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Working with Child Requirements

Owned by Marcel Patzschke
Last updated: Jan 14, 2021 by Angelica Salazar



Child requirements concept

Requirements for JIRA let's you define child requirements within a project.
Child requirements are treated just like normal requirements except they're added to another issue instead of a folder.
This allows you to express hierarchical dependencies between requirements within the project tree of a requirements project.

Child requirements are defined project specific.
So a child requirement from one project doesn't necessarily need to be a child requirement in other projects.
In fact it doesn't even need to occur in other requirements projects.

Child requirements can be nested.
Adding a requirement to an existing child requirement is possible and results in a nested child requirement.

Since child requirements are treated like normal requirements:

  • Filters applied to a project also affect child requirements.
  • Child requirements are also contained in baselines that include their parent requirement.
  • They're also included when exporting folder content to XML, Word or Excel.
  • Child requirements matching an advanced search query are contained in the corresponding result set.




On this page:

How to perform essential child requirements tasks

Create/Add a child requirement

Via drag and drop

Create a parent child relation for requirements that are already present within the project tree.

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project you want to add a child requirement in
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. In the project tree click and hold the issue you want to be a child requirement
  3. drag and drop on the issue you want to be the corresponding parent requirement


Via context menu

Create a new JIRA issue and add it as child requirement to the project tree.

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project you want to add a child requirement in
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. In the project tree right click on the parent issue you want to create a child requirement on
  3. Select Create child issue from the context menu

  4. Fill out the form and click Create


Via issue detail view

Add an existing issue that isn't already present within the project tree as child requirement.
Note that the "Child Requirements" section from the issue detail view is only displayed, if the selected issue has at least one child requirement linked already.
  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project you want to add a child requirement in
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. Select the issue from the project tree you want to be the parent requirement
  3. Click on the Add child requirement icon from the Child Requirements section in the issue detail view
    (info) The selected parent issue needs to have at least one child requirement already for the "Child Requirements" section to be visible
  4. Select one or more issues to add as child requirement within the dialog and click Link

View child requirements

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project you want to display child requirements from
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. The child requirements will be displayed
    1. as nested issues below their parents in the project tree
    2. In the Child Requirements section in the issue detail view if a parent is selected in the project tree

Change the position of a child requirement

Via drag and drop

Change the position of a child requirement under it's current parent.
Also allows you to move a child requirement to a completely different parent within the project.

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project that contains the child requirement you want to move
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. In the project tree click and hold the child requirement you want to move
  3. drag and drop on the desired position


Via issue detail view

Change the position of a child requirement only under it's current parent.
Note that the "Child Requirements" section from the issue detail view is only displayed, if the selected issue has at least one child requirement linked already.
  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project that contains the child requirement you want to move
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. Select the parent of the child requirement you want to move in the project tree
  3. Within the Child Requirements section of the issue detail view locate the corresponding table entry for the child requirement you want to move
    1. either drag the entry and drop it on the desired position
    2. or use the Move Down / Move Up icons to change the position of the child requirement one step at a time

Remove an existing child requirement

Via drag and drop

Removes the child requirement relation without removing the corresponding requirement from the project tree.

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project that contains the child requirement you want to move
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. In the project tree click and hold the child requirement you want to remove as child requirement
  3. Drag and drop the requirement on a folder in the project tree
    (info) This removes the child requirement relation and moves the requirement to the folder the it was dropped on


Via context menu

Remove the child requirement relation and remove the corresponding requirement from the project tree.
  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project that contains the child requirement you want to move
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list 
  2. In the project tree right click on the child requirement you want to remove
  3. Select Remove from the context menu
  4. Click Remove to remove the child requirement


Via issue detail view

Remove the child requirement relation and remove the corresponding requirement from the project tree.
Note that the "Child Requirements" section from the issue detail view is only displayed, if the selected issue has at least one child requirement linked already.

  1. Switch to the tree-view of the project that contains the child requirement you want to move
    1. either click on Requirements in the main navigation bar and select a project from Current Project or Recent Projects
    2. or select Requirements > View All Projects from the main navigation bar and select a project from the list
  2. Select the parent of the child requirement you want to remove in the project tree
  3. Within the Child Requirements section of the issue detail view locate the corresponding table entry for the child requirement you want to remove
  4. Click on the Remove icon
  5. Click Unlink to remove the child requirement

User interface reference

This reference contains the following information:

  • Which parts and concepts of the Requirements for JIRA user interface effect child requirements?
  • How to reach those parts?
  • Which tasks can be performed from each of those parts?

Project tree

Switch to the tree-view of a project as described in the section above.
The project tree is located on the left side of the tree view.

Possible tasks:

  • Display child requirements:
    Similar to requirements and folders child requirements are displayed indented below their parent requirement.
  • Drag and drop
    • Drag and drop a child requirement on a new position under it's current parent:
      Changes the position of a child requirement.
    • Drag and drop a (child) requirement on another requirement:
      Links the selected requirement as child requirement to the requirement it was dropped on.
      If the selected requirement was already a child requirement the previous relationship will be removed.
    • Drag and drop a (child) requirement on another child requirement:
      Links the selected requirement as nested child requirement to the child requirement it was dropped on.
      If the selected requirement was already a child requirement the previous relationship will be removed.
    • Drag and drop a child requirement on a folder
      Removes the child requirement relation and moves the selected requirement to the folder it was dropped on.

Child requirement context menu

Switch to the tree-view of a project and right click on a requirement from the project tree to display its context menu.

Possible tasks:

  • Create child issue:
    Creates a new JIRA issue and links it as child requirement to the selected requirement.
    The new requirement is inserted in the project tree at the last possible position.
  • Edit Issue:
    Edit the fields of the selected requirement.
  • Add Link:
    Add a link from the selected requirement to another requirement.
  • Get URL:
    Get the URL to the selected requirement in the tree.
  • Remove:
    Deletes the child requirement relation between the selected child requirement and its parent requirement.
    Removes the selected child requirement from the project tree.
    The JIRA issue won't be deleted and can be added to the tree as requirement again later.

Issue detail view

Switch to the tree-view of a project and select a requirement from the project tree.
Note that the "Child Requirements" section from the issue detail view is only displayed, if the selected issue has at least one child requirement linked already.

Possible tasks:

  • Display child requirements:
    The "Child Requirements" section of the issue detail view lists all child requirements linked to the selected requirement.
  • Add child requirement:
    Links one or more existing JIRA issues as child requirement to the selected requirement and adds them to the project tree.
    The new requirements will be inserted last. They will also be displayed in the "Child Requirements" section of the selected requirement.
    Note that only issues can be linked as child requirements that aren't already part of the tree.
  • Move up / Move down:
    Change the position of a child requirement of the selected parent requirement.
  • Delete:
    Deletes the relation between a child requirement and the selected parent requirement.
    Removes the child requirement from the project tree.
    The JIRA issue won't be deleted and can be added to the tree as requirement again later.