Documentation for GreenHopper 6.2.x. Documentation for earlier versions of GreenHopper is [available too].

An epic captures a large body of work. It is essentially a large user story that can be broken down into a number of smaller stories. It may take several sprints to complete an epic. 

In GreenHopper, an epic is simply an issue of type "Epic", which has a name (e.g. "My Epic") with which other issues can be associated (linked).

(info) This page only applies to Scrum boards.
 

To create a new epic,

  1. Log in to JIRA.

  2. Click the Agile link's down-arrow in the top navigation bar, then select your preferred board from the resulting dropdown menu.

  3. Your board will be displayed. Click Plan.
  4. If the Epics panel is not shown at the left of the screen, select Tools > Show Epic Panel.
  5. Hover anywhere in the Epics panel.
  6. Click Create epic at the top right of the Epics panel (see Screenshot 1).
  7. You will be prompted to create an issue of type "Epic" (see Screenshot 2).
    (info) For more details, please see Creating an Issue.
  8. In the Epic Name field, enter a short name. The Epic Name (rather than the Summary) will be used to identify your epic and to label issues that belong to it.
  9. Your new epic will be added to your board's Epics panel.

Next steps:

 

Related pages:

Screenshot 1: the EPICS panel (click to enlarge)


Screenshot 2: creating an issue of type "Epic" (click to enlarge)


 

49 Comments

  1. Dave Tollefson

    Oct 25, 2012

    Under "next steps" the link for "add issues to your epic" goes to the "add issue to a sprint" page, It should go to the "add issue to epic" page like the link under "related pages" .

    Also, it would be useful to have info about how to convert existing epics to these new style epics.  This 6.0.6 epic doc seems to assume that we've not used epics before.  Being good Jira/GH users, we have used epics a lot, and not are trying to minimize our rework to accomadate this change.  help would be appreciated.

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Oct 28, 2012

      Hi Dave,

      Thanks, I have updated the link.

      The new implementation of Epics in 6.0.6 is completely different from the past implementation – please see the 6.0.6 Release Notes for details. Unfortunately there is not a migration/conversion path from old to new epics.

      Sorry for any inconvenience,

      Rosie

      1. Dave Tollefson

        Oct 28, 2012

         Well, it actually appears there is some commonality.  In particular, after loading 6.0.6, all my pre-existing epics appeared in the new epics column of the plan board (or whatever that is now called) in the form "unlabelled-<issuekey>".  So I was able to go edit those and add a value to the Epic Label field and start using them.  Then I clicked on the old Epic/Theme field to get  the list of issues in that Epic, and used that to select and drag/drop on the "new board in plan mode".  That's a bit of a "migration" - better than naught.

        However, that's only in one of our JIRA instances.  In the other one, that didn't happen, presumably because we had recreated the Epic issue and the 6.0.6 update didn't seem to recognize our "Epics" as Epics.  We're still investigating that.   But as long as the update's smooth, the steps above provide a "manual migration" that people might want to use.

         

         

        1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

          Oct 28, 2012

          Thanks very much Dave, I've added a note to the Release Notes about that.

          Cheers, Rosie

  2. Steve Ragle

    Oct 29, 2012

    Converted an existing backlog with epics to use these newer style epics, much as outlined by dave above, no problems.  This looks promising.

    However, this is a backlog where many of the epics are already fully completed and those are now in the "closed - managed by greenhopper" state.  Is there a way I can make those completed/closed epics not show up in the new epics column?  They don't do much there except clutter up the place.

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Oct 30, 2012

      In a future release we are going to introduce a new notion of epic "status", to be stored in a custom field called Epic Status. In the meantime, we have not yet applied automatic filtering of "done" epics based on their workflow status or resolution. To temporarily achieve this, please modify your board's filter to add the following sub-clause:

      "AND (issuetype != Epic OR resolution is empty)"

      ...ie. AND NOT (issuetype = Epic AND resolution IS NOT empty)

  3. Steve Ragle

    Oct 30, 2012

    Thanks Rosie!  I appreciate the rapid response.  Your suggestion worked fine.  For some reason one of the epics on that board was in a weird state where it was closed but the resolution was still empty, so I ended up using this variant to catch that one also:

    ... AND (issuetype != Epic OR (resolution is empty AND status != Closed))

  4. NOD

    Nov 19, 2012

    It would be great if the linked themes (just issue numbers even) were listed under the epic in its panel, as well as the number of issues associated with epic/themes.

