Hierarchy Synchronization

The TFS4JIRA Synchronizer allows you to synchronize and maintain project hierarchy level between Jira and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS).

Hierarchy in Jira consists of three different types of links between issues: Epic Links, Regular Links, and Sub-tasks. The default hierarchy contains:

• Epics - Where the higher level priorities are settled. They're broken down into large pieces of work, which consist of multiple stories.
• Stories/Tasks - User stories capture functionality requirements.
• Sub-tasks - Work components that make up stories.

Hierarchy in TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS), on the other hand, consists of Parent/Child links between work items to support a hierarchical tree structure. The default hierarchy contains:

• Epics/Features
• User Stories
• Tasks/Bugs

In a nutshell, to start synchronizing project hierarchy level between TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) and Jira, you need to configure:

• Hierarchy mapping
• Sub-tasks mapping

Hierarchy mapping

The Hierarchy Mapping section is located inside the "Field Mappings" tab. While sub-tasks are part of a project's hierarchy level, we treat it as a separate configuration to allow users choose whether they want to synchronize sub-tasks only or the whole project structure.

In order to enable Hierarchy Synchronization:

1. Go to Profile > Field Mappings > Hierarchy Mapping and check the Enable Hierarchy synchronization box.
2. From the drop-down menu select what type of Jira issue link you want to map to the TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) work item Parent / Child link.
   1. Please note that Jira link type chosen in the previous step and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) Parent / Child link will no longer be available under Links Mapping once Hierarchy Mapping is enabled.

3. Check the For Jira Epics use Epic Link field instead of Parent / Child box if you want to map Epic Links.

   In order to map Epics correctly, you should:

   1. Map Jira Epic issue type to a TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) work item type.
   2. Map Epic Name to a TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) field. It's possible to map two different fields into one now. So you can, for example, map both Jira's Epic Name and Summary fields to TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) Title.