Can BigPicture create additional issue hierarchy levels?

[Mark Bickford]

We are currently evaluating the BigPicture plugin (and planning to evaluate JIRA Portfolio as well).  We've noted that Portfolio can create additional issue hierarchy levels, such as Initiatives (or Improvements) to group several Epics together.  Can BigPicture do that as well?

[Marcin Geb _SoftwarePlant_ · Accepted solution]

BigPicture now lets you create custom types, such as Initiatives discussed here https://softwareplant.com/jira-bigpicture-initiatives/

[Sam Harmon]

I would also love to know the answer to this, did you ever hear back from anyone?

[Mark Bickford]

Yes; I got the following response to a support ticket I opened (received via that channel so I didn't repost it here):

What you are referring to is not fully available yet. We are now redesigning our Roadmap module so that the whole planning process according to SAFe will be supported. This should be available in few months. Currently, there are some limitations but you can group epics in several ways such as:

1. using artificial tasks
2. using labels
3. creating a manual WBS structure or using custom links to create the hierarchy automatically.

The above can be used in the Gantt module. In the Roadmap which is a PI Dependency board currently, you could use quick filters which use JQL and display issues with a specific label only for example.

[Sam Harmon]

Thanks Mark, that's disappointing to hear. Have you adopted any of those three methods and have they worked for you? We recently moved as a company to portfolio (in the last year) so it could be difficult to restructure the way we think about product planning again

[Mark Bickford]

I have not implemented any of those.