  5. Anonymous

    Nov 28, 2012

    Hi,   Still playing with the new EPIC in our sandbox environment  looking good!   While is  the JIRA ticket view, is there any plan to call out in the Epic ticket links back to each of their child tickets and the same for the children tickets, point back to the epic.    After a sprint is complete, any children of the epic drop off the board and the only way to find them is to use JQL

    Thanks

    Grant

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Nov 30, 2012

      Hi Grant,

      Thanks for the feedback. Yes, these things are on the backlog.

      Regards,
      Nicholas Muldoon
      @GreenHopperTeam 

  6. Mikkel Kragelund Nielsen

    Nov 29, 2012

    Is it possible to customize the fields on the "Create Epic" screen?

    We need to add "fix version" to this screen, since most of our Rapid Boards are filtering, using "fix version"

    1. btokarchuk

      Jan 30, 2013

      Hey Mikkel,

      Did you ever figure out a way to do this ?  It doesn't seem to remember any field changes you make under the "configure fields" option either.  I noticed that GH is making a query to /rest/greenhopper/1.0/userData/quickEditDefaults and that returns a blob like:

      {"success":{"issueTypeId":"12","fields":["assignee","summary","description","priority","labels"],"useQuickForm":false}}

      but i have yet to find anywhere to set what those defaults are.

      1. Mikkel Kragelund Nielsen

        Jan 31, 2013

        Nope. Irs like a screen is missing (hardcoded...) that defines the content of the "Create Epic" screen.
        Durring our installation 2 "Epic Name" cf's where created. Both of these where shown on the "Create Epic" screen.

        So my guess is that it only shows fields that are defined to be "Epic" cf types.

  7. David Fischer (Appfire)

    Nov 29, 2012

    What about Epic planning? Currently, we use the Plan view of the RapidBoard to schedule Epics into Sprints. I know that Scrum doesn't recommend using Epics as planning items (they should be split into User Stories before the planning meeting), but some people do it anyway.

    Currently, as soon as we activate Epics in GH, the Epics disappear from the issue list and move to the Epics column. Unfortunately, in that mode, they cannot be associated with Sprints anymore.

    One solution would be to (optionally?) reintegrate Epics into the list whenever you hide the Epic column. Another would be to create an Epic Plan view (or maybe Release planning?). 

    As it is, we cannot activate Epics in GH.

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Nov 30, 2012

      Hi David,

      Thanks for the feedback. The release planning piece you mention is something we will explore after Epics has been released from Labs.

      Thanks,
      Nicholas Muldoon
      @GreenHopperTeam 

    2. Anonymous

      Feb 11, 2013

      I agree wholeheartedly with this.  The 'upgrade' of Epic functionality has in fact actually completely destroyed how we were using Greenhopper.  In order to continue using the product after the latest update (because a downgrade is impossible after the data changes), we have to modify the entire project setup to include different issue types (we never used Stories previously), and update each of the existing 100+ Epics that we had in the backlog prior to the update.  I am surprised that there is no option for 'Old Greenhopper Behavior', considering the serious amount of changes made with this functionality.

      As it stands, after an upgrade from 6.0.2 to 6.1.3.1, it has made Greenhopper completely unusable with regard to how we were previously using it, and I've already lost 6 hours trying to get it to even a bare functional level without completely rebuilding the project and tasks from scratch, with absolutely no success.

  8. David Fischer (Appfire)

    Nov 29, 2012

    Another comment: in the view Issue screen of an Epic, it'd be nice to see the associated issues. Currently, they are not displayed among the other issue links because the Epic link uses a custom Link Style (jira_gh_epic_story). Is it planned to add a custom section listing the issues associated to an Epic within the View Issue screen?

