Can we create an Epic and a user story with different key names in a single project?

[Jeyesh Jeykhar]

Hi All,

Current Working/ Observation:

For e.g. After creating a new project with a key name "FR", when an EPIC is created, it gets created as "FR-1". When a user story is created under the EPIC "FR-1", it is created as "FR-2".

My Requirement/ Expectation:

With the same example as above, the new EPIC should be created as "FR-1" and the User story must get created with a different key, say "US-1".

Is it possible?

[Pete Singleton]

The issue key is entirely dependent on which project the issue is created in.  So if you want your issues in the same project, they must have the same key, this cannot be changed.

As previously mentioned, if you really want a different key you will need a separate project.  You can still link user stories to epics in a different project.

But I would ask why do you want to do this?  Far simpler to keep everything in a same project.  The issue key is largely irrelevant.

[Jeyesh Jeykhar]

Thanks Pete Singleton. I agree with your point of one project-one key. May be a context to the question will be helpful for you.

We actually have 2 projects - One for "EPICs" (Key used as "FR") and Another for "User Stories, Tasks, etc" (Key used as "ENG"). This was done because Product Owners came under a different org. structure; the Developers and Testers came under a different org. structure. So, the developers and testers are used to - seeing their issues as "ENG" and we do not want to change it. Unless there is a overwhelming disadvantage of using 2 projects, we would not want to change it to a single project and use it now.

So, the questions are

1. Is there a disadvantage of using 2 projects and track a release (in terms of using JIRA to its full advantage)? like generating graphs, creating dashboards, etc

2. Is there an advantage of using 1 project and managing a release instead of having 2 projects?

[Pete Singleton]

You cannot create a Release in Jira that spans multiple projects.  If you are using separate projects, you will need to create a Release in each project and assign your issues to those.  The two releases cannot be linked in any way.

[Jeyesh Jeykhar]

Agreed Pete.

But, for my use case, i am going to have only the epics in a different project. How do you think it is going to affect release management?

Given that it is possible to link user stories from one project to epics in another project, all the dashboards and reports in JIRA take only the user stories and tasks into account for their reports. Am I right?

[Pete Singleton]

Yes, I suppose if you only allocated the Stories and Tasks to a release (in that project) then the release gadgets and reports would look ok.  Suggest you try it out with using 2 projects and see how it goes.

[sukkeong]

If you really need to, you can do the following:

1. Create a JIRA project for each issue type, e.g. 'User Stories project' with 'US' as the project key
2. Add the field 'Epic link' to the screens used in Stories issue type (of the issue type used for your user stories)
3. Create the user story in the project US, e.g. US-1
4. Update the field 'Epic link' in US-1 with your epic of interest, i.e. FR-1

But as @Vickey Palzor Lepcha  mentioned, it would be an odd practice.

[Jeyesh Jeykhar]

Thanks sukkeong.

The recommended change is in naming convention. But, I would like the numbers to be auto-generated with a different key names.

[Vickey Palzor Lepcha]

Not quite the right thing to do as far as my knowledge says.

[Jeyesh Jeykhar]

Thanks Vickey. But, Let me give a context to my question.

We actually have 2 projects - One for "EPICs" (Key used as "FR") and Another for "User Stories, Tasks, etc" (Key used as "ENG"). This was done because Product Owners came under a different org. structure; the Developers and Testers came under a different org. structure. So, the developers and testers are used to - seeing their issues as "ENG" and we do not want to change it. Unless there is a overwhelming disadvantage of using 2 projects, we would not want to change it to a single project and use it now.

So, the questions are

1. Is there a disadvantage of using 2 projects and track a release (in terms of using JIRA to its full advantage)? like generating graphs, creating dashboards, etc

2. Is there an advantage of using 1 project and managing a release instead of having 2 projects?