How do I create a cross project aggregator? (Epic?)

[Rich Pixley]

What do I need to do to be able to add subtasks to an epic from different projects?

Or is there another issue type that will allow this?

[Rich Pixley · Accepted solution]

Hm.  Between two company managed software projects, I'm able to set the Epic on a task in the second to an epic in the first.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Rich Pixley 

Welcome to the community.

"Subtask" is a special type of issue in Jira. Subtasks and their parent issue can only exist in the same project.

Are you really trying to use Subtask type issues, or are you trying to use standard issues types (i.e. Task, Story, Bug) and make those child issues of Epics in other projects?

Additionally, are you working with issues in Company Managed projects or Team Managed projects? When viewing a project, this information will show at the bottom of the navigation pane on the left. For Team Managed projects the Epics and their child issues must exist in the same project.

[Rich Pixley]

Thanks.

I had presumed that issues would need to be subtasks in order to be reported on for progress tracking and the like.  If that's not true, if reporting works just as well all the way down the relationship network, then I'm good and I'll just use links.

I don't care whether company managed or team managed.  I have the flexibility to set it up either way. 

[Trudy Claspill]

There are different types of progress tracking options that come built-in for Subtasks vs. standards issues and Epics. The parent/child hierarchy that Jira provides out of the box is

Epics > standard issue types > Subtasks

Using the generic Issue Linking functionality does not provide any recognized parent/child relationships nor automatic aggregation/progress reporting.

I can't really provide definitive advice without understanding the problem(s) you are trying to solve.

[Rich Pixley]

I'm fine with that hierarchy.  I'm just a little lost on why it's restricted to a single project.

I coulda sworn that in years past there was an arbitrary parent/child link that would allow for cross project aggregation.  Was I mistaken?  Or has that functionality disappeared without replacement?

[Trudy Claspill]

Between two company managed software projects, I'm able to set the Epic on a task in the second to an epic in the first.

Yes, in a Company Managed project you can make a standard task a child issue of an Epic in a different project. I intended to mention that in my first response, but I see I only explicitly stated that can't be done for Team Managed project issues.

[Rich Pixley]

Thank you.

[Elizabeth Jones]

For an epic, the easiest way is to link tasks. You can add those directly from the epic as child tasks or you can use the linking function to connect tasks from multiple projects to the epic. 

[Rich Pixley]

Wouldn't that lose the reporting functionality?  I mean, if I did that, how would an "Epic" be any different from any other simple "task"?