Manage issues on the roadmap

Your project's Roadmap is the central home for all epics in your project. This is where you create, manage, and gain insights from your epics. Epics will only display on the roadmap, and won't display on your project's board or backlog. 

Create epics

To create an epic:

1. Select + Create Epic in the first column of the roadmap.

2. Give your epic a name, and click enter.

Your new epic will be added to the bottom of the list.

It’s also possible to create a new epic by hovering your mouse between two existing epics. The new epic will land in the middle of the list.

Add epics to your timeline

As soon as an epic’s created it appears in the Epic list on your roadmap. Epics are unscheduled by default, and won’t automatically appear on the timeline. This gives you control over when your epics appear on your timeline and encourages more accuracy during the planning stage.

To visualize the epic as a bar on the timeline, you will need to set a start and end date:

1. Navigate to your roadmap from your project’s sidebar.

2. Select (+) Create epic. Give your epic a name, and press enter.

3. Hover your cursor over the timeline next to your newly created epic. A preview of the epic bar will display.

4. Release your click to create the bar. Or, click, then drag your cursor to suit the specific start and end dates of your work.

The epic bar has a default duration according to how you view your timeline. The default durations are:

• Weeks – 7 days

• Months – 14 days

• Quarters – 30 days

Manage your epic bar

Color coding epics make it easy to distinguish different streams of work.

You can adjust the color of an epic directly on the roadmap. Simply right-click the epic and choose a fresh color.

The default color for all epic bars on the timeline is purple.

Add issues to epics

There are two ways to add issues to your epics:

On the roadmap

To add an issue, hover over an epic and click Create child issue.

On the issue details

Select the epic to see its details, then select either of the following:

1. Add a child issue button

2. + button in the right side

Manage child issues from the roadmap

If a child issue is assigned to a sprint, your roadmap will show schedule bar on your timeline. For child issues, the schedule bar is based on the dates of its assigned sprint listed at the top of your timeline, not the start and end dates of the issue.

In order to show a child issue’s schedule bar on your timeline, it must be assigned to a sprint.

Change a sprint assignment

Jira offers three ways that you can change an issue’s sprint assignment from the roadmap.

1. Select the schedule bar on the timeline, which will open the issue detail view. Find the Sprint field, and add a sprint.

2. Drag-and-drop your child issue’s timeline bar to a new sprint. As you drag the bar, drop zones will appear in your timeline. Place the bar in one of these shadows to assign it to the sprint. If you have overlapping sprints, the issue will be assigned to the one that begins first.

3. Right-click on the child issue’s schedule bar and choose which where you’d like to move the issue. You can also clear the sprint assignment from this menu.

Color issues

All child issues belonging to an epic will have the same color schedule bars on the timeline.

Reorder or reassign an issue to an epic

To reorder issues, select the name or icon from the left column, then drag it to where you want it to live. You can also change the epic to which a child issue is assigned by dragging and dropping it inside of a different epic.

You can also add or remove issues from epics from the issue view, board, or backlog. Check out Manage epics in team-managed projects to learn how.

See the progress of an epic

As work is completed on an epic, you can use the progress bar to quickly see the epic's progress on the roadmap.

To hide or show epic progress, select View > Progress.

The small bar underneath the epic's name if there are issue in the epic. This bar indicates the overall progress of your epic’s issues. It shows the status of any standard issues in your epics, excluding subtasks.

The epic’s progress bar is divided into three segments:

• The green segment represents issues in a Done status category

• The blue segment represent issues in an In progress status category

• The grey segment represents issues in a To do status category

Hover over any segment of an epic's progress bar to see specifically how many issues are in each status category, either in a to-do status, an in-progress status, or a done status.

Manage dependencies between issues

Your team might have one epic that is blocking the progress of another, or two epics that impact one another. The roadmap enables you to visualize dependencies between epics.

To capture dependencies, the roadmap relies on a specific issue link type called Blocks. The link type is required, however, it can be renamed to suit your team. If the link type is deleted, the roadmap will create another in its place.

