Common Jira configurations for your plan

This page refers to the advanced planning features that are only available as part of Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise.

Once you have access, you can begin planning straight away. Nothing is stopping you. But while your plan doesn’t require any customization, administrators have the power to configure it to align with Jira and how their teams work.

The processes described in this section are only possible with Jira administrator permissions.

Configure hierarchy levels above epics

By default, Jira comes with Epic as a level 1 issue type, and Story as a level 0 (subtasks are considered -1 or below Story). As part of your Jira Premium and Enterprise subscriptions, you can add levels above 1 and use these extra levels to track your organization’s larger initiatives in your plans and unify cross-project work. Some common issue types are Legend, Odyssey, or Anthology. Or maybe you wanna go crazy and name your higher hierarchy levels things like Monolith, Deity, or Omnipotence. It’s truly up to you.

Find out how to configure custom hierarchy levels in Jira

Add custom fields to your Jira issues

Be it custom date fields or labels, most Jira administrators add at least one custom field to their issues in Jira. In order to use them in your plan, you’ll need to add them.

If you remove a custom field from your issue’s scheme, but still use a custom field in your plan, you won’t be able to save values assigned to these fields to your issues.

The full value of custom fields will become more apparent later on in this guide. But for now, just know that this is a customization that you (or your Jira administrator) have at your disposal.

Learn how to add custom fields to your Jira issues

Actions from your plan in Jira audit logs

Administrators can track some actions from plans in the Jira audit logs. The following actions are included in your audit reports:

  • when a plan created or deleted

  • when scheduling configurations are changed

  • when issue sources are added or removed, and;

  • when an exclusion rule is changed

  • rename, create, or delete a hierarchy level

  • move an issue type between hierarchy levels

These can’t be edited or changed.

Learn more about how a Jira administrator can audit activities

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