Problem Definition

When cloning an issue in JIRA, an existing issues is copied into a new issues and a ‘clone’ link is created between the original issue and the newly created (clone) issue.

Suggested Solution

Add the possibility to create another link relationship (e.g. ‘implement’ link) between the original issue and the newly created issue, either instead of the ‘clone’ link or in addition to the ‘clone’ link.

Why this request

Cloning of issues is typically done to create a hierarchy of issues (parent-child relationship). For example, implementing a Business Epic ‘A’ requires the implementation of features ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’. Implementation of feature ‘X’ requires work in JIRA project ‘P1’, ‘P2’ and ‘P3’, for feature ‘Y’ it requires work in project ‘P2’, ‘P4’, etcetera. So ‘A’ must be cloned to ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ and from there issues need to be cloned to ‘P1’, ‘P2’, etc. All hierarchy relationships require an ‘implement’ link between the parent and the child.
“Clone & move” is used to create the issues, but for each newly created issues the “Link” function must be used to create the parent-child relationship with the ‘implement’ link.
Since it typically involves a large number of new issues, it is a lot of work switching between “Clone & Move” and the “Link” function, and it is easy to make a mistake (e.g. linking the wrong issue ids, or omitting the ‘implement’ link). By including the linking in the clone function, JIRA knows exactly which issues are concerned (i.e. the original and the clone) reducing the amount of work and reducing the amount of mistakes, and the user is more likely (to not forget) to create the link.

Why this is important

1. The hierarchical structure has an immediate impact on the development planning, and therefore mistakes have too (e.g. missing ‘implement’ links). Similarly the mistakes have impact on the progress control of business epics.
2. The hierarchical structure will be used for aggregating time writing (from JIRA to Clarity) and time writing is used to account financial of projects (Clarity). Mistakes in the hierarchy will have impact on the financial accounting to projects.