Manage epics in team-managed projects

This page is for team-managed projects

If the lower-left of your project sidebar says you're in a company-managed project, check out these company-managed project articles instead.

Learn more about the difference between company-managed and team-managed projects.

Epics are used to describe a group of issues that all relate to the same, larger body of work. Epics are typically completed over several sprints, or a longer time frame if you don't use sprints. To learn more about epics and how they differ from other issue types, check out our guide on Epics, Stories, Themes, and Initiatives.

This page explains how to manage epics outside of your timeline. However, we do recommend using your timeline to manage your team's epics. Read our timeline documentation to learn more. 

By default, the epic issue type will be Epic, but will be different if you have created your own epic issue type.

If you don’t see the Epic issue type, your project admin may need to add this issue type to your project. Learn more about adding suggested issue types to team-managed projects.

Create epics  

Outside of your timeline, there are two ways to create epics:

Via the Backlog

You can create epics in your project’s backlog, if you’ve enabled the backlog feature. Learn more about the backlog.

  1. From your project’s sidebar, select Backlog.

  2. On the Backlog, select the Epic filter and enable the Epic panel toggle.

  3. Select + Create Epic.

Via the global menu

  1. From any project, click Create in the navigation bar.

  2. Under Issue Type, select your epic issue type. Enter details and click Create.

If you don’t see the Epic issue type, your project admin may need to add this issue type to your project. Learn more about adding suggested issue types to team-managed projects.

View and edit epics

Outside of your timeline, there are two ways to view and edit your epics:

Via the Backlog

The epic panel toggle appears in the Epic dropdown in your backlog's search and filter bar.
  1. From your project’s sidebar, select Backlog.

  2. On the Backlog, select the Epic filter and enable the Epic panel toggle.

  3. Select the Epics you want to view/edit. Their details will appear to the right of the Epic panel. Click an Epic's chevron (>) in the panel to view and edit more details.

Via global search

  1. Click the search field in the navigation bar. If your epic doesn't appear in your list of Recent issues, select View all Issues.

  2. Use the filters to find and edit your epic.

Add issues to epics

Outside of your timeline, there are two ways to add issues to epics:

Via the backlog

  1. From your project’s sidebar, select Backlog.

  2. Click the Epic dropdown filter > Click the Epic panel switch.

  3. Drag-and-drop issues from the backlog to epics in the epic panel. Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) to select multiple issues at a time.

Tips

  • Select multiple issues at the same time by holding Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac).

  • Use the Epic filter to create new issues assigned to a specified epic. To do this, select an epic and click + Create issue.

Via an issue

  1. From your board or backlog, hover over an issue and select more (•••). 

  2. Click Add parent (to assign the issue to an existing epic) or Change parent (to change the issue's epic). Issues can only belong to one epic at a time.

Company-managed project issues can only be added to company-managed project epics, and team-managed project issues can only be added to team-managed project epics.

Remove issues from epics

To remove an issue from its parent epic:

  1. Navigate to your board or backlog, or open an issue.

  2. Hover over the issue and select more (•••). 

  3. Select Change parent

  4. In the dropdown menu, select Remove.

Removing an issue from its parent doesn't delete the issue from your project. The issue still exists, but it's no longer associated with the parent issue.

Learn more

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