Is anyone else using Epics within Epics - if so, would you be willing to share a screenshot or two?

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 3, 2024

Hi all,

Is anyone else setting an Epic as the child of another Epic and if so, would you be willing to share a screenshot or two please? 

I need to demonstrate that having the option of placing an Epic within an Epic is useful in some circumstances and I think that having some illustrations from other projects could help the governance board understand my request. 

Thanks in advance

Mariah

 

3 answers

2 accepted

2 votes
Answer accepted
Trudy Claspill
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
April 3, 2024

Hello @Mariah Branch-Pouplier 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Jira Software Data Center does not allow the addition of an Epic as a child of another Epic.

If you are actually doing that, how are you accomplishing it? What version of Jira are you using? Can you provide a screen image that shows an Epic with Epics as child issues?

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 3, 2024

Hi Trudy, 

I remember doing it a couple of years ago and I am unable to do it on my current employer's instance of Jira. I thought that it was something that they had blocked, and this is why I was wondering if others in the community could provide images. 

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 3, 2024

Thanks for the quick response! :)

 

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
April 3, 2024

You have never been able to nest Epics within other Epics, you must have had a layer above Epics if your Epics were child issues

There are a couple of ways you might have been making it look like you were nesting epics:

  • Your admins used very similar names for the issue types in different layers, like "Epic" and "epic"
  • You were not really nesting them, you were using issue link types to show "one issue is part of another"

 

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 4, 2024

Trudy and Nic - thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. - The post further down from Hannes illustrates what I was looking for. It was also helpful to hear from you, as it gave me a fuller sense of what is known in the general Atlassian world. :) 

2 votes
Answer accepted
Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
April 3, 2024

Hi @Mariah Branch-Pouplier ,

I am unaware of this being possible. Maybe Data Center supports this but would be surprised. You can have an issue level above Epics called Initiative. Is that what you refer to possibly?

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 3, 2024

Hi Jack,

Thank you for the quick response. I don't think that we had initiatives. I'm remembering work from several years ago, so I could be wrong, but I really thought that we had Epics as children of other Epics. 

I am looking for this because Initiatives need to be used in a specific way in our current instance of Jira. However we have flexibility at the Epic level so I want to be able to put Epics within Epics. 

 

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
April 3, 2024

Maybe someone created an issue type at a Story/Task tier and named Epic. Epic of Epic isn’t supported. 

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 4, 2024

@Jack Brickey - The post below from Hannes illustrates what I was looking for. It was also helpful to hear that you hadn't heard of it, as it gave me a fuller sense of what is known in the general Atlassian world. :) 

Like Jack Brickey likes this
1 vote
Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
Atlassian Partner
April 3, 2024

Hi @Mariah Branch-Pouplier

the only thing I can think of is that your previous Jira site had some app installed from the Atlassian Marketplace that supports showing epics within epics. Structure is popular and, AFAIK, supports epics within epics, and so does the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira. If it's useful, this is how this would look in JXL:

epics-within-epics.gif

In the above example, WORK-148 and WORK-146 would relate to WORK-341 via an issue link of type is child of - but you can configure any hierarchy levels that you want.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

Mariah Branch-Pouplier April 4, 2024

Hi Hannes,

Thank you! This is very similar to what I remember seeing/using. 

Mariah

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
Atlassian Partner
April 4, 2024

Hi @Mariah Branch-Pouplier

glad I could help!

Just to clarify, Jack, Trudy, and Nic are perfectly correct that viewing epics within epics isn't natively available in Jira; it needs (and always needed) an extension ("app") from the Atlassian Marketplace.

Best,

Hannes

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer