My Portfolio Scope does not show INITIATIVES that were created *and* manually "linked" in JIRA
Asked by Malcolm Ryder:

Earlier post on this went dormant, so I'm looking to reactivate it here. In summary:

1. Created issue types Theme and Initiative in Jira.

2. Created corresponding hierarchy levels in Portfolio.

3. For each issue at any level (incl. epics, stories, etc.), created "Related" (linked) issues at all relevant levels (higher, peer, lower).

4. In Portfolio, the correct (and only ) project board is recognized.

5. The project shows all of the issues entered and all of the links I created between them.

6. In Portfolio, the issues appear in Scope lists, but Portfolio is clearly NOT applying or recognizing a specific "PARENT" linkage between Epics and Initiatives, nor between Initiatives and Themes. As a result, issues list only as items "without parents", and the column of the list that should show Initiatives related to epics does not show any data.

7. In Portfolio, clicking on an issue shown as "without a parent" does bring up the detail screen needed on which a Parent would show and/or a Parent can be applied, but the feature does not work -- no data search nor data entry presents issues that (as above) I already know are defined and found elsewhere in the apps.

SOOOoooooo.... either it's a bug, or I missed a configuration step earlier.

What is going on?


Answers:
author: patwarnr
body: I don't have an answer, but more questions, and this thread seems to be more relevant to what I'm doing. I'm a complete novice to the use of Initiatives and I've asked my Jira Admins to create it for my project, however, it seems to have a setup more like a bug or defect and I don't see any means to link Epics to it. Is there an example of a best practice set up of the Initiative screen and what fields it should contain? We try to keep things as simple as possible, but I have a set of functionality that requires multiple Epics and I need to be able to roll them up in a hierarchy that is higher than Epic. I thought Initiative was the best route. It's a mobile application project, and our dev process is pretty standard Agile. Any guidance, especially lists / screenshots would be greatly appreciated!  

<br />

comments: author: Tracy Langston x2472
body: I am having the same issue but from Goal to Initiative. My Initiatives are not showing up and they are a child of the Goal.


author: Earl McCutcheon
body: Hello Malcom,

For the initiatives that are not showing in the scope I am looking at point 3 in your list of steps:
> 3. For each issue at any level (incl. epics, stories, etc.), created "Related" (linked) issues at all relevant levels (higher, peer, lower).

My question here is How are you linking the Epics to the initiative? From this comment it sounds like you are using an [issue link](https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracoreserver/linking-issues-939937913.html) rather than the parent link function used by [Initiatives](https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfolioserver/configuring-initiatives-and-other-hierarchy-levels-802170489.html). The link between epic and initiative is the Parent Link which is similar to Epic Link field that is used between epic and story.

The Link to the initiative is done Portfolio side on [Portfolio Live plans](https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfolioserver/portfolio-for-jira-live-plans-versions-2-0-to-2-27-968677379.html) this is done by selecting the epic and setting the parent in the **Parent Initiative** field in the issue details view. In the [New Experience view](https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfolioserver/overview-952623567.html) it is done via a drag and drop function.

Regards,  
Earl

comments: author: Malcolm Ryder
body: Hi Earl!

Yes, I did manually relate individual Initiatives to individual Epics, in the details screen of each selected issue. This clearly did not tell the system operationally that my defined Initiatives are "Parents".

I have been looking specifically for the screen on which I get to indicate that the Initiative that I already defined (see picture) as an Issue Type in both Jira and Portfolio is a Parent Link . No one has shown me where that is or how to get to it.

On my own, I discovered that when I am in Portfolio live plan, I currently see no individual Epic-type issues listed at the **Issues without parent Initiative** level (see picture) but I must drill down further to the **Issues without parent epic** level. ![No issues without parent initiative.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54049iD32B268BFC878B47/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "No issues without parent initiative.png")

But if I then select an Epic I currently get a screen that asks me to identify another Epic (!!) in the Parent Link field -- obviously neither rational nor desirable. I don't know why my screen does not show me an opportunity to indicate an Initiative as the parent. (See picture). Note that the details screen does NOT say "Parent Initiative"...The screen makes me think that for this "Parent" linking function,*in my current setup,* the Portfolio does not know how to find the Initiatives that I defined both as an Issue Type in Jira and as a Portfolio hierarchy level (already "mapped", yes? See picture). My project in this portfolio is a New Gen project not a Kanban or Scrum project.

