How to 'flatten' a work item hierarchy for trend reports?
Our users make extensive use of the work item hierarchy capability in EWM, with a dynamic level of layers in the hierarchy. They could have Epic-> Story, Epic->Epic->Story, etc.
These users also want to create a custom burndown or burnup report with a sum of story points that are under a high level Epic, and we've made extensive use of the 'Custom Trends for Work Items' Report Builder options to build these reports. However, the reports end up very complex and error prone, due to these dynamic layers of hierarchy.
Is there a recommendation either in reporting or on the work items themselves to help 'flatten' the hierarchy to make reporting easier? Ideally users could continue to take advantage of the flexible nature of work item linking, but still be able to sum up data and track trends at the same time.