Removing Epic Link from sub-tasks

[Jason Skidis]

Somehow, likely from a badly constructed Structure synchronizer written by a person whom no longer has the ability to create synchronizers, we have a number of sub-tasks that have been assigned epic links. I can't figure out how to remove the epic links from these sub-tasks. Editing the sub-task doesn't provide an option to edit/clear the epic link field and since sub-tasks aren't displayed (for good reason) on the planning tab of the scrum boards, I can't drag the epic out of the subtask. Does anybody have a suggestion on how to clear the epic links?

Thank you,

Jason Skidis

Jira 5.0.2

Greenhopper 6.1.6

Structure 2.1.0

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works] · Accepted solution]

Jason, you can try to use the same GreenHopper synchronizer to clear the epic links:

1. Create a temporary structure
2. Add all those subtasks to the structure, as a flat list (use Search button and JQL)
3. Create a GreenHopper synchronizer, select all projects the subtasks belong to, turn off all options except "Epics Field"
4. Don't enable the synchronizer
5. Resync the synchronizer "from Structure to GreenHopper"
6. If successful, delete the structure

This should clear the epic links, as those subtasks are not under any epics on the temporary structure.

Could you please expand why assigning epics to subtasks was a bad thing? We might improve Structure to automatically avoid this problem.

Thanks,
Igor

[Jason Skidis]

Thank you Igor that worked like a charm.

The reason we don't want don't to have epics links on sub-tasks is that it is redundant information that causes extra work to be done.

If a parent-level issue is linked to an Epic then all of it's subtasks are implicitly associated to that Epic (at least in how we are using Greenhopper, re: your milage may vary). However if the Epic link is explicity (and redundantly) tied to the subtasks as well, then shared filters we create to share information with stakeholders has to include "and not a subtask". We have no interest in sharing the "how we make the sausage" with our stakeholders and they have no desire to see it nor would know what to do with it. The only thing it might do is make it harder to see the forest from the trees in our scenario.

If someone internal to one of the teams wants to see those associations (and for whatever reason couldn't get that information from the Scrum Board) we can build a structure that synchronizes epic to parent-level issues and automatically includes sub-tasks. But the need for that is much lower than the need to exclude that level of detail to people external to the teams.

Thanks again

Jason

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works]]

Jason, thanks for the explanation! I filed https://jira.almworks.com/browse/HJ-1295 - we'll improve this in a future verison.