Issue hierarchy on portal
Complex requests often involve multiple layers. Whether it’s an Epic with several Stories or a Parent task with nested Subtasks, showing this hierarchy on the Jira portal helps users understand the scope of work. By surfacing parent and child relationships, you transform a flat ticket into a structured project view.
Why it’s a win-win
For customers: It clarifies complexity. Seeing how their request fits into a larger initiative (the Parent) or what smaller steps are being taken (the Children) makes the process feel more organized.
For agents: It maintains order. Agents can keep their internal hierarchy intact while still providing the customer with a clear, high-level view of the work structure.
How to configure it
The Jira Service Management app gives you full control over the view:
Navigate to the Additional Fields section in your project settings.
Add a new panel and select Parent from the field list.
- Users can tick off a checkbox to view Child items along with the Parent items - this way the issues will be portrayed as a structured hierarchy.
Display Child items only
Alternatively, users can list the child tasks separately to show the “to-do” list under the current request. In order to do so, the field Child items has to be added to the Additional fields panel.
Placement tips
Use the center panel for detailed lists of child items or the side panel for a quick “Parent” reference.
Why it works in practice
In incident management in Jira, a major outage might be the “Parent.” By showing the hierarchy on the portal, every reporter linked to that incident can see the progress of the overall resolution. It turns a chaotic situation into a visible, managed process.