Advanced Roadmaps Issue Hierarchy
Asked by Don Hames:

I have created three issue types that will function like the Theme, Initiative, and Feature hierarchy does today. I need some help with this approach.

1. The Initiative equivalent issue type can see and link to the Theme equivalent through the Parent Link dropdown. The Feature equivalent issue type can see and link to the Initiative equivalent issue through the Parent link dropdown. The problem comes when I try to select a parent of an Epic. The Parent dropdown only shows Features in other projects and does not list the Feature equivalent issue type I created. Can I do what I am attempting to do?

2. The Second issue is on the Roadmap hierarchy. I added the three new issue types, but I cannot remove the Theme, Initiative, or Feature because this is an Enterprise instance. I made my three new issues 1, 2, and 3 and moved Theme to 4, Initiative to 5, and Feature to 6. Is this the correct way to do this?

Once I have a solution for issue #1, I can't show the hierarchy below the Feature equivalent issue, which would be the Epic.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!


Answers:
author: Curt Holley
body: Hi [@Don Hames](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5021505)   
Welcome to the community.  

It would be great if you could share a screenshot of the Issue type hierarchy, so that we can see exactly what you have done.  

But Level 1, no matter what you call it, will always be where the Jira Epic lives (even if you have renamed it), all levels above Level 1 will make use of the Parent link field and will only offer up the next level up. For example, Level 2 issue types will only see Level 3 issue types in the parent link field, where Level 3 will see the Level 4 types in the same field etc.  

Based on your point 2, it sounds like Theme, Initiative and Feature already existed, but let's see your hierarchy 1st, before I jump to conclusions ?

comments: author: Don Hames
body: Thank you, Curt. Here is a screenshot of the Roadmap Hierarchy Levels.

![Roadmap Hierarchy.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/229191iEABA4A9B62EF9EB6/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Roadmap Hierarchy.png")


author: Curt Holley
body: Right, so you are not on Cloud then.  

Principle should still be the same, just the other way around. Epic's see level 6, they see 5, who see 4 etc.

Question is, did you want your new ones to replace or perhaps be at the same levels as Theme, Initiative and Feature?  

Another question, seeing your on enterprise, does that mean you have Jira Align?


author: Don Hames
body: Unfortunately, that is correct. I need to keep the Theme, Initiative, and Feature in place because other teams are using them. Can I make my Brand, Product, and Release the same levels? For example, a Theme and a Brand would both be level 1? Is that possible? If so, how do you go about setting that up?

We do not have Align (yet), I am working on it. :)


author: Curt Holley
body: I don't think you can unless you are using Jira Cloud...it doesn't look like you have any multiple issue types per hierarchy level options like Cloud does.  

I would just use the existing one as your Brand, Product, and Release rather than having them above, as you now have this giant and somewhat confusing hierarchy that is in place for everyone.  

Release is a strange issue type to want to introduce ?


author: Don Hames
body: [@Curt Holley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3527535), I wanted to let you know I have a workaround until we migrate to Jira Cloud. I could take the Roadmap Hierarchy issue types of Theme, Initiative, and Feature and create a separate issue type screen scheme that has the fields I originally had in my issue types Brand, Product, and Release.

The roadmap hierarchy only has the Theme, Initiative, and Feature, so other teams' roadmaps will continue to work correctly. I associated the screen scheme with just my project, so all other projects see the same fields they usually do when creating or editing the issue types, and at the same time, in my project, we see the fields that were defined for our purpose. The only slight inconvenience is that my team has to create the Theme issue instead of Brand, etc., but that's the only difference.

I think this will work and hold us over until the migration to Cloud next year. Thanks again for all your help!


Tags: advanced-roadmaps

hierarchy