Link epics from different projects to an innitiative
Asked by Brendan Viljoen:

Sorry all, but this might have been a question before. We have different project in our company with each it's own epics. If we create initiatives can you link different epics from different project to an initiative.

Would you then create a project for initiatives and then link the different epics to one of those?

Thank you


Answers:
author: Mikael Sandberg
body: Hi [@Brendan Viljoen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5031342),

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

Yes, that is possible, the parent link field is not limited to only show initiative in the same project as the epic.

comments: author: Brendan Viljoen
body: Hi [@Mikael Sandberg](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/853579) , do you have to create an project for initiatives or do they live outside of projects?


author: Mikael Sandberg
body: They have to live within a project just like any other issue types. If you have not already created the initiative issue type you have to do that first, then add the type to the issue type screen used by the project. Once that is done you have to update the issue hierarchy in Advanced Roadmaps. You can do that if you go to Settings \> Product. Once that is done, just add the Parent Link field to the screen used by epics and you can start linking it to its parent.

For a detailed instruction, check out this [KB](https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-custom-hierarchy-levels-in-advanced-roadmaps/).


author: VINCENT DUPONT
body: hello,

here is my use case:

I use initiatives to represent a project in my project portfolio. Initiatives can be created into my project portfolio Jira Project, or into the various team's Jira project.

The initiative is just an evelope to show the state of the project. The actual work is managed in Epics, from the team's Jira project tasks. This allows me to report on any project (initiatve), and let the teams work on their Epic freely.

With Automation, I can even manage to have roll-up information from the epics and issues to the initiative level. This allows me to know the project (initiative) is composed of x tasks (y done, z in progress)...

Vincent

comments: author: Brendan Viljoen
body: HI, can you view initiatives on a roadmap?


author: VINCENT DUPONT
body: hello,

not in the standard Roadmap of the project

but yes in advanced roadmap

vincent


author: Christine Nguyen
body: [@VINCENT DUPONT](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1380171) this is how I set up my division's portfolio as well. I am wondering how do you link the epic (in the team Jira project) to the portfolio project that you created/track? I am interested to see understand more how you setup the automation for the roll up.. Will you share how you accomplish it? Thanks


author: VINCENT DUPONT
body: Hello Christine

sure I can show you!

The link between a Initiative and it's Epic is created with the field "Parent Link" (of the Epic). I think this is a Custom Field that comes with Jira Advanced Roadmap (you need Premium Licences for this)

The trick is to use the magic query "issuekey in portfolioChildIssuesOf(PROJ-80)". This will return all issues in the tree under PROJ-80, without any hierarchy anymore. So you can check each issue 1 by 1 and process that information into an automation.

My status info for the Initiative PROJ-80 is like this ![Capture_status.JPG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/233663i65E83A7E5EDF9C86/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture_status.JPG")

(this is the rendering of my status informaiton in the Initiative: I choosed to show the number of Done and In Progress and total)

Under the PROJ-80, there are in total 5 epics and 4 stories (I masked the summary columns but you can see the type and status) This is the result of the quesry "issuekey in portfolioChildIssuesOf(PROJ-80)": a flat list of tasks without hierarchy

<br />

![Capture_proj80.JPG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/233664i48EB4BDB7D97D6D0/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture_proj80.JPG")

Note that Epics and Stories (and other tasks or subtasks) can be part of any project in Jira

So we see 7/9 are done (=77% should be rounded at 78%) and 1/9 to Todo (11%) and 1/9 is Todo (11%)

For the automation, here the steps :

![Capture_automation.JPG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/233665iFB91A9A6CB8E0AA3/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture_automation.JPG")

I hope this helps you

Vincent


author: Tanya Fraser
body: [@VINCENT DUPONT](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1380171) I found your answer, and it provides an answer to the exact use case that I have, so thank you!  
I have already set up a project as you described, and want to follow your automation.   
Couple of questions:  
The Progres par Statu field, which field is that, and which field is that displayed as in Advanced Roadmaps?

comments: author: VINCENT DUPONT
body: hello,

this is a standard input text (1 line text). So this can be displayed in the Adv roadmap columns as well as in the kanban cards

As I use standard unicode emojis (copy/paste from <https://getemoji.com/>) instead of jira icons, the emojis are simple characters that can be used everywhere like ascii chars

vincent


Tags: advanced-roadmaps

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