Consequences of adding a new issue type in the hierachy

[Jonathan Huet]

Hi,

Here is the situation explanation:

Current status

1. We have the following Issue type hierarchy configured:
   1. 2 Initiative
   2. 1 Epic
   3. 0 Story
   4. -1 Subtask
2. Some company-managed projects have Epics with attached/linked Stories

Desired status

Now, we need to add a new level "Feature" to improve the use of Jira:

• 3 Initiative
• 2 Epic
• 1 Feature
• 0 Story
• -1 Subtask

Questions

What will happen with existing links between Epics and Stories for:

1. Projects without the Feature issue type in their Issue type Scheme?
2. Projects with the Feature issue type in their Issue type Scheme?

Any other issue that I'm not foreseeing?

Thanks for the help!!

[Sanjog Sigdel]

Hello @Jonathan Huet Welcome to the community.

We can add the fourth hierarchy Initiative in Jira when we are using the Premium Packages. I'm currently using Standard package so Adding another hierarchy is not possible for me.

But Adding Initiative as a new hierarchy won't disrupt any features and EPICS.

Though any tickets will be left abandoned, you can still map them with your desired EPICS, and Features.

Though a Issue type scheme don't have Feature issue type, it doesn't mean that an issue cannot integrate with features. As soon as you add issue types in the issue scheme, than the existing features will be displayed. And the missing features can be added.

[Jonathan Huet]

Thanks for the answer.

Feedback on the answer

In my case, the Initiative issue type is already added and part of the hierarchy, working like a charm.

Fine-tuning the answer

What I want to add, is a new issue type  "Feature" and insert it in the middle of an existing hierarchy (between Epics and Stories). 

What worries me, is what will happen with issues that already have the link Epic <--> Story:

• For projects without the "Feature" issue type in their scheme:
  • a) The link will be kept as there is no "Feature"
  • b) The link will be erased and I will need to recreate it manually
  • c) the link will be erased and I will not be able to link the epic with the story as the Feature issue type is not available

• For projects with the "Feature" issue type in their scheme:
  • a) The link will be kept ( surprising because it breaks the hierarchy)
  • b) The link will be erased and I will need to create the needed features to link the Epics <--> Features <--> Stories (totally fine with that)

Thanks for the help :) 

[Inderpreet Kaur]

Greetings @Jonathan Huet

Today I was researching on the same problem you had posted in Oct, 2023. I intend to introduce a feature layer between the User Story and Epic and also a Strategic Theme layer above the initiative. The desired hierarchy is a below: 

- Strategic Theme

- Initiative

- Epic

- Feature

-User Story/Task

- Sub-task

While the introduction of Strategic Theme layer above Initiative may pose no risk to the existing project boards in Jira. There is certainly a need for an assessment to be done on how the introduction of the feature layer affects the existing project boards. 

The approach I took was to create the new hierarchy in the Jira Sandbox version and compare it with the live environment. I observed the following:

- With the introduction of the Feature layer between Epic and User Story, the existing Epic was automatically labelled as a Feature still linked to the User Story as a parent

- The Feature (previously the Epic) is disengaged from the parent (Initiative) leaving a gap in the hierarchy which needs to be filled by introducing a new epic (between the Feature and Initiative)

I am not sure if you already figured this out but wanted to share what I observed and I would also be interested to know how this changed worked out for you.

Regards,

Inderpreet