How do I add another level of standard tickets?

[steliosavramidis]

Hello

I have Jira premium and I am trying to add another level of standard tickets to be below user stories ( not subtasks). 

How does this work? This screen is so confusing. Why can I add level only at the top? 

[steliosavramidis]

Hello @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

Sorry for the late response. It doesn't seem to work the way you are describing. I tried first to create a new ticket type which was going to be higher than epic:

First issue is that the new ticket type I could create was either standard or sub-ticket type

Then it got registered as a "base" type

While the epic seems to be of "epic" type (can't create those ones)

I throught that maybe it doesn't matter and proceded to create a new hirachy with my ticket on top of epics

However when I tried to create an "larger than epic" ticket I could only create subtasks. 

It doesn't allow my to have an epic link so I guess "something" got done right.

However the behaviour I would expect is to see something like I see for the normal epics the "create child issue" option.

What am I doing wrong? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I did not say what type of issue to create in my answer though, or explain how they would work, so I'm not surprised that I seem to have mislead you!

However, you've not done anything wrong at all.

To create a "larger than epic" thing, you need to:

• Create a new issue type, at the base level ("standard issue type" not a sub-task)
• Go into the hierarchy and select it to be the layer above Epic

This is, of course, exactly what you have done, and shown us in the screenshots.

The important bit I left out here is that the hierarchy works upwards.  Sub-tasks have a parent issue, recorded with a "sub-task" link in the background.  Standard-level issues have a field for "Epic link" which makes them a part of an Epic.  Epics have a link field that makes them part of the layer above them in the hierarchy.  

So, the reason you're getting an error with the Epic link is that your issue is not at the standard level - it's either a sub-task or in the Epic layer or above.  It can't have an epic link if it's not at the story level.

Atlassian are changing this a little bit soon, to make it a bit more consistent - you'll be able to ask for a simple "who is your parent" instead of having to look at the issue type and then ask about sub-task/epic-link/hierarchy-parent depending on what type you find)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The screen you show us is about the levels in the hierarchy, it is not about the issue types.

Go to admin -> issues -> issue types - you will be able to add new base-issue types and sub-tasks there.   Once you've added the ones you want, go back to the hierarchy screen, and promote some of the base-level types to your Test or Epic levels.

I don't understand what you mean by "below story points"

[steliosavramidis]

Sorry I meant user stories that was a typo :) .

I want to basically have the following hierarchy:

• Epics
• User story (ticket that can be independently in a sprint) 
• Dev tasks  (ticket that can be independently in a sprint)
• Sub tasks (ticket that has to move with the Dev tasks in a sprint

How do I do that? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ah, ok.

I'm not sure I understand, so I'll list out the two things I think you might be looking for.  I've nested these with indentation, I hope that makes sense

• Epics
  • User story
    • Sub tasks  
  • Dev tasks  
    • Sub tasks

Or

• Epics
  • User story
    • Dev tasks  
      • Sub tasks 

Jira Software supports the first one automatically, and you don't need to do anything with the hierarchy to do it.  All you have to do is add "Dev Task" as a base-level issue type, and it will work at the same level as story (they can even have identical configuration)

Jira Software only has those three layers though, and they are immutable.  To do your fourth layer in the second example, you have to go up into the hierarchy.

Set up:

• Epics as Epics
• Temp as a base-level issue type
• Dev tasks as a base-level issue type
• Sub-tasks

Then reconfigure a couple of them:

1. Rename Epic to "User Story"
2. In the hierarchy, set "Temp" to the level above Epic
3. Rename "Temp" to "Epic"

[steliosavramidis]

Sorry I responded on top of that, can you give me your opinion?