Documentation for GreenHopper 4.2.x . Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
GreenHopper is now called JIRA Agile. Learn more.

An epic is essentially a large user story that can be broken up into several smaller user stories. Epics are typically used to capture large and complex items from the product backlog that are low priority and are yet to be defined in great detail.

If your project administrator has set up epics for your project, you will be able to create epics and link them to child issues, such as stories. You can then view the epic and related issues via the GreenHopper search.

To create an epic,

  1. Log into JIRA or navigate to your dashboard, if you are already logged in.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Click the 'New Card' button (under the project dropdown). Create a new card with the appropriate issue type, i.e. 'Epic', if your project administrator has set it up.

To associate an issue with an epic,

  1. Log into JIRA or navigate to your dashboard, if you are already logged in.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Select the card that you want to associate with your epic and click the icon (which will appear when you hover over the card) to edit it.
  5. Enter the issue key for your epic in the 'Epic' field and click the icon. Your issue will be associated with the epic.

To view all issues associated with an epic,

  1. Log into JIRA or navigate to your dashboard, if you are already logged in.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Find an issue associated with your epic and click the value in the 'Epic' field, e.g. 'GHS-123'. The GreenHopper search window will display, showing all cards associated with the epic. The card for the epic and statistics for all issues associated with the epic will be displayed on the right of the search window.

Screenshot: Viewing an epic and associated issues

2 Comments

  1. Tim Mackinnon

    Jan 28, 2010

    Why can't you directly view which stories are associated to an epic (from the epic) instead of having to find something already related to the epic to then find all of its peers?

    I can only see the following workaround: in Jira (not in greenhopper) - make the epic and epic of itself. Then in greenhopper you can click on the epic number to see all of the peers (the downside is that the epic appears twice in the greenhopper popup screen, once with the stories, and once on the right - but at least it gives you some way to easily see all the grouped stories)

    1. Nicholas Muldoon [Atlassian]

      Jan 29, 2010

      Hi Tim,

      This functionality will be released in GreenHopper 4.3, keep your eyes peeled for a release in February.

      Thanks Tim.

      Regards,
      Nicholas Muldoon

      Register now for Atlassian Summit 2010, June 9-11 http://summit.atlassian.com





Except where otherwise noted, content in this space is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia License.