Simplify Jira dependency management and bulk editing of issue link relationships with Mindmaps for Jira
Manage Jira issue links of any issue link type. You can select which link type to explore, and Mindmaps for Jira will generate a full issue link dependency graph. Build up a new hierarchy or change your Jira related issues with simple drag-n-drop. Perfect for traceability across all issue types and hierarchy levels in your project.
Mind maps are a great way to visualize and communicate your ideas. A key benefit of mind maps is that they allow you to break down complex projects and large concepts into smaller, more manageable pieces. Whether you are organizing user stories, tracking work items, or mapping out project planning for your team, a visual hierarchy of the issue links and their dependencies provides the clarity every project manager and team member needs.
Add colors and symbols (Emojis) to enhance your messaging. Export or print for presentation and sharing, or continue working in Jira to take off with your plan! Free for up to 10 users.
Create your own Jira mind map, or collaborate with your team to brainstorm the full plan in a Jira project with shared user access. Every team member can link work items and create links between Jira issues in real time, making collaboration seamless.
Creating a Jira mindmap becomes easy. To create a new task, just press on the node with + to create a new linked issue. Mindmaps for Jira supports efficient multi-creation of tasks, so after you have input the description of your new tasks, just press Enter and you can directly continue writing to key in the description of your next task, and so on. This allows you to efficiently create a larger mind map quickly.
Jira dependency management and linking of issues made easy
Mindmaps for Jira provides a useful way to quickly link issues in Jira, not just linking one issue with another, but even to quickly link multiple issues together, or even to create new issues linking to the parent issues. Whether you need to create links between user stories, tasks, or any other issue type, the visual mind map interface makes it intuitive - and it runs entirely inside your Jira cloud project, with no data ever leaving Atlassian.
This is achieved by the visual Jira issue link structure, that allows you to see the whole Jira dependency graph directly in the tool. You start by selecting the link type that you would like to visualise in the interface - for example the blocks link type if you want to trace every blocked link in the Jira project, or the relates to link type if you want a broader map. The dependency graph will now load across all hierarchy levels, and if you would like to see further levels in the dependency graph you can click to expand specific nodes you would like to expand. Each Jira issue is displayed with its issue key and issue type for easy identification, so you can see at a glance where each work item sits in the link hierarchy.
Creating a new linked issue is easy - you press the + Action. Key in the description for the new node, and the Jira issue will automatically be created when you press Enter. You can easily create multiple new linked issues, by just keying in the descriptions for the issues separated by the Enter key. This allows you to quickly create a complete structure of linked issues without ever leaving the issue view of the mind map.
Mindmaps for Jira also excels in changing linkages between Jira issues. In fact, you can even perform bulk edits to the linkages between nodes, by selecting multiple child nodes in a single operation. Select issues you want to change, then drag and drop them onto the node that you would like to be the new parent issue. This allows you to link work items and change the linkages of multiple existing issues in mere seconds - a dramatic improvement over editing one blocked link at a time in the native Jira issue view.
Deleting a link between issues is just as easy. Select the child node that you would like to no longer be connected, and drag and drop it to the + Create node in the root level of the project. This will drop the existing link that existed between this node and its parent, without affecting the underlying work item itself.
The best part? The linked issues are now correctly linked also in other views and parts of Jira, not just in the Mindmaps for Jira interface itself. All the changes you make through Mindmaps for Jira are reflected in the overall system in real time, including the standard issue view, search results, and any advanced roadmaps plan that reads from the same link hierarchy.
Mindmaps for Jira gives you optimal productivity when you want to manage linked issues in Jira, be it creating new linkages, analysing dependencies of tasks in the project, or moving/removing dependent tasks. This is because the visual dependency graph provides you with a completely different interface that allows you to visualise and use simple mouse operations to change the structure of your linked issues. Every project manager and team member benefits from being able to see and modify the full picture at once.
Manage Jira issue links across all link types
You can select which link type to explore, and Mindmaps for Jira will generate a full issue link dependency map. Use it to analyse relationships between issues of various link types or for traceability. Mindmaps for Jira works with every link type available in your Jira cloud project - the default Jira types such as the blocks link type, "is blocked by", "relates to", "clones" and "duplicates", as well as any custom link types that your organization has configured.
Visualising the blocks link type in particular turns a flat list of Jira issues into a full dependency graph: every blocked link is shown as an edge between work items, so you can see exactly which tasks are blocking your release and restructure them without leaving the map. For teams already using advanced roadmaps or plans for project planning, Mindmaps for Jira complements that workflow by making the underlying link hierarchy directly editable, rather than read-only.
Print or PDF export your dependency maps
Use the print view dialog to print or export your Jira issue link map to PDF or other formats supported by your native system print service.
