Epics can have issues and subepics assigned from different Group

Problem to solve

As a User of Epics,

I need to be able to assign an issue or subepic to my epic even if it belongs to a different group,

So that I can properly organize, manage, and communicate how much work is involved with a specific Epic

Intended users

• Rachel (Release Manager)
• Parker (Product Manager)
• Delaney (Development Team Lead)

Further details

Per a discussion with @jstava:

Growth is in a sub-group and I can't add issues in the regular gitlab org to my epics and some of our MRs have to be created in other groups like the gitlab org or the data org groups. I have Epics that have issues in 3 different groups and I can't link items outside of the group my epic is in.

There was also a session with our BIZOps group/@j.carey (thanks @tipyn!), where this need was discussed:

One of our biggest challenges is trying to project manage between two groups and the hierarchy that is enforced between issues in different projects.

Research Questions	Answer
Which aspects of GitLab would you want us to prioritize improving?	cross group relating to epic
What would help you in the short-term?	cross group relating to epic
What would help you in the long-term?	cross group relating to epic

Proposal

• Allow any issue or epic to be the child of an epic in a sibling group or completely different group hierarchy.
• The existing rollup behavior remains the same across all children of an epic.

Permissions and Security

• In order to view the epic or issue from another group/hierarchy, the user must be a minimum of a Guest user in both groups.
• If the user does not have access to that issue/epic the information should be redacted. This will apply to the parent Epic selector in the sidebar, Ancestor view in the sidebar, Roadmap, and Child Epic/Issue Tree.
  • Question - Are there other places that need to be considered?
• When an issue/epic is redacted, there should be a placeholder row in the Ancestor view in the sidebar, Roadmap, and Child Epic/Issue Tree. The epic will not be clickable and the title text should be replaced with "Private". Hover over text should explain the use does not have access to this resource.
  • Question - Is redacting the title necessary?
    • Customer feedback is Yes
  • Question - What should the redaction title be?
    • Customer recommended looking at Slack for their UX
• If an issue/epic has a parent that is redacted, they can change the parent epic to one that they have access to but they cannot change it back to the redacted one.
• If an issue/epic has a child item that is redacted, they can remove the item.

Documentation

Yes

Availability & Testing

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

What is the type of buyer?

Links / references

Slack UX: