Optional level in hierachy in Portfolio for JIRA

Frank Løvstad-Gebauer October 23, 2017

Is it possible to have an optional level in Portfolio for JIRA.

We are looking at if Portfolio could support our implementation of SAFe 4.5.

Currently we have either a Portfolio Epic OR Program Epics. New levels in Portfolio for JIRA.

That means that Program Epics do not have parents.

And the children of Portfolio Epics are Features (JIRA Epics).

That also means that a Feature (JIRA Epic) can have a Portfolio Epic or a Program Epic as a parent

1 answer

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Jason Golden
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
October 23, 2017

You cannot have an optional level in the hierarchy. If you try to view your plan at the Portfolio Epic level, you will either need to see the next level down as Program Epics or Features (JIRA Epics). If you try to view a plan that has the Portfolio Epic -> Program Epic -> Features in the global hierarchy at the Portfolio Epic level, but you happen to have no children Program Epics under it, all issues in that view will show in the "All issues without parent Portfolio Epic" section. Meaning, it'll look bad.

The way to properly address this is to create a dedicated JIRA project for your Program Epics, then have those sit side by side with Features (normal working team JIRA Epics), and have the Portfolio Epic be the parent of both. The dedicated project for Program Epics essentially becomes your product requirements, while working team Epics and Stories becomes the work to fulfill those requirements.

-Jason Golden
Denver AUG Leader

Frank Løvstad-Gebauer October 25, 2017

Thank you Jason for taking the time to answer me.
If we decide to go with Portfolio we will need to look at our SAFe hierarchy.

Best Regards

Frank

Jason Golden
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
December 12, 2017

You're most welcome!

Karthick Nethaji Kaleeswaran September 23, 2019

Can I have a parent hierarchy mandatory but a child hierarchy optional? Since that the answer was posted almost 2 years back, I just wanted to check if this feature was made available as part of any future releases of JIRA.

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