Upcoming - Rename ‘epics’ in your company-managed projects

[Sundar Narayanaswamy]

Hi @Daniel Capizzi - We're looking for the hierarchy change from 

Epic -> Feature -> User Stories & Tasks -> Sub Tasks to

Initiative -> Epic -> Feature -> User Stories & Tasks -> Sub Tasks.

1. Will we able to migrate to the new hierarchy in  Data Center version 9.1.0 which we are on or should we wait until the flexible hierarchy change coming in Q4 of 2023?
2. Can you also please clarify why you would want us to use Epic at the third level? We're trying to use at the second level.
3. Can you please confirm that this this change ( if doable with the current version) will not break the epic panel on the left hand side in the backlog screen?

[Caroline Pastorelli]

Will these changes affect how we enter data via API calls for Epics?

[Mikołaj Maruniak {Appfire}]

Hello @Kate West-Walker,
@Daniel Capizzi
https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/changelog/#CHANGE-876
IssueType will support hierarchy levels ≥ 1
In the change log there is information that this change will be released after Apr 1, 2023
I checked today [3 April ] on the Developer Canary Program instance and also on the regular one and nothing has changed.
Can we receive information from you when the change will be implemented ?

[Daniel Capizzi]

Hi @Sundar Narayanaswamy -

1. No need to wait, you can migrate to this new hierarchy in Data Center v9.1.0!

2. I wasn't very clear about how I'm counting hierarchy levels - I'm counting from the bottom of the hierarchy up, so starting at Subtask then going from there. That wasn't obvious in my last post, sorry about the miscommunication.

3. I can confirm that renaming your epic level will not break the epic panel. It will continue to show whatever issue types are on that level, regardless of the name chose. In your case, the panel will show Features.

If you're having trouble getting this setup you might like to get in touch with us through https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/ - one of our support engineers will be able to help guide you through the process!

[Daniel Capizzi]

Hi @Caroline Pastorelli - 

There are some API changes as a result of issues having a parent rather than an epic link. You can read more and get support for these changes over at the developer community linked below:

https://community.developer.atlassian.com/t/deprecation-of-the-epic-link-parent-link-and-other-related-fields-in-rest-apis-and-webhooks/54048

[Jonathan Santos]

@Rohan Swami  Hi team. I need your help.

I'm trying to add a custom issue type called "Initiative", I added it to the issue type hierarchy, but it doesn't appear. Also check that the Board doesn't have a JQL that is only looking for non-epic issues:
What can I be failing?

[Sundar Narayanaswamy]

Thanks a lot @Daniel Capizzi . Sure. We will get in touch with your support team if we need further assistance.

[Rahul Pandita]

@Jonathan Santos : Have you created Custom field Under Issues>Issue Type section by clicking on Add issue type button?

[Joris]

Hi @Rohan Swami  ,

Not sure whether I do understand the upcomming changes.
We do use the following hierarchy:
subtask - userstory (or task/bug) - epic - initiative - theme.

We migrated from server to cloud recently and the old and current situation is as follows:

Old/current situation:
US (team level) and epic (group level) are being linked via epic link

Old:
epic - initiative (portfolio)- theme (board of directors) where beinig linked via "is initiated by

Current:
epic - initiative (portfolio)- theme (board of directors) are beinig linked via "parent link"

We just communicated to our users that they have to change the way they are linking epic and above (via parent link), and we told them that there wouldn't change a thing in linking US and epic. But do i now understand correctly that also the link between US and epic will be changing?

[Jonathan Santos]

HI @Rahul Pandita , yes i create a issue type, but I got it using Plans. thanks.

[Su Wainwright]

We've been having some really good results with this new functionality and we now have Epic - Feature (used to be Epic) - Story - Subtask.  All linked Parent/Child.  The Advanced Roadmaps look really good.  BUT....

Our Kanban boards are a bit of a mess, because there doesn't seem to be a way of doing a Kanban by Parent/Child.  What should we do to show Stories by Feature or Features by Epic?

Backlogs are also a mess.  How do we get the Backlog organised by Epic/Feature/Story?

It's a fantastic change, but I'd like to get it tidied up.

Thanks

[Rodolfo Romero - Adaptavist]

@Su Wainwright I don't think you will be able to see this type of hierarchy in regular Kanban Boards as they are not designed to show any issue type higher than "Epics". As you renamed "Epics" for "Feature", you will only be able to see Feature/(Stories, Bugs, Tasks, etc)/Subtasks issue types. You need to use Advance Roadmaps for all hierarchy higher than "Feature". You can also create separate boards that show you "Epics" and "Features" but they won't show in a hierarchy as "Feature" and "Story".