How to manage issue links in Jira: Comparing the approaches in 2026
Managing linked issues and dependencies in Jira is central to effective project planning. Whether you are a project manager overseeing projects roadmaps, a team member breaking down user stories, or working with portfolio advanced roadmaps, you need a reliable way to create links between work items and maintain traceability across hierarchy levels. Here is how the different approaches to configure issue linking in Jira compare.
1. Native Jira issue detail view
The built-in approach to link work items in Jira is through the native issue view. You open a Jira issue, scroll to the Links panel, click "+ Add", choose the link type (for example the blocks link type, "is blocked by", or "relates to"), then search by issue key to attach the target work item. This works for small-scale linking, but becomes tedious when you need to create links between many issues or reorganize linked issues across the project. There is no visual overview of the full dependency structure, so it is difficult to break down complex projects or understand relationships at a glance. Each link must be created or removed one at a time through the issue view.
2. Jira bulk operations
Jira provides bulk change operations that allow you to select issues from a search result and apply changes in one pass. While you can use bulk change to modify issue type or standard fields across many existing issues, Jira does not natively support bulk creation, bulk editing, or bulk deleting of issue links through this interface. This means that even with bulk operations, a project manager still needs to configure issue linking one relationship at a time for each Jira issue. There is no way to visually see or restructure the link hierarchy in bulk.
3. Jira automation rules
Jira automation lets you set up rules that automatically create links when certain conditions are met - for example, linking a newly created sub-task to a parent epic. This is useful for repetitive linking patterns, but it requires upfront configuration and does not help when you need to interactively explore, reorganize, or break down complex dependency structures on the fly. Tools like advanced roadmaps visualise the resulting dependency graph but keep link editing read-only inside the roadmap, so you still return to the issue view to make changes. Automation is better suited as a complement to other approaches rather than a standalone solution for managing Jira issue links.
4. Mindmaps for Jira - Visual mind maps for speed and productivity
Mindmaps for Jira is purpose-built for fast, visual management of linked issues. It generates a complete mind map of your dependency graph across all link types and hierarchy levels, giving every project manager and team member an instant visual overview.
What sets mind maps apart is speed and productivity. You can select issue nodes, drag and drop to restructure dependencies, create links between work items, and bulk-link multiple Jira issues - all through intuitive mouse operations in real time. Creating new user stories or tasks is as simple as pressing + and typing, with the linked issue automatically created under the correct parent. There is no need to navigate between individual issue views or look up each issue key manually.
Mind maps also make it easy to break down complex projects visually. You see the full hierarchy of linked issues at once, identify gaps, and restructure relationships with drag-and-drop. This visual approach complements portfolio advanced roadmaps and projects roadmaps by providing a hands-on way to manage the underlying issue link structure.
Compared to configuring issue linking through the native Jira interface, automation rules, or bulk operations, Mindmaps for Jira delivers a significantly faster workflow. Operations that would take minutes per Jira issue in the standard interface - such as reorganizing linked issues across hierarchy levels or creating a full structure of new work items - can be completed in seconds with the visual mind map approach.
How long does it take to edit links in Jira? Comparing time and engineering cost at scale
Most teams underestimate the cumulative cost of manually managing issue links in Jira cloud, because each individual link feels like it only takes "a minute". On a program with hundreds of work items across many hierarchy levels, those minutes add up fast. Below we walk through the different ways you can create a new linked issue, edit existing links, and bulk-manage dependencies in Jira - and compare the time and engineering cost to doing the same work in Mindmaps for Jira.
Creating a single link in the native Jira issue view
The standard path to create a link is: open the Jira work item, scroll to the Linked work items section, click "Add linked work item", choose the link type (for example the blocks link type, "is blocked by", or "relates to"), search by issue key for the target Jira issue, and confirm. For an experienced user who already knows the target issue key, this typically takes around 25 seconds per link. If they need to look up the issue key in another tab or search the backlog first, it easily stretches past 40 seconds. Deleting a link follows a similar pattern: open the issue, find the Links panel, locate the right row, and remove it.
Creating multiple links in Jira - the options
Option A - Native issue view, one at a time. Repeat the flow above for every link. There is no native multi-select that lets you pick multiple work items and attach them to a parent issue in a single action, so the time scales linearly with the number of links.
Option B - Jira bulk change. From a search result you can select issues and apply bulk changes for transitions, assignees, issue type changes, and other field edits - but bulk change does not expose issue-link creation or deletion. In practice, bulk operations are not a shortcut for link management.
Option C - Jira automation rules. Automation can create links automatically when a rule triggers, which is valuable for repeatable patterns (for example, auto-linking sub-tasks to their parent epic). The upfront cost is real though: writing, testing, and maintaining a rule typically takes 20-30 minutes, and automation is a poor fit for the ad-hoc restructuring that happens during planning sessions.
Option D - Advanced Roadmaps / Plans. Advanced roadmaps shows dependencies visually and is excellent for high-level project planning, but link editing still happens one link at a time through the dependency side panel, which re-opens the same underlying issue view flow.
