How does adding to the issue type hierarchy effect other company managed projects?

[Darrin Lillian]

I have members of XYZ project that would like an extra level on their issue type hierarchy.  When I go to the screen to perform this action for them, there is a warning that says "Changes to the hierarchy configuration will apply to all company-managed projects."

If I make an issue type called "Program" and XYZ project is the only one that has the "Program" issue type in their XYZ issue type scheme...what will the effect me on other company managed projects?

In the instructions, it also says "Changing your issue type hierarchy will break existing parent and child relationships between your issues.  When you attempt to modify the existing structure of your issue type hierarchy, Jira will calculate the impact of these changes and require confirmation to proceed."

Will this happen even to those projects that are not using the "Program" issue type?

I had the idea to try this in our sandbox, but someone already created a level above epic so I can not tell what will happen.  Thanks for any input

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Darrin,

Basically, there is only one hierarchy. So creating a new issue type called program will not affect any other projects. However, if there is already a hierarchy in place like you describe in your sandbox, if you replace the issue type above Epic with Program, that will affect all projects using that hierarchy. 

You would need to first coordinate with anyone using that hierarchy. If there is no hierarchy already set up in Production, you should be good to go. But others that come after you will have to conform to that structure if they want to use the hierarchy above Epic. 

[Darrin Lillian]

@John Funk There is a hierarchy in place in our production, but it is the basic Epic > Story > Subtask.

So if I add a level above Epic like Program.  Will it mess up other company managed projects even if they don't utilize the Program issue type?

[John Funk]

No, it will have no effect on the others 

[Nehme Nick]

I have a similar situation. I would like to add an Issue Type that is only used on my project at the Epic level. I am not changing or breaking the Hierarchy. All issue types I am using are only on my projects.

Our company administrator mentioned that adding an Issue Type at the Epic level will affect all Company Managed projects and will not be allowed.

Is adding a new issue type that is only used on my Projects to the Epic level affect other Company Managed Projects.

[John Funk]

If you add the issue type only on the one project's issue type scheme, it should not affect the other projects. 

[Abbey Bennett]

Similar question.. I'm adding an issue type to my hierarchy to be above the epic issue type. Will this break all parent links from epic down to task/subtask? Or will it just break the parent linkage between epics and initiatives? 

Issuetype hierarchy:

Initiative

Milestone (new)

Epic

Story

Task/subtask

[John Funk]

No, it will not break the parent links at the Epic and below. It would just be the ones above Epic that are affected. 

[Patrick Miller]

I had the same concerns and this thread allayed them. Thank you @John Funk 

I can confirm that creating new Issue Types and adding them to the existing Issue Type Hierarchy will not cause any changes to existing projects, as long as the project is the only project using that new Issue Type via its' Issue Type Scheme.

My observation is that all new company-managed projects get their own Issue Type Scheme created when the project is first created, which means any new Issue Type will not by default be added to any existing issue type schemes (except the global default issue type scheme which should never be used for any projects). 

Tldr; As long as there are no other projects using the Issue Type or Issue Type Scheme, then adding new Issue Types to the existing Epic hierarchy should not be cause for concern.

[Shamsur Mahmud]

Hello,

My question is pretty similar but with a little twist. I asked my Jira admin to include Feature (issue type/ layer) in the existing hierarchy for my project and board. 

Existing hierarchy: Epic > Story > Subtask

New hierarchy: Epic > Feature > Story > Subtask

I can now create a Feature as a child of an Epic. However, when I try to create a Story as a child of a Feature, I only see Sub-task as a issue type/child, no option to add/create a Story from the Feature. If I create a Story as a stand alone issue, I cannot link it to a Feature as its parent. I only see issue type Epic available as a parent for the Story. 

This tells me there's no linkage created between Feature and Story in Jira by our admin even though hierarchically Feature is sitting above Story.

Once I brought this up, Jira admin mentioned making that change/ linkage will impact everyone in the company. So basically everyone will have to create Features in between their existing Epics and Stories for their Projects and Boards. 

Currently, almost all the projects and boards, in my new company, use Epic > Subtask. But I plan to use Epic > Feature > Story > Subtask to bring more structure to the process. Based on Jira experience a while back, I thought there was a way to create your own hierarchical relationship by each board. But my admin is not sure if that's possible.

Question is, how do I achieve this new hierarchy for my projects and boards without messing up others? Thanks a lot for your help.

[John Funk]

Hi @Shamsur Mahmud  - You have already asked this question as a separate post. Please do not add new questions to already answered posts. And once you have created a post, please do not continue to post it in other places or your risk all of them being marked as Spam. 

[Shamsur Mahmud]

Hi John, I didn't mean to open another post. I thought I would continue the discussion here but being that I am a first time poster, I first post turned into a new thread. Feel free to close the one that is considered to be a duplicate and not generating any response. Thanks. 

[John Funk]

No worries - but you should always open a new thread/post for your specific question instead of adding to other's existing post.  :-)  Let's leave it open and work off of it. 

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for the post and answers!

I am only just starting to work and support Issue Type Hierarchy using Initiatives above Epics now and this post is quite helpful.

With the power that comes with Jira and it's schemes and administration, it makes me nervous changes and it's a little bit like walking on dinosaur eggs for me :)

Esp when it stated the warnings above and it doesn't provide links or exact details on the impact it will have and what could break and even what solutions we need or can take for that to minimize impact.

Here goes nothing :)