Hierarchies of issues
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Column/Swimlane by Parent
Atlassian has recently introduced Parent field for Jira issues. You can find more details here - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Introducing-the-new-Parent-field-in-company-managed-projects/ba-p/2377758.
The field is used for pre-defined hierarchy of issues, namely:
sub-tasks to tasks/stories/etc.
tasks/stories to epic
But also could be used for higher hierarchy levels, e.g. you can introduce “Initiative“ issue type to accommodate multiple epics.
In our App we support column/swimlanes by Parent:
This will show issues as columns/swimlanes and all child issues in appropriate cells (intersections of columns/swimlanes)
You can also configure columns/swimlanes by Epics and Stories.
Hierarchy aggregation in swimlanes
Organizing swimlanes by Parent? You can now display the full hierarchy in one swimlane — from top-level items to the deepest children — for a cleaner, more compact board.
How it works?
We take all the work items returned by JQL
And find the work items on highest level of hierarchy (e.g. Initiatives or Capabilities)
We add all their children (if returned by board JQL)
and recursively children of their children till empty list
We move to level below of the hierarchy
if the item was shown already and children of the parent in a previous swimlane it won't be shown as separate swimlane
Work items w/o children will be shown on “Others“ swimlane
In large hierarchies swimlanes might accumulate a large number of work items. We suggest to use Hierarchies of issues | Parent Header to navigate. We also plan to add filter for hierarchy levels shortly to narrow down the focus (if required).
Hierarchy quick filter
When you aggregate hierarchy in swimlanes the boards might become too busy and too detailed. TO zoom in/out you might use Hierarchy quick filter …
.. where
-1 stands for Sub-tasks
0 stands for Stories & Tasks
1 stands for Epics
2+ is usually custom to your setup (e.g. Features > Initiatives > Capabilities)
This allows to quickly switch between big picture and narrow down to specific details.
Parent header
You might decide to show a clickable Parent Header for your issues. This is very useful if you go beyond standard Sub-task > Story > Epic hierarchy and can show story header for sub-tasks and Epic link by standard tools.
By clicking on Parent Header toggle you turn on the clickable header (meaning you will see an issue dialog when you click on it) for your issues.
You might also decide to customize the levels of hierarchy where you want to show this header, namely:
-1 stands for Sub-tasks
0 stands for Stories & Tasks
1 stands for Epics
2+ is usually custom to your setup (e.g. Features > Initiatives > Capabilities)
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Update status and Change assignee for Parent right from Column/Swimlane
If you configure Columns/Swimlanes by Parent, Epic or Story we add metadata about the issue to Columns/Swimlanes, namely Status and Assignee. Clicking on Status and Assignee you can change it inline.
Column/Swimlane by “Linked issues”
As alternative column/swimlanes by Parent you might decide to show column/swimlanes by link type/linked issues.
Such configuration will generate column/swimlanes for any Jira issues to show links of specific type. In other words column/swimlanes will be generated for all uniques link types. E.g. you have Epics and you use “blocks” and “implements” linkes .. the App will generate let’s say swimlane for “Epic (blocks)” to show all blocked issues and “Epic (implements)“ for all issue where is part of bigger initiative.
To change column/swimlanes and issue type click Edit and choose a different one from drop down list.
Linked issues might belong to different projects that you shortlisted for your board or might be eliminated by JQL you defined to fine tune your board … No Worries! We will bring those issues for you on the board anyway if you choose columns/swimlanes by issue links.
Mixing “Linked Issues” with Children
For the Enterprise use case you sometimes want to see a big picture of connected issue. For e.g. you might have a Parent/Child hierarchy but you also might have dependencies implemented via “linked issues”. We allow to combine the two.
Just click appropriate configuration toggles in column/swimlane settings
When you move issue in to such column/swimlane depending on “Prefer links over children“ selection we will either assign a parent to the issue or create appropriate link in the direction specified in configuration.
On the board we will show that Children are mixed with Links for better usability
Autocomplete Parent, Epics and Stories
The App will check if all the child items are moved into the last column to offer an action of the parent issue as well.
Tip: Still have questions or need hands-on advice?
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