Problem Definition

Currently in JIRA Software it's possible to have multiple Epics with the same Epic Name. This is causing a number of confusions as follows:

#1 - Not possible to tell which Story belongs to which Epic from Backlog, Active Sprint, and Issue Navigator

If 2 Epics on the same board (they may belong to 2 different projects) have the same Epic Name and Color, and each has a few Stories, it's impossible to tell which Story belongs to which Epic. This applies to Backlog, Active Sprint, and Issue Navigator.

Workarounds for #1

1. If possible, change the Epic Name of 1 of the Epics
2. If Epic Name can't be changed for any reason, change the Color of 1 of the Epics - this can be done from Backlog and it will look like this afterwards:
   

Suggested Solutions for #1

1. Prevent Epics from having the same name - as per JSWSERVER-16366
2. Pre-pend the issue key of an Epic to its name for labeling purpose, e.g.:
   • EPIC-1 - Same Epic Name
   • EPIC-2 - Same Epic Name

#2 - Exporting issues to HTML (or Excel) and CSV

Take a look at this search result:

If we export that search result to HTML (or Excel, as HTML can be opened by Excel and saved as XLSX), the exported data will look like this:

 Notice that Epic Names are exported under Epic Link column

 Apparently it's impossible to tell which Story belongs to which Epic

If we export that search result to CSV instead, the exported data will look like this:

 Notice that issue keys of the Epics are exported under Epic Link column

 Users may base on the issue keys to find the right Epics (take note that Epics and Stories must be exported together)

Workarounds for #2

1. If possible/applicable, change the Epic Name of 1 of the Epics
2. If you're using HTML export and expect issue key to be exported instead of Epic Name, switch to CSV export - this is for JRASERVER-62296
3. If you're using CSV export and expect Epic Name to be exported instead of issue key, switch to HTML export - this is for JRASERVER-67146

Suggested Solutions for #2

If we can pre-pend the issue key of an Epic to its name for labeling purpose, e.g. KEY-123 - Epic Name, then use this value for Epic Link field and consistently export it regardless of HTML/CSV exports.

Notes

As per JSWSERVER-14746, users may expect that an issue should have both Epic Name and Epic Link for a search result similar to search.png, so that when issues are exported, they can see the Epic Name under Epic Name column and issue key of the Epic under Epic Link column. This is a misconception and can't be achieved because:

• Epic Name is specific to Epic issue type
• Epic Link is used by other issue types to link to an Epic issue type

So basically:

• An Epic has Epic Name but no Epic Link
• Other issue types can have an Epic Link but can never have an Epic Name

 Refer to #2 above for a possible workaround.