Does Jira support an issue having multiple parent links?
Asked by April_Delay:

Can Jira allow for two parents to a single child? We are trying to track how progress in software development is meeting both program and software requirements.

I think the answer is "no" but I'm hoping there is a plugin out there that allows it.

Just doing links isn't going to cut it. For both left and right, we need to see the % complete and whole drill down that only the parent-child feature can give us.

![two parents.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/246553i1FEF86C72FC6122B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "two parents.png")


Answers:
author: Bj?rn Gullander Eficode
body: No, Advanced roadmaps does not support multiple parents. If you need support for more advanced hierarchies and linkings I would suggest the app Structure with Structure Gantt if you need a timeline. In Structure you can create any kind of views depending on different linkings.

Otherwise as a workaround you would have one of the parents as a real parent and set some kind of field for the other structure. Not the ideal solution of course, but sometimes you might rethink your structure and get to the same result.

Bj?rn


author: Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
body: Hi [@April_Delay](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4733091)

if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, this would be easy to do with the app that my team is working on, [JXL for Jira](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1224710?hosting=cloud&tab=overview&utm_source=atlassian-community&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=2304498).

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you'd do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also comes with a number of advanced features, including the support for configurable *issue hierarchies*.

These issue hierarchies can be based on Jira's built-in parent/child relationships, and/or based on issue links of particular issue link types. You can have as many issue hierarchies configured as you want, and easily switch between them.

This is how it looks in action; pay attention to *epic WORK-142*:

![various-parents.gif](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/246618i7E3C3406099146F8/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "various-parents.gif")

Depending on your configuration, it's either a child of OKR-1, or a child of initiative WORK-161. Our epic is connected to both of them via issue links.

This would work on any hierarchy level and with any number of hierarchy levels. You can calculate sum ups anywhere in your hierarchy, and depending on your columns, configure different sum up styles. You can also combine issue hierarchies with JXL's other advanced features, such (nested) *issue grouping* or *conditional formatting*.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

comments: author: Orla Mears
body: Hi [@Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4289506) hope you're doing well. I was wondering if you could help please - I am currently testing this on a very new/basic test project, as we also have the need to map initiatives to multiple parent issues but as mentioned above, it's not available in Jira.  

I'm using JXL, and have mapped two initiatives to a "strategic objective" issue type which has higher level hierarchy.  

Within the sheet, it shows my two "strategic objectives" but the linked child initiatives do not show immediately below, they seem to sit under a heading of "other level 2 issues"

Can you suggest how I can see what initiatives I have linked to the strategic objective through a drop down list?  

Thanks for any guidance you can provide


author: Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
body: Hi [@Orla Mears](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5499710)

thanks for trying JXL! May I ask you to reach out to us via <https://jxl.app/support> so that we can look into this with you?

My first impression is that the **parent linkage** for level 2 may not be configured correctly in the [custom issue structure configuration](https://jxl.app/docs/guide/advanced-features/#custom-issue-structure). If the level 2 issues are connected to their initiative via *issue links* , you need to choose the respective *issue link type* (a.k.a. *issue link description*) here:

![parent-linkage.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/329249i39B02ECD48B603BA/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "parent-linkage.png")

... but I'd suggest to talk more via <https://jxl.app/support>!

Cheers,

Hannes


Tags: advanced-roadmaps

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