How to create another hierarchy level without advanced roadmap

[Sharona Keren]

Hi,
I need as a project manager another hierarchy level, above epics. It seems weird to pay double for jira premium just for that (especially when it's a pretty basic need that exists in other management programs).
Is there any other way to create it?

[Darren]

Hi @Sharona Keren 

To summarize what the others have said:

Basic/original Jira (Core/Business/Work Management) that started with v1 in 2002 just gives:

• Issues (that are stored in Jira 'Projects')
  • that can optionally contain one or more sub-tasks (of varying subtaskIssueTypes, it's configurable)

and that's it: Issues [> sub-tasks]

Later, Jira Software (Agile/Greenhopper/RapidBoards) made use of 'issueType=Epic' to add to that hierarchy:

• Epics (a standard Jira 'Issue' so a peer of any other Issue)
  • that can optionally contain one or more other Issues
    • that can optionally contain one or more sub-tasks (of varying subtaskIssueTypes, it's configurable)

And that's it: Epic [> Issue[s] [> sub-task[s]]]

---

You _can_ add more IssueTypes (e.g. 'Initiative', 'Objective', 'whatever') and then use Jira Core's 'Issue Links' to plumb them all together.  I've tried to do this, but it has challenges:

• It's not easy for a human to digest and get a 'big picture'
• Changes need to be re-plumbed, which is a chore and time-consuming

The _only_ option available to extend the hierarchy is to use one or more of the various Marketplace Apps (plugins) and let the plugin software do the rendering/displaying and re-plumbing for you.

They're the constraints that face all Jira users worldwide.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Sharona Keren,

Not with out of the box features. You can use Jira's built-in issue linking feature to define relations between issues, but there is no native support to visualise the information in a (custom) hierarchy above the epic level.

If you do not want to upgrade your plan to premium, the Atlassian marketplace does offer issue hierarchy apps that help you fill that gap.

Hope this helps! 

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Sharona Keren

if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, here's another app that you might like: JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline editing, sorting and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you'd do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also comes with a number of advanced features, including support for flexible issue hierarchies.

In JXL, you can model your issue hierarchies based on built-in parent/child relationships (like sub-task/task), issue links, or any combination of these. The mapping of issues to hierarchy levels is based on issue types, so you could simply 

• pick or create a new "initiative" issue type,
• pick or create a new "parent initiative"/"child of initiative" issue link type

and start building out your hierarchy. This works for as many levels as you want.

Here's how this looks in action for a 5-level hierarchy:

 

Any questions just let me know!

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes

Disclaimer: I work on JXL. 

[Madhu_RVS]

Hi @Sharona Keren 

As Walter mentioned, you can use Jira Issue Links to create your own hierarchy at any level and you would need a custom solution to view this hierarchy.

If you are fine with a mktplace app to visualize the hierarchy based on your issue links and also your std jira hierarchy in the same view, you can try out our add-on

Issue Hierarchy Reports 

Disclaimer : I am part of the team which developed this app

[Sharona Keren]

Thank you, but I do want the solution to be an issue type that also shows the hirarchy 

[Madhu_RVS]

Hi @Sharona Keren 

Yes, you can certainly create a new issue type and link it to an Epic.

The app will show the hierarchy with the top level as the new issue type.

Thanks

[Sharona Keren]

Thank you! What kind of link should I create to make it seem at the top? and what kind of issue type?

[Madhu_RVS]

Hi @Sharona Keren 

You can create any Issue Type.

For eg. I have created an Issue Type "Initiative" in my Jira instance.

And in the Links Hierarchy screen, I will have to select Issue Type = Initiative at the top level filter criteria. And then I created an Issue Link "Is Father Of". So the app will show the hierarchy starting from "Initiatives" issue type and including all child issues which have been linked to the parent using the link "Is Father Of".

Pls do reach out for any further queries.

Thanks