Creating and editing links in Mindmaps for Jira
Mindmaps for Jira flips the workflow. To re-parent existing issues, you select the issue nodes you want to move (click, or click-drag to multi-select), then drag-and-drop them onto the new parent node. One gesture re-links every selected work item under the chosen link type. Per-link time in a bulk drag is roughly 3 seconds. Creating a new linked issue is just as fast: press +, type the summary, press Enter - about 4 seconds per issue, and you can chain a series of Enters to create a whole branch of linked issues without touching the mouse.
Editing 100 links: a side-by-side analysis
Here is how the four approaches compare for a typical 100-link restructuring task - for example, re-parenting 100 stories under new epics, or laying out a new blocks-link dependency graph for a release.
| Approach | Time per link (est.) | Total time for 100 links |
|---|---|---|
| Native Jira issue view | ~25 seconds | ~42 minutes |
| Jira bulk change | Not supported for links | - |
| Jira automation rules | ~20-30 min setup per rule | Variable - poor fit for ad-hoc work |
| Mindmaps for Jira (drag-drop) | ~3 seconds | ~5 minutes |
The difference between the fastest native Jira approach and Mindmaps for Jira on a 100-link batch is around 37 minutes saved, which is roughly an 88% reduction in time-on-task.
What does that mean in engineering cost?
If we value engineering time at a fully-loaded rate of $100 per hour (approximately $1.67 per minute) - a reasonable estimate in most Western tech markets - the saved minutes turn into real money:
- One 100-link restructure: roughly $62 saved per session (42 minutes down to 5 minutes).
- A team of 10 doing this weekly: ~620 minutes saved per week, or around $31,700 saved per year in engineering hours alone.
- A 500-issue program restructure (one-off exercise): ~3.5 hours in the native Jira issue view versus ~25 minutes in Mindmaps for Jira - around $300 saved on a single exercise, with a visual dependency map produced as a byproduct.
These estimates only count direct time-on-task. They exclude the less visible cost of context switching between the Jira issue view and the backlog to look up each issue key, the cost of mis-linked issues introduced by manual errors due to the inability to overview the whole map, and the time project managers spend reconciling a link hierarchy they cannot visualise. Factor those in and the effective saving is considerably larger.
The wider point is that Mindmaps for Jira is not just faster - it is the only one of these approaches that gives every project manager and team member a live, editable view of the full Jira dependency graph while they work. Speed and visibility compound: you edit faster because you can see the whole structure, and you make fewer errors because the structure is visible as you edit.
Product details
Mindmaps for Jira is an add-on application that extends the capabilities of your Atlassian Jira. It can be installed directly through the Atlassian Marketplace listing for Mindmaps for Jira.
Jira features
- Display a hierarchy map of issue links in Jira and the relationships of Jira related issues across all hierarchy levels
- Quick selection of issue link type to drill down on dependencies of related issues and their links - works with all link types
- Jira bulk link issues - link work items and create links between multiple Jira issues simultaneously
- Create new issues - with the ability to create multiple new issues easily in sequence
- Edit existing issues directly by issue key
- Move issues - select issue nodes and drag to reassign parent relationships
- Enhance issues with colors and symbols/emojis
- Read and list issues according to link hierarchy (support for unlimited hierarchy levels)
- Remove issues (recursively according to link hierarchy)
- Dark theme support
Tree hierarchy features
- Fast 2D tree engine enabling your Jira link hierarchy to be rendered in a horizontal mind map layout
- Automatic loading of child tasks when you expand nodes
- Scrolling/Zooming - support using mouse, keyboard, touchpad and/or touch
Security
Qualified "Runs on Atlassian" meeting Atlassian's most stringent security and data privacy requirements. Mindmaps for Jira has been developed following industry best-practices on cloud security. As Mindmaps for Jira is built with the Atlassian Forge platform, it also means that it is hosted directly by Atlassian and operates within the security context of your existing Jira cloud instance and related Atlassian services.
Data privacy
Qualified "Runs on Atlassian" meeting Atlassian's most stringent security and data privacy requirements. Under no instances or circumstances, is any data stored by Mindmaps for Jira (be it corporate, project or personal data) outside of the Jira cloud instance or your browser. Mindmaps for Jira works by directly operating from within your Atlassian authenticated browser session communicating directly with Jira.
Performance
Mindmaps for Jira comes with high performing and robust tree rendering compatible with all common and modern browsers on the market today. Under the hood you find Emergence Software's proprietary tree engine technology - it has been built especially with fast rendering speed, large tree sizes, and an intuitive and seamless user experience in mind. Changes to linked issues are reflected in real time, so every team member always sees the latest state of the dependency graph.
Notes
Color support - Company-managed projects have native support for issue colors. Team-managed projects do not support this feature.
Browser support
- Chrome
- Edge
- Firefox
- Safari
Quick guide
The Quick Guide contains a more comprehensive description of the features and functionality of Mindmaps for Jira.