Unable to add an "Epic link" to an Epic that has been approved

[Binoj Ammeripadath]

Very recently (last week), we noticed that we are not able to add an "Epic link" to an Epic that has been approved. Is anyone aware of any change that has happened in the Jira level?

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems · Accepted solution]

@Binoj Ammeripadath, 

Epic links should not use the field "Epic Link". Epic Link is a field that stories, tasks, ect use to become linked to the Epics themselves.

Can I ask what you are trying to accomplish?

Thanks,

Kian

[Binoj Ammeripadath]

On the User Story form, I am trying to update the Epic Link field, by specifying the Epic Issue ID. When I use an Epic Issue ID that has an "Approved" status, I get an error that the operation is not allowed. No such error for Epics that are not in Approved status.

For additional details, we have integrated the Vera workflow to Approve the Epics, User Stories etc., so that they become a System of Record. Once approved, we cannot edit these Issues.

This is done to establish Traceability Epic -> User Story -> Test -> Test Execution -> Defects

And I started facing this error only recently.

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

@Binoj Ammeripadath, 

If you cannot edit the Epic once it is approved, how are you intending to update the Children of the Epic? It seems to me that could cause an issue.

Thanks,

Kian

[Binoj Ammeripadath]

@Kian Stack Mumo Systems That's the conundrum we are facing. We were able to do this until a few weeks back. Hence trying to understand if Jira rolled out any change that could have caused this to break. Linked Issues doesn't have such a problem. I can link to an Approved Epic.

Thanks,

Binoj

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

@Binoj Ammeripadath, I reviewed the changes rolled out to Cloud over the last 3 weeks and I don't see anything about Epic Link changes in there.

Are you using workflow properties to restrict editing of the Epic?

[Binoj Ammeripadath]

@Kian Stack Mumo Systems  We have integrated a system called VERA to manage the approval of the issues. Once the approval is complete, the issue is locked. I believe the team managing Jira would be doing something on the lines that you have mentioned i.e. workflow properties to restrict the edits.

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

If you are restricting editing I can't see it allowing you to update the child issues. But why that was working in the past and no longer working, I'm not sure.

[Binoj Ammeripadath]

@Kian Stack Mumo Systems Thank you for looking into this. I need to follow up with my Jira team to see what's going on.