How to associate an Epic to an Initiative
Asked by Brian Tenpenny:

I got some excellent help in a previous thread about how to create Initiatives:  
<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Core-questions/Can-t-get-the-Initiative-Item-Type-working/qaq-p/759918>  

However, I can't seem to make the next step, which would be to be able to associate an Epic TO an initiative. I feel like there may be a field I need to enable or something along those lines, but I'm not sure where/how do do so.  

Can anyone point me in the right direction, please?

Thanks!


Answers:
author: Moga
body: Hi Brian,

You can edit the Parent Link field of the Epic issue to the Initiative issue key. This will associate the Epic with the Initiative.

If you are unable to do this, please provide screenshot which might help to understand.

Best Regards,   
Mogavenasan

comments: author: Cuong Pham
body: Do I need to have portfolio license to do this? I'm getting an error


author: Moga
body: The context in <https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Core-questions/Can-t-get-the-Initiative-Item-Type-working/qaq-p/759918> which was mentioned above is in regards of JIRA Portfolio. In order to use JIRA Portfolio functionalities, you will need a Portfolio license.

Cheers,  
Mogavenasan


author: Karine Manoukian
body: Can I link my epics to an Inititive (Parent link field on Issue edit page) or you can do it only if you have Portfolio license? In other words, is Epic the highest level in Jira hierarchy if you don't have Portfolio license?


author: Andy Heinzer
body: Hi Karine,

This question was mis-labeled as being Jira Core. But the original question was about how to setup the hierarchy in regards to Jira Portfolio. In Portfolio, you can actually configure what the hierarchy should be for your environment. Atlassian recommends a top to bottom of Initiative, Epic, Story, subtask. But you can set this in Portfolio the way you want to with a different order or even additional levels.

If you do not have Portfolio, then yes, Epic is the highest level issue available in Jira Software. You can't use Epics at this time without Software, (sorry Jira Core users).

Regards,  
Andy


author: Dinesh Ayyappan
body: just that Atlassian knows, in my org. we dont need portfolio tool BUT we do badly need to group epics with an initiative. Making us buy the portfolio tool just for getting the hierarchy set does not sound logical/ right for the small organization like us.


author: Dinesh Ayyappan
body: update from my last comment:

we still badly in need of this - we came up with some workarounds which is NOT A COOL process - Jira was supposed to make the life easier for PMO departments but makes it complex.

Our Org is not receiving Jira tool well.


author: Mary Kay Soto
body: I've been reading through various JIRA documents trying to figure out how to manage Cross-Project work. We need a way to group EPICS togehter because JIRA has the limitation of only showing the EPIC on the Agile board, if is assigned to a specific development team (we have REP, PROP, Integrate, etc.). I was really exicited to read about the use of Initatives and then, after a couple hours of reading, stumbled on this post that says you have to have Portflio subscription in order to use this. Is this really the only way to do this?

Thanks   
Mary Kay


author: Randy Anger
body: We should not need to buy another add-on from Atlassian to group epics together in an Atlassian project.


author: Antonia Natova
body: i have same issue - i have created initiative but cannot link the epics to it. when i click on Parent \>\> choose option \> the initiative is not available ![Screenshot 2022-04-29 at 13.38.19.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/195213i2CE50B0BC5C80602/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2022-04-29 at 13.38.19.png")


author: Geethanjali D
body: We just upgraded to Free Premium Trial. Parent Link field has to be added manually to your schema and then to screen layout.


author: Robert Kirkman
body: We have Portfolio and I do not see a Parent link option.

comments: author: olly.nelson
body: Same here. I can't see any way of adding a child Epic to an Initiative whether in Jira or Portfolio


author: Liz Huff
body: Same here! It took me about 10 different pages of Jira documentation PLUS the $400 Portfolio training, more than 15 hours of research and**now I am stuck AGAIN**! Someone please help asap. I needed this done 2 weeks ago.


author: Nic
body: * In general, a parent link exists when Portfolio is in place, however, the field isn't automatically added to the screens where you might want to see it.

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfoliocloud/showing-portfolio-custom-fields-in-jira-software-856708725.html>

The process is similar for server.


author: USHUROVA Nigara ushuroni
body: I want to group epics from different product teams together under one Initiative without disturbing the way of working of each product team. But it looks that Jira doesn't allow this for Team-Managed projects. So, it looks that the 'add Initiative' feature in the epic is only available for Company-Managed projects.

I can't ask each product team now to change their project (and all their work) just so that I can link it to my Initiative. This seems like a giant overhead.

Isn't there a way to be able to link epics (from a Team-Managed project) to an Initiative?

And also, very weird why you have to start from the epic to link to an Initiative. Instead of starting within an Initiative.


Tags: advanced-roadmaps