In January 2024, Atlassian rolled out a new strategy for issue and Epic use in Jira Cloud. The Epic link and Parent link fields on the issue view screen were replaced by a single Parent field. This strengthened the relationship between Epics and their issues and introduced new ways to search and manage associations.
For example, a user can add or change a parent Epic association in an issue’s breadcrumbs. Simply hover over the breadcrumb area and click the pencil icon as shown.
![](https://www.jirastrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image.png)
The original Epic link field (still used in Server and Data Center) doesn’t support sub-tasks, but the new Parent field does! Simply add the field to your sub-task screens to easily associate child issues with other hierarchy levels.
![](https://www.jirastrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/image-1.png)
Epics can organize work for a single initiative or encompass work for multiple teams, sprints, and releases.
Check out my article on Salto’s website to for a non-tech usage example to help demonstrate the value of Epics in a Jira project.
![](https://www.jirastrategy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/6666c146289b84ba6106bfba_salto.jpg)
Read: How to Create an Epic in Jira
Learn how to create, manage, and utilize Epics effectively.