Purpose and benefits of tab #10 Links in a PI Session
The strings [links] that are drawn between Work Item type Sticky Notes can be automatically synchronized as Issue-Links (and now the new Parent field) in Jira. To illustrate the benefit of this, consider a team is planning the child User Stories for a parent Epic, and they link the User Stories to the parent Epic in piplanning.io. Those relationships will automatically be synchronzied in Jira too, eliminating any manual work.
This configuration is completed on tab #10 Links in the PI Session configuration. .
The strings you drag to connect Sticky Notes together in a PI Session can be synchronized back to Jira as the corresponding Issue-Link or Epic-Link (and now the new Parent field).
The strings between the Sticky Notes can be synchronized with Jira Issue-Links/Parent.
In Jira the mapped Issue-Link/Parent field are updated automatically.
Configuring the Sticky Note to Jira Issue-Link Mapping on #10 Links
We have made it easy to configure the types of Issue and Epic-Links in the PI Session. Navigate to tab #10 Links in the SAFe PIs -> <PI Session Name> -> #10 Links.
Tab #10 Links: From Sticky Type > Link Type > To Sticky Type configuration
You will need to configure the following three properties for each Link (aka the string that links Sticky Notes) that you want to be automatically bi-directionally synchronized with Jira:
From Sticky Note: Select either the Sticky Note (Type =
Work Item) that is higher in the Jira Issue type hierarchy, for example, a parentFeature(Jira Issue)/Epic(Jira Epic) Sticky Note. or the predecessor Work Item / Sticky Note if linking Jira Issues that are the same level in the hierarchy (commonly what is called sibling Work Items)Link Type: Select from a list of the
Issue-LinksorEpic-Linksthat are defined and available in the Jira Projects that are synchronized via the mapping in the ALM ConnectionTo Sticky Note: Select the Sticky Note (Type =
Work Item) that would be lower in the Jira Issue type hierarchy for example a childUser StorySticky Note/Work Item.
Note: In the From Sticky Type and To Sticky Type dropdown fields you will select a Sticky Note (type = Work Item) that has already been defined on either the Team Board or the ART Backlog Board.
Practical Examples
Example A: Synchronizing the Jira Epic-Links between a parent Feature Sticky Note and a child User Story Sticky Note. Note: In Jira this is now represented as the new Jira Parent field/Parent-Link:
In the From sticky type dropdown field select the Sticky Note that is configured on the #5 ART Backlog Board to map to the
ParentJira Epic.In the Link type dropdown field select the
links epic tovalueIn the To sticky type dropdown field select the Sticky Note that is configured to map to the
ChildJira Issue-Type (User Story) on the #3 Team Board.
<Screenshot>
Example B: Synchronizing a Jira Issue-Link relates to between two Sticky Notes that represent User Stories (Jira Issue):
In the From sticky type dropdown field select the Sticky Note that represents a User Story configured on the #3 Team Board.
In the Link type dropdown field find and select the
relates tovalueIn the To sticky type dropdown field select the same Sticky Note that will represent the
relates tosibling User Story Sticky Note.
<Screenshot>
Mapping the new Jira Parent Link
Details about the new Parent field on Jira Issues was posted in this article - Introducing the new Parent field in company-managed projects - on the Atlassian Community site, January 17, 2024.
piplanning.io supports the new Parent field mapping with the following requirements:
Applies to Jira Software Cloud only
Works only for company-managed projects and issue-types
The From Sticky Type e.g.
Epic, must be of a higher hierarchical level than the To Sticky Type e.g.StorySelect the Link Type
is parent of
Link configuration for synchronizing with new Jira Parent field
Unsure what your Jira Issue Type hierarchy levels are?
You can view the hierarchyLevel of each issue-type by making a request against the API https://<tenant>.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issuetype/.
Note: To configure the Issue Type Hierarchy in your Jira Software Cloud instance you can follow this Jira Software documentation Configure the issue type hierarchy.
Guiding constraints for configuring #10 Links with Jira
Only Jira Issue-Links and Epic-Links are supported. Note: Epic-Link is being mapped to the new Parent field and new Parent-Link type.
When creating new issues in Jira, the Epic link and Parent link fields will be replaced by a single Parent field (see above).
Only a single (1x) Link Type can be configured between two Sticky Notes/Types.
Troubleshooting Tips on #10 Links
ISSUE: When you observe a warning or error message on tab #10 Links, that reads:
From sticky type "Feature" mapped to "Feature" on jira project <name> must have the field type "issueLinks".
<Add a Screenshot of example Errors/Warning>
RESOLUTION: These error or warning messages are proactively alerting you to the fact that the Issue Links you are configuring are not available on all the Jira Projects that are mapped in the ALM Connections > Team or ART Mapping. The setup of the Jira Projects is non-standard.
Please, contact your Jira Administrator and ask them to configure the standard Issue-Links across the Jira Projects being sync'd with piplanning.io or contact us and we can also help provide more context to enable you to resolve this issue.