Re-raised: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-71109

Agree with all of the above and would suggest this is re-opened (if anyone it Atlassian is still watching - otherwise perhaps create a new issue).

Not sure why the coding behind the Epic Link field was created only when there are several other levels to an issue hierarchy that would all require and benefit from similar linkage. This seems like a fundamental piece of functionality. 

Would love to know more about the timeline of the Epic Link field and whether it proved too complex to repeat, ie. MVP for repeating across other levels and issue types drastically fell.

Please re-open or provide better workarounds.

I completely agree with the posters above.

As suggested by Atlassian on numerous posts and blogs on Scrum management, I have created an Initiatives level above Epics in order to better manage our (huge) project.

It seems crazy to me that it is not possible to then add a field to the Epic creation screen that allows me to associate the Epic with it's parent Initiative.

Issue Links and URL fields are NOT a suitable solution.

This issue was not resolved. It appears to have been thrown in the "Too Hard Basket"

Looking for a story link custom field as well. Please reopen

Not sure why this was closed. Looks like the agent who closed it didn't even read the issue.

This suggestion was closed, but the reason did not address the OP's need.

Issue links are not anywhere as useful as the Epic links, nor sub-task links.

Sub-tasks are not available to Customers in Service Desk, so are not an option in that environment.

Epic links are limited to a single issue type.

A workaround would be to offer a means of creating additional Epic-type Issue Types.

The other option would be to introduce more functionality to Issue links so they can be managed from the parent issue as Epic links and Sub-tasks are.

The suggestion that URL Custom fields meets this need is incorrect, as it only works with URLs and not Issue Keys. It also is just a list, which does not allow for management of the issue.

Lastly, Issue links do not provide a single one-to-one relationship of Parent to Child as the other options do. Issue links go two ways essentially, and you can link to multiple other Issues. This creates a web-like relationship as opposed to the Parent-Child relationship needed.

There should be option to allow JIRA admins to add a new field like Epic. Simple and important business case is, As a product owner I want to create one more level "theme" between Epic and User Stories to manage my backlog better. Pls let me solution  for this ?

This use case is addressed with JIRA's native Issue Links, Epic Links, sub-tasks, and URL custom fields. It's unlikely we will add an additional custom field type to support this.

Dave Meyer
Product Manager, JIRA