(DEPRECATED. Please, view "Links Hierarchy" space.)

1. Introduction

It resolves the lack of visibility of linked issues, sub-tasks, Epic, and Portfolio hierarchies on Jira Cloud by displaying an interactive HTML 5 tree view as well as it provides full context for any issue:

Don't miss any issue while analyzing requirements, planning, coding, performing a test or releasing!

The issues and links can be filtered by a lot of attributes to put the focus on relevant data only and automatically perform sum up of progress from the issue root perspective for:

• Work logs

• Story points

• Resolved issues

• Numeric custom fields

with a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach.

2. The "Hierarchy" from the Issue View

From the Atlassian's old view design, a new Hierarchy tab panel is added to on the Issue Detail view.

On the Atalssian's new user experience design, t's available from the drop-down menu:

3. The Tree Layout

The natural layout of linked issues is a Graph. However, Links Hierarchy breaks them down into a Tree.

4. The Network Layout

The Network view shows the linked issues and subtasks on a Network graph (Epic Links are not supported in the Network Graphs, please use the Hierarchical Tree instead).
It brings a big picture about how the issues are linked at a glance, which is not easy to get from the hierarchical Tree view.

However, the Network graph is not always the best choice to display liked issues due the too many data shown on them.
Links Hierarchy brings the best of the two worlds and it allows users to switch among them views at any moment and accordingly with their needs. Use the More menu to select the layout view:

Epic Links and Portfolio Hierarchies

Those issues can produce very large graphs, so they must be viewed from the Tree view. A tree icon  is displayed near the issue (on the top right corner) to switch to the Hierarchical Tree view:

5. Expand view

You can view any layout in full screen with the button 

If when expanding the view you get the following error:

6. Issue attributes

The attributes displayed on each issue are fixed and no configurable: 

7. Understanding link directions

On JIRA, each link has a direction: inward or outward.
I.e: The root DEMO-1 issue below

is linked to the child DEMO-4 with an outward link (blocks) and to DEMO-2 with an inward link (is blocked by).
In Links Hierarchy direction icons are displayed on children rather on parent due the 1:N relationship:

The hierarchy above is read from the parent toward its children: the DEMO-1 blocks DEMO-4 and it is blocked by the DEMO-2If you click on a children issue, it becomes the new root of the hierarchy and the link directions and link type names are also reversed accordingly:  The DEMO-1 is blocked by the DEMO-2 is transformed in: The DEMO-2 blocks the DEMO-1

8. Expanding the hierarchy

Links Hierarchy loads and shows the first depth level by default only.
Of course, users can see more linked issues on the hierarchy by clicking on:

• The issue expand/collapse icon: It shows/hide the immediate linked issues (children)

• The expand/collapse entire level buttons: It shows/hide ALL the children to match the current Depth

• The auto-expand n-depth levels on load option: It will load and auto-expand n-levels (1,2, or 3) automatically next times the hierarchy is loaded

9. Filtering

Hierarchies can be really huge making difficult to get any useful info from them.
Links Hierarchy supports several filters based on links (direction, type) and issues (type, resolved, version, label) attributes

When users click on a filter the data displayed on the hierarchy are shown/hidden accordingly and with smooth transitions
In the example above, if the Bug issue type is unchecked, the DEMO-5 bug is hidden and a funnel icon   displayed on the DEMO-4 parent to advertise that there are children being filtered. The funnel icon has a tooltip indicating what kind of filter is being applied on the issue.
Every time that some element is modified (checked/unchecked) by a user the new filter configuration is saved globally and applied on next visualizations automatically.
The filters are populated dynamically while the hierarchy is loading. Each new issue or link type, label, version, etc. is added into the right menu whether it was not present previously. This can make large menus with many items. Users might want to reset (empty) the configuration of the filter under a wide range of circumstances by clicking on the option for that:

10. Exporting to JQL

There is available an option from the More... menu to export the current hierarchy into the Issue Navigator:

The Issue Navigator, combined with Links Hierarchy, compacts large hierarchies into a flat table synchronized with a tree hierarchy. Furthermore, it brings all the power of the Issue Navigator (bulk changes, charting, export to Excel, etc.) to hierarchies.

11. Software integration

Links Hierarchy supports Epic Links, hence Agile Epics are shown in the hierarchy: 

It also supports Sprints:

Links Hierarchy is available from the Agile Board Detail view:

12. Portfolio integration

Links Hierarchy supports Portfolio Links:

As opposite to Jira Software, Portfolio does not support any customization on its GUI to integrate third-party content. Therefore you cannot view issue hierarchies from any portfolio page. However, Links Hierarchy is a fantastic way to spread Portfolio hierarchies everywhere. Everybody can see them integrated with issue hierarchies wherever Liks HIerarchy is displayed: issue view and board detail view. So the users can see their issues within the Portfolio context and managers can see unexpected impacts (linked issues, etc.) on the Portfolio hierarchy progress.

13. Progress Roll Up

Links Hierarchy adds new elements that will allow you to know the status of each issue at a stroke. You will not only know the progress of each individual issue, but you will also be able to know the progress of each issue with respect to the other issues with which it is related. You can know the progress of the Epics, you can know how their blocked issues are affected ... and much more, in an easy and simple way. Only you visualize what you want to see, and Links Hierarchy will do the rest.
Links Hierarchy calculates three elements of the hierarchy:

• Progress of resolved issues.

• Progress of the history points resolved.

• Progres roll up.

• Progress of custom fields resolved.

• and the individual progress of each issue.

Link Color

The colors of the links help you to know which issues are contributing in the sum.

Bars Color

You will see different colors in the bars.

Individual progress of each issue

Shows the individual progress of the issue. Appears in all issues that have time tracking.

Progress of resolved issues

Show the number of resolved issues in the hierarchy that is being displayed. It appears in the root issue, and in all those issues that contribute to it.

Progress of the history points resolved

Show the number of history points resolved in the hierarchy that is being viewed. It appears in the root issue, and in all those issues that contribute to it.

Progress roll up

Show the progress taking into account its descendants in the hierarchy. You can see the progress of the issues that influence the issue you are visualizing, allowing you to monitor and better analyze progress.

Provides progress roll up in all issues, and not only in the root issue.

Progress of custom fields resolved

New functionality to visualize the progress of number custom fields (work in the same way as story points):
<sum of the values of the custom field in the resolved issues> / <sum of the values of the custom field in all the issues of the hierarchy> (percentage that represents the sum of the values of the custom field in the resolved issues on the total sum in the hierarchy)