  9. Rebecca Reaves

    Nov 29, 2012

    It seems that it's not possible to drag stories in a current sprint into an epic. If this is the case we can't really use this lab for the projects that are currently in progress. Is that something that can be fixed?

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Nov 30, 2012

      Hi Rebecca,

      Check to see that you aren't dragging issues from a current sprint and the backlog. If you drag issues from one, or the other, then it should work as you expect.

      Thanks,
      Nicholas Muldoon
      @GreenHopperTeam 

  10. Anonymous

    Dec 20, 2012

    Can we reveal the "Epic" field in the Details for issues (JIRA)?

    We have this test User Story: TEST-69
    associated with this Epic: TEST-1

    In the Rapid Board view we can see that issue 69 is a User Story for the Epic, issue 1.

    In the detailed view of issue 69 though, we have no way to see that it belongs to issue 1.

    If this is in the backlog can you please link me to it so I may watch it?

    Thanks,

    Justin

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 06, 2013

      Please see GHS-6963 - Getting issue details... STATUS

  11. Anonymous

    Jan 07, 2013

    Is there any possibilty to get a JIRA filter from the epics sidebar in greenhopper? I want to use it with the confluence JIRA-issues macro, which requires me to have an url to a JIRA filter. Do I need to create all JIRA filters by hand or can I extract the filter "on-the-fly" from the epic sidebar in Greenhopper?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 13, 2013

      We are planning to make epics searchable via JQL in the near future – please watch our upcoming Release Notes.

  12. Daniel Blecher

    Jan 14, 2013

    Would be great to have the details for the epic to show up in the details view once you click on it. 

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 14, 2013

      Hi, you may like to watch/vote/comment on GHS-6963 - Getting issue details... STATUS

  13. Hans-Hermann Hunfeld

    Jan 17, 2013

    What about using epics on Kanban boards?

    The manual says that new epics should be created while using the agile board, but in Kanban boards i do not see this option? Should i now use the "old" way creating an issue and set it to type epic?

  14. Jesse Kochis

    Jan 29, 2013

    I do not have the option to Show Epic Panel under tools. Is there something I need to enable in the configuration?

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Jan 29, 2013

      Can I ask which version of GreenHopper you are using, please? (Epics were released via Labs in GreenHopper 6.0.6, then promoted from Labs in 6.1)

      1. Jesse Kochis

        Jan 30, 2013

        That looks like the problem. We're using 6.0.3. Thanks

  15. Toni Juvani

    Feb 08, 2013

    Is it possible to show other issue types as epics in the scrum board?

    We are currently synchronizing requirements to JIRA from another system and would like to be able to do sprint planning with them. Would it somehow be possible to modify the requirement issue type so that it would be shown on the left side of the scrum board? I've tried adding Greenhopper issue fields to the requirements but it doesn't seem to work.

  16. RobC

    Feb 11, 2013

    I have multiple large epics containing many user stories which will span multiple releases. I am not sure what the best way to handle this is, since everything needs to be assigned to a "project". Is the answer to create a project called "Backlog" and manager all my epics there, pulling in user stories as needed in order to build my release backlogs?Is the answer to create duplicate Epics only containing what we will finish per release?

    How are other users managing roadmap-level backlogs containing Epics in Greenhopper? I suppose adding an MRF-level below EPIC would solve some of this confusion. Either that or adding an independent "backlog" board/area so manager unassigned backlog items.

  17. Michael Pear

    Feb 26, 2013

    When using Epics, it appears that once you have associated a story with a specific Epic, there is no way to display a complete backlog listed for the project. You can display stories within an Epic, or stories not associated with an Epic, but not all stories in the backlog. Am I missing something?

    1. Michael Pear

      Feb 26, 2013

      After more experimentation, I see that there is a filter icon under the Backlog section, which when selected, turns off the filter for the Epic showing the entire backlog.

  18. srinivasp

    Mar 08, 2013

    I enabled the scrum feature and added epic and story issue types to our issue type scheme. when i try to create an epic, it is showing two Epic Name fields. 