[Su Wainwright]

Thank your Rodolfo.  Can you think of any way that we could make sense of our boards and backlog?

[Darrel Jackson]

That’s what Advanced Roadmaps is for. It not just for cross-team planning. It’s also for single-team planning when you need context of the higher level pieces of work. You can play around with view settings, filters and fields to get similar (but not identical) views to backlog and  kanban. However you’ll still want to use Kanban boards for day-to-day use. Unfortunately you can’t get those higher levels in Kanban board currently.

Lastly, bear in mind this is a relatively recent change. The rest of the Jira toolset needs to catch up. Right now Backlog and Kanban boards are not very good at visualising the full context of Story level but I think they will in the future.

[Su Wainwright]

@Darrel Jackson - presumably this means we can add items to sprints directly from the Advanced Roadmap - is this the case?    The state of the backlog which is in no particular order is causing us problems as it makes finding items for the Sprint very difficult.

[Darrel Jackson]

Yes, just add the Sprint field to the list of displayed fields in your AR plan.

The Backlog view is ordered by Rank by default although you can change the sort if you want. Rank is not typically shown in the UI as the value is meaningless but it effectively gives you a global ordering of backlog items. I prefer this over sort by Priority. Priority is an absolute value while Rank is relative to other items in your backlash - which is what you want for sprint planning. By the way, one benefit of sprint planning in AR is you get to view any dependencies- the Backlog view doesn’t show you that.

[Joris]

@Rohan Swami , can you please have a look at my post/question of Apr 7?
Thanks in advance.

[Su Wainwright]

@Darrel Jackson - thanks for your help.  I'm already in love with AR and this has just put the icing on the cake.  Much appreciated.

[Steve Josue]

@Daniel Capizzi Hi I wanted to clarify Sundar's question regarding the Epics Panel. We realize that the "content" will be whatever we renamed that issue type to be. But the actual "displayed name" of the Epic Panel will still read "Epic Panel", correct?

We are responding to this bullet point: 

3. I can confirm that renaming your epic level will not break the epic panel. It will continue to show whatever issue types are on that level, regardless of the name chose. In your case, the panel will show Features.

[Erki Tammik]

For example, issues on your board and backlog will now use the epic’s Issue summary in their lozenge. If the name of your epic and its issue summary are different, then these lozenges will be updated when we roll out these changes.

---

@Rohan Swami 

We finally can see the Summary field update.

Why is the length of the lozenges so limited? I'm on a 2K screen, there is a ton of empty space for information. Even on FHD screen there is lot of empty space.

I don't see any reason for the lozenges to be so short. I checked other projects where our people work, and most of the lozenges are being cut off. "Epic name" acted like a nickname for summary.

It would be nice to have longer lozenges to see information without needing to hover over each lozenge to see the complete name.

There are a lot of areas in Jira where there is enough room, but it is not being utilized. Instead, the information that users need is partly hidden.

[Germaine Barry]

Hello, is there a plan where the hierarchy can be set up on a project basis, vs. throughout all company-managed projects?

[Deleted user]

Hi @Rohan Swami 

This is great news! A few questions:

1) Can you confirm, that when renaming the epic hiearacy level + epic issuetype to feature, then all epic elements will change accordingly? Will the "Epic Burndown" fx. be changed to "Feature Burn Down" etc.? Want to make sure that the change will not cause any Feature/Epic confusion.

2) When is the feature available? I am still not seeing the changes in my epic panel yet

Thanks in advance for your help.

/Line

[Irene]

Hi @[deleted] , 

That's right, when you have renamed it to feature, then any reference to 'epic' will change accordingly. Including the 'Epic burndown' report in your example, that will change to 'Feature burndown'. 

For example:

This is rolling out now. This is the latest about this rollout: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Release-notice-custom-issue-type-hierarchy-levels-and/ba-p/2340088

[Austin Churchill]

@Rohan Swami I cant seem to find a timeline for the below change of Epic Link & Parent Link getting replaced with just parent on the UI specifically. Can you please point me to a page that provides updates on this feature? Thanks!

We’re improving the way you associate epics with your bugs, stories and tasks in the issue view. Currently, this is done via your issue’s Epic link field – we’ll soon be replacing this with a new Add parent feature.

[Daniel Capizzi]

Hi @Austin Churchill - you can follow our expected release date on our public cloud roadmap here: https://www.atlassian.com/wac/roadmap/cloud/flexible-naming-of-epics?p=c0c344ce-98

These changes are being rolled out in stages, so you may see some appearing before others, but the date on the roadmap is when you should expect to be able to see everything!