Add Additional Hierarchy Levels

With Jira Premium and Enterprise, you can expand the default issue hierarchy to better reflect your organization’s needs. While Jira comes pre-configured with Epic, Story, and Sub-Task levels, you can add more levels, such as Initiative, to manage larger projects and strategic goals.

Tip

For more details on managing custom hierarchy levels, check Atlassian’s documentation:

Configure the Issue Type Hierarchy

Templating.app supports custom hierarchy levels for Issue Templates. If your organization uses an additional level, like Initiative (above Epics), you can incorporate it directly into your templates. This makes it easy to manage and automate complex structures, aligning with frameworks like SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework).

How to Add Custom Hierarchies to Templates

1. Set Up Hierarchies in Jira: Ensure your Jira site is configured with the desired hierarchy levels.
2. Create a new Issue Template or edit an existing one in Templating.app.
3. Create Issues According to Hierarchy: Add issues corresponding to each hierarchy level. For example, create an Initiative at the top, followed by Epics, Stories, and Sub-Tasks.
4. Organize and Customize: Use drag-and-drop to arrange issues into the correct hierarchy.
5. Add relevant details and variables to each issue.
6. Save the Template: Once your hierarchy is complete, save your template for future use.