Introducing the new Parent field in company-managed projects

[Diane L Hintz]

How will this effect existing records that were created before 13Feb2024?  will the epic link on the feature, story, task records be moved to the parent field?  will the epic link on the previously created records be deleted?  I am worried about existing records becoming orphans if the epic link field is deleted and the content of the field is not moved to parent field. same with epic records that use the parent link field, will the contents of that field be moved to the new parent field?

[David Shaw]

@Diane L Hintz 

During the transition (ie. for the past several months) the epic link and parent fields contain the same data. Early on, we copied epic link into parent. Since then we've maintained the two fields in sync. Late in the transition, we started reading the value from the parent location. At some point down the track, we will stop writing to the old epic location. The same process applied to subtask links and parent links.

We've taken every care to make sure no records are orphaned or that parenting data is lost.

[David Shaw]

@Alex Shapovalov 

> For some reason, the new "parent" field is prepopulated by default with some random issues. That happens when I use "Create issue" button at the "backlog" section. If I use the "Create" button at the top of the page "parent" is empty as expected.

This sounds like incorrect behaviour. Can you please raise a support request so that this can be followed up properly.

[Srinivaas]

How do we get the Childissues related to multiple Parent issues to display in Dahsboard. This function is not there from Atlassian where as external Apps are created these kind. Really don't know the reason.

[Oleksandr.Ruzhylo]

When it will be possible to use the Story as a parent issue for the Task (not Sub-task)? This function is very missed(((

[David Shaw]

@Oleksandr.Ruzhylo 

> When it will be possible to use the Story as a parent issue for the Task (not Sub-task)? 

This is possible now. You can move issue types to different levels in your issue type hierarchy. So you can leave Task on the BASE level and move Story to LEVEL 1. After this change, you can set a Task's parent to be a Story.

EDIT: This is a JSW Premium / Enterprise feature (as Trudy noted below).

[Trudy Claspill]

@Oleksandr.Ruzhylo @David Shaw 

Regarding moving the Story issue type to Level 1, where the Epic issue type is currently:

1. That option is not available in the Free plan nor the Standard Plan. Only in the Premium and Enterprise plans.
2. Even in the Premium and Enterprise plans, if you move the Story to Level 1, Jira does not treat it the same as an Epic. It won't appear in the Epics panel in boards.
3. If Story is at the same Level as Epic, then Stories can't be the children of Epics. Epics would have to move up to a level above Stories.

The hierarchy in Jira is very linear. An issue cannot be a parent of an issue at the same level. An issue can be a child only of the issue types in the level directly above it. In comparison, Azure DevOps does not impose such rigidity on the issue type hierarchy.

I'm not saying either is better than the other. I'm just pointing out the differences.

People who are used to Azure DevOps sometimes find the issue hierarchy in Jira to be too restrictive.

[Connie Miranda]

Hi @Irene How can I add New Feature issue type in the parent link dropdown list? 

[Oleksandr.Ruzhylo]

@David Shaw , @Trudy Claspill Thanks to both of you for your answers.

[Diane L Hintz]

@David Shaw I read what you wrote about the parent field being auto populated with what the epic contained for existing records. I did an export of records with epic links and reviewed the file. it is showing that the parent field is populated with the 'issue ID' for the record that the 'epic link' is for, not the 'issue key' that we have used in the past for the epic link.  when parent field is live, will we have to figure out the 'issue id' for the epics and then add that to parent field? 

'issue id' is not a very easy field to find for normal users. see below for what I found on a task record that had an epic link in it.  the issue id is for the epic record (I went and downloaded the epics out of the other project to verify this).

Parent	Parent summary
1089152	<<summary field content from the epic record was shown here>>

[David Shaw]

@Diane L Hintz 

The issue ID is what is used internally for all issue links, whether it's parents or otherwise. This is because this ID does not change over the lifetime of an issue.

In some external representations, eg. the export XML, the issue key may be used.

