How can I create the below life-project-structure in Atlassian?
Asked by Joshua mason:

Hey there,

I am seeking your help in knowing the best way to setup/configure the below Project Structure.  
\> Life  
\> \> Life Area  
\> \> \> Goal  
\> \> \> \> Sub Goal 1  
\> \> \> \> \> Sub Goal 2  
\> \> \> \> \> \> Sub Goal X (could be any number of additional layers depending on the goal)  
\> \> \> \> \> \> \> Item(s)  
\> \> \> \> \> \> \> \> Sub Item(s)

How do you suggest I configure this?  
The aim is to report on the total level of Life Progress, which=sum(Life Area Progress) which is = sum(Area-Goals) etc down to sum(Sub-Items).

E.g. Life Progress = sum(Life Area 1, 2, 3, 4 \& 5).  
E.g. Life Area 5 (Financial) = sum(Goal 1, 2, 3, \& 4)  
E.g. Financial Goal = sum(Financial Goal- Sub Goals 1, 2 \& 3)  
E.g. Financial Sub Goals= sum(Financial Goal- Sub Sub Goals 1, 2 \& 3)  
E.g. Financial Sub Sub Goals= sum(Financial Goal- Sub Sub Sub Goals 1, 2 \& 3)  
E.g. Financial Sub Sub Sub Goals= sum(Financial Sub Sub Sub Goals Actions 1, 2 \& 3)  
E.g. Financial Sub Sub Sub Goals Actions= sum(Financial Sub Sub Sub Goals Actions Items 1, 2 \& 3)

I can share my screen and show the current setup working in excel if that helps.

<br />

Cheers!  
Josh


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You're going to need apps to do this.

Plain Jira supports Issues and Sub-tasks (and then you could argue projects contain issues, but if you're going to go up, you probably don't want to get bogged down in sub-projects, that's not going to help)

Jira Software adds the layer "Epic" above Issues. There is a discussion to be had about nomenclature, but that's not important here, as you can rename anything.

Advanced Roadmaps allows you to create items above Epics, as do other apps - Big Picture for example (I start with Advanced Roadmaps because that's the way Atlassian want you to go, unless you're a big place that has good use for Jira Align, in which case, use that instead)

So, I've added Jira-speak terms (with Advanced roadmaps) to your names

\> Life : the highest layer  
\> \> Life Area : A hiher layer  
\> \> \> Goal : Another layer?  
\> \> \> \> Sub Goal 1 : Theme  
\> \> \> \> \> Sub Goal 2 : Initiative   
\> \> \> \> \> \> Sub Goal X : Epics  
\> \> \> \> \> \> \> Item(s) : Issues   
\> \> \> \> \> \> \> \> Sub Item(s) : sub-tasks

However, I'm pretty sure your best option would actually be the app called Structure. It allows you to do all sorts of layers in any way you want. I strongly recommend trying to keep Epic -\> Issue -\> Sub-task at the heart of it, the most important layer being issue - that's where most of the work will be done and tracked, but Structure will let you create whatever hierarchy you need.


author: Anna-BigPicture
body: Hi [@Joshua mason](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4892074)

[BigPicture](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1212259/bigpicture-project-management-ppm?tab=overview&hosting=cloud)/[BigGantt](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1213016/biggantt-gantt-chart-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview) may be a solution. The app allows you to create a no-limited number of WBS levels based on links and/or task attributes and adjust it to your workflow. You can create automatic rules but also make changes in task structure manually. In both cases, every modification in BigPicture sync with Jira automatically.


author: Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
body: Hi [@Joshua mason](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4892074)

just to add to Nic's great answer, [JXL for Jira](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/1224710?utm_source=atlassian-community&utm_medium=referral) is another app that would solve your requirements very nicely.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing and inline-editing all your issue fields, just like you're familiar with from Excel. It also allows modelling any issue hierarchy, either based on Jira's built-in parent/child relationships, based on issue links, or based on "groupings" by issue fields. You can also "sum up" your issue fields across these hierarchies.

Here's an example of issue hierarchies in action:

![x-level-hierarchy.gif](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/194343iCA167F06ACE4491E/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "x-level-hierarchy.gif")

There's actually a number of apps that might solve your requirements, JXL and Structure just being two of them. I would recommend to explore the Atlassian Marketplace, look out for customer reviews or certifications like "Cloud Fortified", try out a few apps (you can trial any app for free for 1 month), and go with the one you like the most.

Disclaimer: I work on JXL.

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes \| [https://jxl.app](https://jxl.app/?utm_source=atlassian-community&utm_medium=referral)


Tags: cloud

project-management