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      Mar 08, 2013

      Can you please contact http://support.atlassian.com ? Many thanks

  19. anantharaman sekar

    May 14, 2013

    I am trying to create an Epic. I can see the Epics panel. Even after Hovering anywhere in the Epics panel I could not see the create Epic field (as shown in the above screenshot 2). Request guidance for this issue.

    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      May 15, 2013

      This screenshot applies to GreenHopper version 6.2.1 and later. If you are using an earlier version, please click the "+" sign at the top of the Epics panel. Apologies for any confusion.

  20. anantharaman sekar

    May 15, 2013

    Rosie,

     

    When I click the "+" sign against Epics it takes me to issue creation screen and not to the below mentioned screen

     


     

     

    Please advise.

  21. anantharaman sekar

    May 15, 2013

    Rosie,

    I am using 30 day free trial version of GreenHopper. I am le to create only the board and configre the Filter aspect of the board.

    I am not able to do - any epic activities (create / edit epic, rename epic, add/remove issue in epic, complete epic) , estimate an issue,etc. Please advise

    FYI - In JIRA I do not have Admin rights with Global permission

     

  22. anantharaman sekar

    May 15, 2013

    Rosie,

    I am using 30 day free trial version of GreenHopper. I am le to create the board and configre the Filter aspect of the board and create estimate

    I am not able to do  any epic activities (create / edit epic, rename epic, add/remove issue in epic, complete epic)

      Please advise

    FYI - Now, In JIRA I have Admin rights

  23. anantharaman sekar

    May 16, 2013

    Hi Rosie,

     

    Please update me on the below query.

    I am using 30 day free trial version of GreenHopper. I am not able to do any epic activities (create / edit epic, rename epic, add/remove issue in epic, complete epic).

    When I click the "+" sign against Epics it takes me to issue creation screen and not to the below mentioned screen


    1. Rosie Jameson [Atlassian]

      May 19, 2013

      You need to click the "Create epic" link. This link will appear when you hover over the "Epics" panel. Can you please contact http://support.atlassian.com for further assistance if needed? Many thanks

  24. Paul Sawkins

    May 28, 2013

    Any way to have the "Create Epic" remember the "Configure Fields" selection ? (using ondemand)

    1. Zane Berzina

      Jul 01, 2013

      I am using the workaround to create Epic from the right upper corner (near Quick Search) but I am also very interested in this subject as many users are used to Create Epic from the Epic panel and that causes problems with filling in Fix version which is not mandatory always, but ir 90% are. Unfortunately configure fields is not remembered.

    2. Zane Berzina

      Jul 01, 2013

      I am using the workaround to create Epic from the right upper corner (near Quick Search) but I am also very interested in this subject as many users are used to Create Epic from the Epic panel and that causes problems with filling in Fix version which is not mandatory always, but ir 90% are. Unfortunately configure fields is not remembered.

  25. Aaron Carter

    Jul 01, 2013

    Why aren't the Subtask's created under a Epic not showing in the Agile Scum Board Backlog? If I create an issue and associate it with a task it will show up in the back log, however sub task's of the epic will not show up in the product backlog.  This wasn't an issue in the Classic planning board. 

     

     

  26. Aaron Carter

    Jul 01, 2013

    Why aren't the Subtask's created under a Epic not showing in the Agile Scum Board Backlog? If I create an issue and associate it with a task it will show up in the back log, however sub task's of the epic will not show up in the product backlog.  This wasn't an issue in the Classic planning board. 

     

     

  27. Steve Crow

    Jul 05, 2013

    How do I specify an estimate (story points) for an epic which has no stories? Can this be done...

    On the Using Plan Mode page, under 'Estimate Stories', it states the Story Points field is available to issues of type Story and Epic.

     

  28. Arnd Kaiser

    Aug 06, 2013

    Is it possible to rank epics so their associated issues in the backlog are all ranked the same way? I can drag epics up or down in the sidebar but this has no effect on the backlog.



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