Advanced Roadmaps is fully functional and compatible with Jira Software out-of-the box, but certain custom fields and features need to be configured by your administrator. If you decide not to configure these fields, you can still use them in Advanced Roadmaps, but you won’t be able to save the changes made in these fields back to your Jira issues.

Jump to:

• Enable the Improved interface
• Surface fix versions in Jira issues
• Enable custom fields used in Advanced Roadmaps in Jira
• Configure custom hierarchy levels
• Configure Dependencies in Jira for Advanced Roadmaps

Enable the Improved interface

With the next major release of Jira Software, the Live plans interface will be going away. If you're still using Live plans and want to upgrade to the Improved interface, follow these steps:

1. In your plan, select  next to your plan name then  Try the improved interface.
2. Select Enable improved interface to switch on the new interface for your plan.

Surface fix versions in Jira Software issues

What are known as releases in Advanced Roadmaps are known and treated as fix versions in Jira Software. If the fix version field is hidden in your issues, then the releases you set in your plan won’t display in the corresponding issues.

To display the fix version field in Jira Software:

1. Navigate to the Jira Software admin panel using the  icon in the upper right and choose Issues.
2. From the menu on the left, select Field Configurations, then the field configuration of interest.
3. Select Configure, then find the Fix Version field.
4. In the Actions column, select Show.

Each time a release is set for an issue in your plan, and you save this change to Jira Software, the release will appear as the fix version for the corresponding issue

Enable custom fields used in Advanced Roadmaps in Jira

Before you can use labels, components, team, and custom dates in Advanced Roadmaps, they first must be defined in your Jira settings.

Only the following custom field types are supported in Advanced Roadmaps:

• label
• component
• teams
• checkbox
• date picker
• user picker (single user)
• number
• radio button
• single-choice select
• multiple-choice select
• single-line text
• URL (read-only)

Adding these fields is a two step process:

1. Add custom fields to your Jira issues

1. Select   > Issues.
2. Under FIELDS, select Custom fields.
3. Click Create custom field. Make sure to select All to view the available field options.
4. Select the type of field you want to create and click Next. 
5. Add the details for your field.
   1. The name you select appears as the custom field's title wherever the field appears. The description appears below the field when creating and editing issues, but not when browsing issues.
6. When you have entered the field details, select Create.
7. Add the new custom field to one or multiple screens by ticking the corresponding box and click Update.

Data in these custom fields will be saved to your Jira issues, but won’t be visible until the fields are added to your instance.

Optional: Once you’ve created your custom field, you can configure it have have a default value. Learn how to configure default values in custom fields in Jira.

2. Add custom field to issue scheme

1. Select  > Issues.
2. In the left menu, select Custom fields listed under Fields.
3. Find your recently added field, then select > Associate to Screens.
4. Select the appropriate screen(s), then scroll to the bottom and select Update.

Now that you’ve added the custom field to issues and the scheme, Advanced Roadmaps users can now add it to their plans. Learn how to add it to on the Add and view custom fields in Advanced Roadmaps page.

Configure custom hierarchy levels

Before you can use custom hierarchy levels in Advanced Roadmaps, the issue type must first be created in Jira by an administrator. Once that’s done, the issue type must be associated to your Advanced Roadmaps hierarchy.

This is a three step process:

1. Create issue type in Jira Software (if it doesn’t already exist)

1. Select > Issues.
2. In the left column, go to Issue types > Add issue type.
3. Enter a name and description for your new issue type.
4. Choose between a standard or sub-task issue type.
5.  Standard issue types are placed above the epic level (commonly Initiative and Legend) whereas Sub-task issue types are underneath the Story level alongside subtasks. 
6. Select Add.

2. Add issue type to scheme in Jira Software

1. Select > Issues.
2. From the left column, select Issue type schemes.
3. Find the relevant issue type scheme and click Edit.
4. Edit the name, description, default issue type, and selected issue types.
5. To add an issue type to the scheme, drag it from Available Issue Types to Issue Types for Current Scheme.
6. When you’re done, select Save.

3. Add custom hierarchy levels to your Advanced Roadmaps plan:

1. Select > Manage apps.
2. In the menu on the left, select Advanced Roadmaps hierarchy configuration.
3. Select or remove hierarchy levels you want to include in your plans.
4. Select Save changes.

Your custom hierarchy levels should now be available for you to use in Advanced Roadmaps.

Configure Dependencies in Jira for Advanced Roadmaps

By default, dependencies in Advanced Roadmaps use the Blocks issue link type. In order to use custom issue links in your Advanced Roadmaps plan, they must be created and defined in Jira, then added to Advanced Roadmaps.

This is a two step process:

1. Configure your issue link in Jira Software

1. Navigate to the Jira Software admin panel using the  icon in the upper right and select Issues.
2. In the left hand sidebar, select Issue linking under Issue features. 
3. Make sure that Issue linking is set to ON. If it's not, select Activate to enable it.
4. Once activated, you can edit the Name, Outward description, and Inward description of an existing issue link by selecting Edit from the right column. Use Update to save your changes.
5. To add a new link, define the name of your new issue link and the descriptions using the fields under the Add New Link Type header. Use Add to save it. 

2. Apply that configuration to Advanced Roadmaps

1. Navigate to the Jira Software admin panel using the  icon in the upper right and select Manage apps.
2. Go to Advanced Roadmaps dependencies. Add an issue linking type using the dropdown menu, or remove it with the x that appears in the box. Use Swap on the right side to invert the dependent relationship. 
3. Select Save changes.

These changes will apply to dependencies in all plans in your instance. 

You also have the option of deciding whether Advanced Roadmaps uses concurrent or sequential dependencies. To read more about what these mean, see the Use sequential or concurrent dependencies in your plan page.

To change between sequential and concurrent dependencies:

1. From the Roadmap view, navigate to settings using the  next to your plan name > Configure.
2. Under Dependencies, select either sequential and concurrent dependencies.

Once configured, learn how to use dependencies in your plan.