Custom issue hierarchy....is it possible?
Asked by Feras Saghir:

I know I can create custom 'issue types'. Can I create a customer issue hierarchy using these new issue types? For example, I need to create a new issue type called 'Feature' and I need to insert this new issue type between Epic and Story in the new custom hierarchy. Is this possible?

When I insert this new issue between Epic and Story in the new custom hierarchy I need 'Features' to become children of Epics and I need Stories to become children of 'Features'.

I looked at Portfolio but it seems I can only add new hierarchy levels above 'Epic'?

Thank you,

Feras Saghir


Answers:
author: Deepanshu Natani
body: Hi [@Feras Saghir](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3545011) Your needs can be fulfilled by another application : Structure [https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/34717/structure-project-management-at-scale?hosting=cloud\&tab=overview](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/34717/structure-project-management-at-scale?hosting=cloud&tab=overview)

comments: author: staceyking
body: I keep seeing how Structure solves this problem - but how exactly?


author: Maksim_Feshchanka
body: Hi [@staceyking](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3699474)

The "Structure" plugin won't solve this problem, but it'll show you the current hierarchy/dependencies and issues associated with the particular project/epic/JQL/etc.  
And even if these dependencies (child issues/etc) are allocated across the different projects you'll be able to see all of them in one place.

BR

Maksim


author: staceyking
body: Thanks Maksim - thats kinda what I was thinking, but it seems that the same response has been given on all the other same/similar questions - that somehow Structure will fill this need. :-)

Ugh - I cannot believe this is not something easily done out of the box!


author: Philip Heijkoop _ALM Works_
body: Hi Stacey,

My name's Phil, and I work for the company that makes Structure. Like Deepanshu and Maksim have already hinted at, Structure can help with the visualizing of your larger hierarchies. The best way this works is by setting up rules on how to create the hierarchy in your board that we call generators. These rules will create the visualization of your Jira issues (so there's no copying or syncing issues, it's all done in real-time from the Jira database). A great place to start would be to check out our explainer video [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q343-zviSX4), and read our quick start guide [here](https://wiki.almworks.com/display/structure/Structure+Quick+Start+Guide) for server and data center versions, and [here](https://wiki.almworks.com/display/strcloud/Getting+Started+with+Structure+Cloud) for the cloud version.

Naturally, this is best done in combination with an evaluation of the tool itself, ideally on a staging environment. That way you can try it out yourself and see if you can get the tool to do what you need. In any case, if you have any follow up questions you can always reach out to our awesome support crew at support@almworks.com.

Hope that helps and please don't hesitate to reach out or post more question you may have here.

Phil Heijkoop

ALM Works


author: staceyking
body: Hi Phil - thanks for the response! I do understand that Structure will help me visualize, however, I need to be able to tie the Epics to Features in some way. There used to be a way to have a Parent/Child link I thought (outside of Portfolio).

We want to create the following: Epic -\> Feature -\> Stories -\> Sub-Tasks

My problem is that we are on Cloud, and we want to get the "program" level views - so that Epics and Features are tracked on the Program board, and the "team level" tracks the features -\> stories -\>tasks.

BUT - Apparently Portfolio for Cloud doesn't have the Program feature at all... which is astounding to me :)


author: Deepanshu Natani
body: Do you just want to visualize the hierarchy or do you need some additional features too?


author: staceyking
body: Hi Deepanshu - we would like to have the actual issue types in the hierarchy, not just visualization. We had this set up at another place I worked with, but it was data center and not cloud, and we had the full features of Portfolio. I believe we were able to do this because of some of the Program features... could be wrong though :-)


author: Philip Heijkoop _ALM Works_
body: Hi Stacey,

What you're looking for is something Jira can do for you natively. You'll need to agree on an issue link type that will connect the Epic to the Feature and the Feature to the Story, and then use those to link them, if that issue link type doesn't exist yet you'll need an administrator to create them. You can read up on how to create new issue links in Jira cloud [here](https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiracloud/configuring-issue-linking-818578890.html).

Best,

Phil


author: staceyking
body: Thanks Phil! That was helpful - I started playing with the issue links previously, and I think this will solve my issue. I really appreciate everyone's help on this - will report back if I get things exactly how we want them. :-)

thanks!

stace


author: Travis Brubaker
body: Hi Stacey,

Would love to hear about how you resolved this issue. I am currently running into the same at my client and think this could solve for me.

Regards,

Travis


Tags: advanced-roadmaps