SO... how do I actually get to a screen that lets me set an Initiative issue type as a Parent link? Only a step-by-step (screen by screen) walkthrough is different from what I've already tried via looking up documentation and doing trial-and-error.

Hope you're still around to see this!!

![Search for Parent of an Epic.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54035iA40A1587EEB5D727/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Search for Parent of an Epic.png")

![portfolio hierarchy config.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54051i0827F6CDE1568671/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "portfolio hierarchy config.png")


author: Earl McCutcheon
body: Hi Malcolm,

Thanks for the screenshots, and that is weird. It looks like the Epic's are being recognized as a standard issue type and not being considered an Epic so they are trying to link to an Epic as the parent as they are not able to map to the appropriate parent level.

In Portfolio an issue type cannot skip a hierarchy level so if the epics are recognized as a lower level there would be no way to link to the higher hierarchy levels and I'm not sure how that would occur unless the issue type itself is misconfigured or you are hitting a Bug, and if this is a bug we will want to get a support request in place so we can take a closer look at the instance to verify what the cause is, but lets check a few things first and if it all looks correctly configured we will get a support request started for you.

First, Can you double check the issue type that is being used on the issue PPM-6 and verify that the issue is indeed issue type = Epic and not another issue type using the same icon as the Epic.

Then if the Issue type is indeed "Epic" navigate to the **Jira settings \>\> Issues \>\> Issue types** and verify that the Epic issue type is only visible one time and not being duplicated

Then navigate to **Jira settings \>\> Issues \>\> Issue type schemes** and make sure the Epic issue type is displayed in a minimum on the "Default Issue Type Scheme" and again not duplicated anywhere.

Regards,  
Earl


author: Malcolm Ryder
body: Hi Earl!

When I view PPM-6 it currently displays with an Epic icon (which is what I expected and always thought I created from the beginning..)

![PPM-6 is an Epic or not.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54558i68AE3FD29B89DAB4/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "PPM-6 is an Epic or not.png")

When I EDIT PPM-6, the edit screen (below) *shows me issue types NOT including **EPIC***, which I could select and Save but I don't want any of the displayed choices and also I don't know if this screen is trying to tell me that the issue type is actually NOT currently an epic... Anyway I made no selection here and instead cancelled, which again gave me the view screen showing PPM-6 with an Epic icon.

![PPM-6 type can be edited.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54559i7B282D07AFFE4FED/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "PPM-6 type can be edited.png")

To check the Issue Type Configuration I went to the screen that allows me to edit the configuration. ***When I went there the Initiative type was listed but "greyed". I edited the type by supplying and saving a description for it.***Since the associated screen types shown already included "Default Issue Type Scheme..." I am unclear on whether I still need to name a different screen than the screens I've already been looking at for a couple of weeks displaying issues I defined as Initiatives.

![Initiative defined as standard issue type2.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54561i47CA66C2717AF68A/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Initiative defined as standard issue type2.png")

On that same screen **(Jira settings \>\> Issues \>\> Issue types)** I also verified that the Epic issue type is only visible one time and not being duplicated., while also associated with the "Default Issue Type Scheme".

So, with the above, I hope you can push a little deeper into why so far I don't have a screen that lets me set an Initiative issue type as a Parent link. The other piece of info I can give you is that currently when I look up Custom Fields the Parent Link field shows as **Locked**. (In the picture here I masked/hid the current screens in use since this forum is public...)

![Parent Link Setting Locked in Jira2.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54563i46535F3E3953B2F1/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Parent Link Setting Locked in Jira2.png")


author: Earl McCutcheon
body: Hey Malcom,

Thank you for all the additional details and From what I am seeing here this looks correct on the front end, and I played around with this a bit on a test instance and I cannot get this to reproduce the same behavior locally, so at this point we need to get you in contact with the cloud support team to take a closer look.

I Created the following Support request on your behalf to get things started:

* <https://getsupport.atlassian.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/23/JST-476418>

Please let me know if you have any issues accessing the support portal to view the request.

Regards,  
Earl


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