The parent field is live now (apart from customers on release tracks) and is using the issue ID. You do not need to populate it yourself. That is, you do not need to map an issue key to an issue ID and then add that to the parent field. This has all been done for you.

In Jira's UI, when selecting a parent, you can use the usual "type ahead" and look up issues by their issue key or summary text.

In summary, everything should have been taken care of behind the scenes for you.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

[Ollie Peacey]

Hi, there is still a reference to "Epic" on the 'Add Epic' button in the project backlog. Will this be updated to "Parent" as part of this initiative?

 

[David Shaw]

@Ollie Peacey 

> a reference to "Epic" on the 'Add Epic' button in the project backlog. Will this be updated to "Parent" as part of this initiative?

Thanks for pointing that out as that looks like a useful improvement. We've added that to our backlog for investigation.

[Thomas Balasch]

Hi,

after this update yesterday we have issues with our whiteboards.

We use sections to link tasks to epics, which was done by configuring the "Epic Link" field for the section.
Since yesterday this possibility to select this field is gone, but "Parent" isn't replacing it.

I know it's still a beta, but a major change like this should also be reflected on whiteboards.

Much appreciated!

[David Shaw]

@Thomas Balasch 

This sounds like a problem that would be best followed up with support. Can you raise a request with them directly as this will be the best way to capture the details of your problem and advise you if there is a workaround until we can get this resolved.

David

[Mark McLauchlin]

Thanks for this update - it went live in my organisation overnight and will help minimise confusion as we aim to achieve 100% traceability from Business outcomes to sub-tasks.

Can I please ask - are there plans to include this field when creating a JIRA form? We use forms to create issues by a standard template and the ability to have the Parent field on the form (and make it mandatory) would be very useful.

Many thanks.

[Kasturee]

Hello. We have the Parent field rolled out to our cloud site and it has been configured to some screens. Please advise how Atlassian determines which screens this field gets configured to?

[Kiran FCE Borawake]

Hello All,

As Atlassian mentioned,  They have Replaced “epic link” with "Parent" field and this new field will be appear automatically then question is why this NOT visible for my newly created project? For existing project its got appeared. 

Does any configure related changes required from my end ? if yes please suggest. 

Thanks,

[longdon_mary_f]

Hi, with the old parent link field, I had access to add or update on our solution train board.  I could go into all the team boards that linked up to our solution board and ensure the right epics from the team boards had the correct Parent Link.
With this new parent field, I can only link epics from one team board up to the Solution train board.  Is there some permissions that I had with Parent Link that I need updated for the new Parent field?

[Grace Kim]

With the Epic Link gone, it is causing errors in our Smartsheet-Jira connector. For some reason the connector is still using Epic Link as a filter, and the Parent filter is not working in the same way. Is this an Atlassian issue or Smartsheet issue?

[Paul Jackson]

I don't seem to be able to pin the Parent in my right hand coloumn, so it appears at the top. 

[Carrie Bonnell]

For company-managed projects, has this change impacted the ability to perform a bulk-edit to the Epic-link field?  It seems I no longer have the ability to perform a bulk edit for Epic and either move a set of tickets from one epic to another, or to remove an epic link from a group of tickets.  Is this expected?  There is an Edit Parent field in the bulk edit, yet it is unpopulated (blank) for tickets which have Epic Links.  

[Stephanie M. Davis]

So, my question is: How do I automate that a specific Epic will be assigned to a Story created with certain criteria? I can automate using the now extinct Epic field but can't figure out how to do it with the new Parent field. 

For example, if a Story gets created on a specific board by a certain creator, I want a specific Epic to be assigned automatically. 

*** Can't figure it out ***

Thanks in advance!!!

[Terry Dance]

The Parent field is not being populated with its data when viewed in a Plan.

[Stephanie M. Davis]

Hi @Terry Dance to clarify, does this mean that the Parent field can't be automated or???? My automations using "Epic Link" appear to be no longer functional.....

Thanks for your help...