Create dependency links between epics

There are two ways to visualize dependencies on your roadmap.

To create dependencies between issues directly on your roadmap:

1. Hover over an issue to reveal dots on either side. 

2. Drag one of the dots to the issue you want to link. 

When using this method, your roadmap will automatically configure the dependency (either blocks or is blocked by) based on the order of issues.

To create dependencies between issues from the issue detail view:

1. Select an issue on the roadmap.

2. Select Link issue.

3. Select either blocks or is blocked by, then select the issue to link.

View details of linked dependencies

Select the dependency line or the link icon on an issue to get a detailed view of its dependencies. If your epics have child issues with dependencies, they’ll show in this window when the epic is collapsed on your roadmap.

The dependency line will turn red if one of your epics is scheduled to start before a dependent epic will be completed, which signals the potential for delay or risk.

Remove dependencies

To remove a dependency between two epics, select Unlink issue or delete the issue link in the issue detail view.

Previous content for bundled track sites

Your project's Roadmap is the central home for all epics in your project. This is where you create, manage, and gain insights from your epics. Epics will only display on the roadmap, and won't display on your project's board or backlog. 

Create epics

To create an epic:

1. Select + Create Epic in the first column of the roadmap.

2. Give your epic a name, and click enter.

Your new epic will be added to the bottom of the list.

It’s also possible to create a new epic by hovering your mouse between two existing epics. The new epic will land in the middle of the list.

Add issues to epics

There are two ways to add issues to your epics:

On the roadmap

To add an issue, hover over an epic and click Create child issue.

On the issue details

Click on an epic to see more details:

1. Epic color: Change the color of an epic. 

2. Add a child issue: Use the quick-add button to add the first child issue to your epic.

3. Add more issues: Once you have one child issue, you can use the + above the list to add more.

4. Child issues list: View and open all of the child issues for this epic.

Reorder or reassign an issue to an epic

Adjust the order of your epics and issues, or assign an issue to a new epic.

Click and hold the issue or epic cell from the far left column on the timeline, then drag and drop the work wherever you like.

You can also add or remove issues from epics from the issue view, board, or backlog. Check out Manage epics in team-managed projects to learn how.

See the progress of an epic

As work is completed on an epic, you can use the progress bar to quickly see the epic's progress on the roadmap.

To hide or show epic progress, select View > Progress.

The small bar underneath the epic's name if there are issue in the epic. This bar indicates the overall progress of your epic’s issues. It shows the status of any standard issues in your epics, excluding subtasks.

The epic’s progress bar is divided into three segments:

• The green segment represents issues in a Done status category

• The blue segment represent issues in an In progress status category

• The grey segment represents issues in a To do status category

Hover over any segment of an epic's progress bar to see specifically how many issues are in each status category, either in a to-do status, an in-progress status, or a done status.

Manage dependencies between epics

Your team might have one epic that is blocking the progress of another, or two epics that impact one another. The roadmap enables you to visualize dependencies between epics.

To capture dependencies, the roadmap relies on a specific issue link type called Blocks. The link type is required, however, it can be renamed to suit your team. If the link type is deleted, the roadmap will create another in its place.

Create dependency links between epics

There are two ways to visualize dependencies on your roadmap.

To create dependencies between epics directly on your roadmap:

1. Hover over an epic to reveal dots on either side of an epic. 
   

2. Drag one of the dots to the epic you want to link it to. 

To create dependencies between epics from the epic issue detail view:

1. Select an epic on the roadmap.

2. Select Link issue.

3. Select either blocks or is blocked by, then select the epic to link.

View details of linked dependencies

Dive into the details of linked epics inside of dependency cards by selecting the dependency line, or the link icon on an epic.

The dependency line will turn red if one of your epics is scheduled to start before a dependent epic will be completed, which signals the potential for delay or risk.

Remove dependencies

To remove a dependency between two epics, select Unlink issue or delete the issue link in the issue detail view.