In Jira, an epic is an issue type that represents a high-level initiative. It’s a large body of work that can be broken down into smaller, more manageable parts. Epics are also useful for grouping similar or recurring work. For example, create an epic to represent work that supports an organization's goal or to categorize issues related to a quarterly audit.

Epics can organize work for a single initiative or encompass work for multiple teams, sprints, and releases. While the term “epic” got its start in software development, any team can utilize it to categorize and group their work. Let’s use a non-technology use case for this example.

Scenario: You’re remodeling your kitchen, and you’re using Jira to track all the work you, your construction contractor, and their vendors need to accomplish. For this example, I’ve created a Jira project for the kitchen remodel, and I’m using epics, tasks, and sub-tasks to represent all the work items to manage. Here’s an example list of items to complete.

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The epics represent the different areas of the kitchen to address. For example, KR-1, titled “New Oven,” is an epic to hold all the tasks needed to plan for, purchase, and install a new oven. The “New Oven” epic is broken down into smaller issues like “Research” (KR-2), “Prepare Area” (KR-3), “Place Order” (KR-7), and “Install New Oven” (KR-10). These are Jira tasks. Finally, the tasks are broken down into even smaller actions like “Remove Old Oven” (KR-4), “Update Electric Plugs” (KR-5), and “Move Counters” (KR-6).

Using epics, tasks, and sub-tasks creates a hierarchy in Jira. You can think of the epic as a grandparent, a task as a parent, and a sub-task as a child.

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Creating Epics

Creating an epic is just like creating any other parent issue in Jira. Simply click the “Create” button at the top of the screen, select the relevant Jira project, and select “Epic” in the Issue type field.

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If the Epic issue type is absent, it must be added to the Jira project. Here’s how:

Adding Epics to Jira Projects

In Jira Data Center and Company-managed Projects in Jira Cloud

For projects in Data Center and company-managed projects in Cloud, log in as an application administrator and go to the Issue type schemes page in the Issues admin area.

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Locate the project’s issue type scheme, click the ellipses icon on the right, and select the “Edit” option.

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On the next page, drag the “Epic” issue type from the right “Available Issue Types” column to the left “Issue Types for Current Scheme” column. Tip: Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking the form submission button at the bottom of the page. (Not pictured.)

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In Team-managed Projects in Jira Cloud

The process is slightly different for team-managed projects in Cloud. From the Jira project, click the “Project Settings” button at the top right. Then click the “Issue types” option in the left sidebar.

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Click the “Add issue type” button in the left sidebar and select “Epic” in the overlay.

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After epics are enabled for a Jira project, they can also be created in any other way. For example, create them from the epic panel in a software project’s backlog, from a project list or timeline, by importing them from a CSV file, using the “c” keyboard shortcut, using the clone function, and more.

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Adding Issues to Epics

After creating an epic, it’s time to add other issues to them. There are two ways to do it.

In Jira Cloud

Click the “Add a child issue” button from any epic issue. Then, type a summary in the new line in the “Child issues” section.

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Alternately, from an issue, click “Add parent” in the breadcrumbs at the top and select the related epic. If the “Parent” field is displayed in the right sidebar, you can also use it to select or type an epic name or key.

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In Jira Data Center

From any epic issue, click the plus button in the “Issues in epic” panel. Then, create a new issue using the overlay. The new issue will automatically be associated with the epic used to create it.

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Alternately, from an issue, click the “Epic Link” field and select or type an epic name or key.

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Searching for Epics and Their Issues

Once epics are created and contain issues, it’s easy to query for that information. Here are some example JQL (Jira Query Language) statements to try in your application:

In Jira Cloud

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In Jira Data Center

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Tip: The best way to see issues associated with epics in search results and dashboards is to display the “Parent” (Cloud) or “Epic Link” (Data Center) column. I also like to display the “Sub-tasks” column to see additional relationships in the same view.

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Viewing Epics

In addition to viewing epics in search results and dashboards, the following views are also available.

Epics are displayed on Kanban or Scrum boards in all types of Jira. You can group the display by epic or create swimlanes for epics. In this view, you can click the gray arrows to expand or collapse an epic’s contents. As shown below, epic associations are noted on tasks with a purple  NEW OVEN  label.

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Jira Cloud projects have helpful lists and timeline views that also display epics. Like on boards, click the gray arrows to expand or collapse an epic’s contents.

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Additional Locations in Software Projects

Software projects have some additional areas that display epics. In a software project, click the “Backlog” link in the left sidebar. If the panel is not shown automatically, you’ll need to enable it. Click the “Epic” link at the top middle of the page and look for the toggle at the bottom of the menu, as pictured.

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Finally, there are two additional views in the reports section. Click “Reports” in a software project’s left sidebar and look for the options named “Epic Report” and “Epic Burndown.”

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Find Epic References in Salto

As your application grows and more issue types are utilized, it gets harder to manage settings and all their associated configurations. Luckily, the Salto Configuration Manager for Jira app provides application admins with much-needed insight. Simply search Salto for the keyword “epic,” and it will return any references and related uses. For example, the results below show four automations that affect epic issues. I forgot I created those! Now, if I want to make any changes to an epic’s configuration, I’ll know to double-check those rules to ensure I don’t break anything.

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Activities to Try

Now it’s your turn!  Now's a good time to start if you’re not already using epics to categorize your work.

Ideas

• Create an epic for each strategic company goal or initiative in a business Jira project. Then, they organize issues by associating them with the goals they support.
• In a Jira project for the procurement team, create an epic to group quarterly equipment purchases.
• Create an epic to represent maintenance, refactoring, or technical debt in a development Jira project.

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Resources

• Learn how to use Epics in Jira — https://www.atlassian.com/agile/tutorials/epics 
• JQL functions (Cloud) — https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/jql-functions 
• Advanced searching - fields reference (Data Center) — https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwareserver/advanced-searching-fields-reference-939938743.html