Choose an Epic while creating an Task/Story - JIRA Software (Cloud)

[Tizi]

Hello people,

unfortunately I could not find a field within the system settings that allows me to link an Epic already at the first of a story/task. I am using the cloud version of Jira software

Pls Help!

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Tizi 

Welcome to the community.

Are you working with a Team Managed project or a Company Managed project?

With issues in a Company Managed project, you would use the Epic Link field to specify the issue key for the parent Epic. This field can be added to the Create Issue screen so that it can be set when the issues are created.

Team Managed projects work differently. They don't use the Epic Link field at all.

In order to add a new issue to an existing Epic in a Team Managed project you must do one of the following:

1. Use the Create Child option in the Epic issue to start the creation of the child issue.

2. After the issue is created, on the Backlog screen of the agile board for the project drag the issue from the backlog list and drop it on the Epic in the Epic pane.

3. In the Details display of the issue, click on the "Add Epic" link at the top of the issue, next to the issue key.

Team Managed projects do not support adding the field directly to the Create screen to let you enter the Epic issue key, like Company Managed projects do.

[Matt Meeks]

This seems like an arbitrary decision by Atlassian. I always use epics to keep my stories organized, even though I'm using a kanban board. It's a pain to have to go into the backlog then add the parent every time. It's also annoying that I don't have the option to just add the story directly to the board if I want.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Matt Meeks 

The functionality has changed in the 2+ years that have passed since this question and answer were posted.

In the intervening time period the Epic Link field has been deprecated and now the Parent field is used in both Team Managed and Company Managed projects for specifying an issue's parent Epic.

Additionally it is now possible to add the Parent field to the Issue Field Layout for issues in Team Managed projects, and then the Parent field will be available in the Create Issue dialog, allowing you to specify an existing Epic as the parent of the new issue.