide more information about your scenario?

[Cyril James]

Thank you Trudy!  Let me go try that and report back

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Cyril James 

You need to use the Switch to JQL option, and enter the JQL directly.

issue in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys>) or "Epic Link" in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys>)

[Cyril James]

Let me try that.  Thank you!

[Cyril James]

I guess I have to filter and export data to get Epic Issue Key, Epic Link field?

[Cyril James]

Are those custom fields.  I did an export of a sample epic and don't see Epic key or epic link

[Trudy Claspill]

No, those are not custom fields.

"Key" is synonymous with "issue id". It is the ID is of the issue; i.e. XYZ-123. Every issue has a key or ID which is comprised of the Project Key and a number.

"Epic Link" is the field in the Epic's child issues that keeps track of the child's parent Epic. On the screen it shows the name/summary from the parent Epic, but what is actually stored there is the key/issue ID for the parent Epic.

[Cyril James]

Thank you so much!  So when I review my epic, Epic Link is not included.  When I go into Project Settings - Issue Layout and try to add Epic Link to show, I get a message to go to Field Configuration to set this up.  When I click the Field Configuration Link, its a dead end for me.  Does this have to be added by our admin.  

[Trudy Claspill]

Epic Link will not show in the Epics, only in the child issues.

The field is used to track an issue's parent Epic. Epics can't be children of other Epics, so the Epic Link field is not used in the Epic issue.

Epic Link should show up automatically for the child issues (Story, Task, Bug, etc.) If it is not showing up, then yes, a Jira Administrator would have to modify the field configurations for those issue types to add it.

[Cyril James]

Oh, Epic Link in my stories is the the name or subset of the name of the Epic itself in my case.

Thank you.  So is this the correct syntax:

created>=-30 order by created DESC issue in (ABC-760, ABC-761) or epic link in (EPICNAME1, EPICNAME2)

[Trudy Claspill]

No, that is not correct. You have syntax and logic problems in your JQL.

As I said, in the UI in the child issues the Epic Link field will show the name of the Epic, but what is actually stored in the field is the key for the Epic. The UI is being helpful by showing you the Epic name there rather than the key. So where you have (EPICNAME1, EPICNAME2) you need to have (ABC-760, ABC-761)

Also, in JQL you must put field names that contain spaces within quotes. So where you have epic link you need to have "Epic Link".

Additionally, the ORDER BY clause needs to be at the end.

And, how do you want the created>=-30 to be applied? Do you want only the Epics AND child issues created in the past 30 days? That would exclude any Epic created more than 30 days ago and also exclude child issues created more than 30 days ago. You might end up with Epics with incomplete lists of child issues (excluding the children that were created more than 30 days ago), and you might end up with child issues without their parent Epic (child issue created less than 30 days ago, but Epic created more than 30 days ago).

That criteria also needs to be properly combined with the other criteria using an AND or an OR operator. The correct operator depends on your answer to the above question.

[Cyril James]

Thank you.  When I tried to set up the filter, created>=-30 order by created DESC was pre-populated.  I don't need this.

Where do I find the keys, and do I need to write the query using both epic issue key and epic link key.

[Trudy Claspill]

Yes, the "created >-30 ORDER BY created DESC" filter is the default filter that comes up when you go to the Advanced Issue Search screen. You have to remove that part when creating your own custom filter.

The "key", as I said, is the same as the "issue id".

When you are viewing an issue of any type you will see its key/issue ID at the top of the screen. It will be the right-most value.

If you see multiple keys, like in my image, that means you are viewing an issue that is a child of an Epic, or a subtask under another issue.

Backing up a moment, do you want your plan to contain only a specific group of Epics that you will single out? Or are you looking for a group of Epics identified by some characteristic, like all the Epics in one or more projects, or all the Epics that have some other shared characteristic?

If you want to single out specific Epics for your Plan, then you would get the keys/Issue IDs for those Epics by viewing each one and looking at the top of the screen. You also see the ID in the URL link to the issue.

To get those Epics and the child issues of those Epics you would use the exact same comma separated lists of keys/Issue IDs in two spots in the filter.

issue in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>) or "Epic Link" in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>) 

This part gets you all the Epics based on the keys/Issue IDs for the Epics:

issue in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>)

This part gets all the child issues that have identified one of those same Epics as their parent. A child issue stores the key/Issue ID of its parent Epic in its "Epic Link" field.

"Epic Link" in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>) 

Putting "or" between these two criteria tells Jira you want all the issues that match either criteria - you want the issues that are either Epics or the children of the Epics.

[Cyril James]

Thank you!  I will look through this tonight.  My original goal, was to just manage a cross functional project in one view like using the "Plan" feature.  I want to single out epics and stories from various Jira Projects and display, allowing me to sell all this work, start and end dates, story status, assignments and a Gantt chart.  This is proving to be way more difficult than I expected.

[Cyril James]

Great news.  I was able to set up a "Plan" to run a cross functional project.  I created an Initiative and linked all my epics to it.  Then I created a filter using "Parent Link" in (My Initiative, My Epic 1, My Epic 2).  I had my plan use this filter as a date source and it worked.  

My only question remaining, is when I look at my Plan, the very first line says "2 issues without parent".  This does not make sense to me and the two issues are epics and I have linked these two epics to my Initiative.  Is there any way to fix this.

Thank you!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hi Trudy, I created the filter using basic search to pull in the epics but the filter is not showing the associated stories, so the Plan also does not show the stories.

Please show me what you mean by "created the filter using basic search".

If you mean you are using this interface:

then click on the "Switch to JQL" link to see how your basic search criteria translates to JQL and compare that to the JQL I told you to use.

issue in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>) or "Epic Link" in (<comma separated list of Epic issue keys/IDs>) 

[Cyril James]

Oh, sorry.  I used JQL.  Parent Link" in (My Initiative, My Epic 1, My Epic 2).

[Trudy Claspill]

"Parent Link" is not the field that Stories use to keep track of their parent Epic. Stories use the Epic Link field to keep track of their parent Epic. You would need to use 

"Parent Link" in (<key for My Initiative) or "Epic Link" in (<key for My Epic 1>, <key for My Epic 2>)

 <edit - had to fix a typo which I have bolded above)

[Cyril James]

Ok, so you both clauses in one query.  I will try!  Thank you!