Work items Structure

You can display the work item tree outside the report in several ways.

The contents of the Work items Structure tab can be shown on a dashboard using gadgets, as described in a separate article.

On Jira Cloud, you can also display the Work item structure within the Work Item view using widgets, as explained in a related article.

Rollup fields—such as ∑ Original Estimate, ∑ Time Spent, and ∑ Remaining Estimate—which are available in Jira’s Issue Navigator, can also be displayed as columns within this tab type.

Fields that support rollup behavior are marked with the sigma (∑) symbol in the Columns dropdown. The Work items Structure tab supports additional rollup fields as columns, including:

• Number or time based fields (such as Story Points, number of work items, time spent, or time remaining)

• Progress indicators (such as Spent vs Estimated or Completion Rate)

• Relative time-based measures (such as Underspent or Overspent)

These rollup columns can be sorted, as described in the FAQ below.

Progress indicators, listed in a separate article, can be displayed as columns within the tab.

For example, Completion Rate can appear as a column. It is shown as a stacked bar that compares the number of Done work items with the total number of work items.

Displaying progress indicators as columns provides several advantages over Jira’s default views:

1. Jira’s Child work items section shows a completion rate based only on status and only for direct child items. It does not include sub-tasks. In comparison, in this tab you can display the completion rate for the work item as well as the entire tree.

2. Jira’s Issue Navigator is limited to the Progress and ∑ Progress columns, which are based on time spent, remaining time, and original estimates. These same indicators can also be displayed as columns in this tab, alongside other progress indicators.

Linked work items, which appear in Jira’s Issue Navigator as shown in the screenshot above, can also be displayed within the Work items Structure tab.

This tab provides several advantages over Jira’s Issue Navigator:

1. Linked work items appear alongside their icons, making it easy to see, for example, if an Epic is blocked by another Epic or by an Initiative that groups multiple Epics.

2. A separate column can be displayed for each relationship link type (Blocks, Is Blocked By, Relates To, etc.), allowing you to filter and identify relationships that may act as bottlenecks in your spaces.

You can sort rollup column sub-totals, such as ∑ Time Spent, by following these steps.

1. Click the rollup column header. On the first click, the column values are sorted in ascending order, indicated by an upward arrow (↑). Click the header again to sort the values in descending order, indicated by a downward arrow (↓).

2. Alternatively, after clicking the rollup column header once, click Sorting.

3. Then select the field name and choose whether to sort it in ascending or descending order.

You can sort rows using any field by following these steps, even if the field is not used in a Column.

1. Click Sorting to open the report sidebar.

2. Click Add field, open the dropdown menu, and select the field you want to sort by, such as Work item Type. The field is added to the bottom of the sorting queue, and it is sorted in ascending order, indicated by an upward arrow (↑). You can use up to three fields at a time.

3. To change the sorting priority, drag a field using the grid icon (the dotted handle on the left side of the field card) to reposition it in the sorting queue. In the example shown, rows are sorted first by ∑ Time Spent, then by ∑ Work Ratio, and finally by Work item Type. To sort by Work item Type first, drag it above ∑ Time Spent. Finally, click on the field name and choose whether to sort it in ascending or descending order. In the provided example, Work item Type is ranked in descended order, indicated by a downward arrow (↓).

4. Alternatively, to remove a field from the sorting queue, click the bin icon on the field card. For example, you can remove ∑ Work Ratio and ∑ Time Spent to sort only by Work item Type.

5. Also, to clear all sorting rules at once, click Reset custom sorting, then click Add field to select Work item Type again.

You can create a custom hierarchy by following the steps described in a related article.

A custom hierarchy lets you change how work items are grouped in a report’s Work items Structure tab, independently of the Jira hierarchy.

If you want to edit this tab, refer to a separate article.

Column sub-totals appear at the top of the column, rather than at the bottom, as shown in the screenshot above.

1. The rollup column total for ∑ Time Spent across all work items in the space appears in the first row. In this example, rows are grouped by space.

2. A sub-total for ∑ Time Spent appears for each parent work item within the same group. In this example, sub-tasks are grouped under a story, and the story row displays the combined time spent for its sub-tasks.

3. The time spent for each individual sub-task appears in its corresponding row.

If you want to display the cumulative total for a rollup Column, such as ∑ Time spent, you will need to use either a progress indicator or a custom slice.

No. Sorting does not affect the Jira work item hierarchy.

Sorting rules are applied separately at each level of the hierarchy. As a result, work items that share the same parent are sorted only among themselves, while the overall tree structure remains unchanged.

Yes. You can change the order in which columns appear by following these steps.

1. Select any part of the column header. In the example shown, ∑ Time Spent is the column being moved.

2. Drag the column to the desired position until a rectangle appears over the target column. In the example, ∑ Time Spent is moved to replace Fix Version.

If the Work items Structure tab is missing, as shown in the screenshot above, it may have been removed from the report.