Why is it so difficult to create a normal hierarchy in Jira?
Asked by Usman Gani Shams:

Why can't I create a simple "folder with sub-folders" system of my need (typically matching the epic-story-task-subtask), without jumping through ridiculously shaped hoops? Why does it have to be hard to set up a hierarchy matching my need?


Answers:
author: Nikola Perisic
body: Welcome [@Usman Gani Shams](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5587878)

Since you have the Premium tier, you can modify your hierarchy. You can find the full guide here: <https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/configure-the-issue-type-hierarchy/>

comments: author: Usman Gani Shams
body: Doesn't work. I am looking for the following hierarchy:

**Epic-\> User Story-\> Tasks-\> Sub-tasks**

This should be simple enough if I can create a new level called "Story" and place it between Epic (Level 1) and tasks/stories (Level 0)

However, creating a new issue type hierarchy by default places it at level 2. Cannot be changed.   

So how can I introduce a new issue type hierarchy that sits between Epics and Stories/tasks.


author: Nikola Perisic
body: You cannot put a new issue type hierarchy between the Epics and Stories since this was defined by the Agile methodology where it's stated structure is Epics - Stories - Tasks - Sub-tasks.

There can't be a hirerarchy defined between the Epics and Stories.

More info: <https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management/epics-stories-themes>


author: Usman Gani Shams
body: If it helps save me time and reduces friction in ticket management, why not enable it?


author: Nikola Perisic
body: I understand your frustration with the lack of this feature, but I cannot answer that. If you have more questions, please reach out to Atlassian support.


author: John Funk
body: Hi Usman - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Probably because the structure you described is not standard Agile hierarchy. Stories and Tasks sit at the same level - tasks are not children of Stories. But having a simple standard Agile structure of Epic \> Story \> Sub-task and Epic \> Task \> Sub-task is indeed built into Jira.

comments: author: Usman Gani Shams
body: Give me the flexibility to define hierarchy which works best for me and my org. Why can't I change the default Issue type hierarchy level?


author: Matt Parks
body: Based on my experience with Jira, there's a whole lot of back-end work that Atlassian has implemented that enforces the hierarchy where nothing can come between an Epic and a Story and only sub-task issue types can be under anything at the Story level. Additionally sub-task issue types cannot be the parent of a sub-task (although those sub-task issue types can be children of any standard issue type).

As mentioned before, this is something that you would need to raise with Atlassian support, although I can pretty much guarantee that they are not going to completely re-write Jira in order to accommodate this request.


author: Usman Gani Shams
body: That clarifies a lot! :D Not sure why they would do this though.

I come from Azure Dev Ops and you can configure ADO in any way possible. I believe the default is Epic-\> Story-\> task-\> subtask.   

The only downside is you get sucked in to the M365 walled garden and its difficult to proceed without being on Office.


author: John Funk
body: You can setup a custom hierarchy if you have a Premium Subscription. But like [@Matt Parks](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4176732) says, there is a lot of backend processing/functionality built into Jira based on Agile best practices. Many people replace Epics with Features and move the Epic above the Feature (there's a right way to do this in Jira to make it work), and even put Initiatives above the Epic, so that it looks like Initiative \> Epic \> Feature \> Story/Task \> Sub-task.


Tags: cloud

jira-cloud

jira-cloud-administration

not-applicable