Finally solved: how to assign a task to multiple assignees in Jira (and track them visually)

[#1]

The "one assignee" rule in Jira is broken.

Atlassian has held the stance that "one assignee equals one owner". It’s a noble idea designed to ensure accountability. If everyone is responsible, no one is responsible, right?

Wrong. In the era of pair programming, collaborative design sprints, and complex QA handoffs, restricting a ticket to a single person doesn't create accountability. It creates a project manager’s overhead.

In this post, we’re going to show you how to bypass this limitation.

The solution: multi-assign in Jira with Planyway

In Planyway we decided to ignore the "one owner" dogma.

Now you can split a single Jira issue across multiple team members. 

And what’s more? We made it visual.

When you assign a task to multiple people in Planyway, the card renders across all their timelines. You can instantly see that Jim and Yana are booked for the same job and when to manage capacity.

Here is how it works:

1. Open the Planyway timeline and group it by User.
2. Drag a Jira issue onto the timeline or simply right-click a card that is already scheduled.
3. Select the additional members you want to assign. 
4. The issue immediately visualizes across every assignee's swimlane. 
5. Drag to reschedule or resize the card to change the duration. 

Why subtasks are a bad workaround

When you search for how to jira-assign to multiple users, people often say: "just use subtasks".

Here is why that fails: subtasks are for scope, not staffing.

Most development teams already use subtasks for their intended purpose: breaking down technical requirements (e.g., "Update Database Schema", "Write API Documentation").

If you start creating extra subtasks just to represent people (e.g., "Dev - Bob", "Dev - Alice"), you are mixing the what with the who.

Wrap up

You aren't crazy for wanting to assign a task to two people. Modern work is collaborative. While native Jira sticks to the "one throat to choke" philosophy, tools like Planyway let you assign to multiple users in a way that actually makes sense for your schedule.

Stop cloning issues. Stop drowning in subtasks. Just share the card.

What’s next?

Right now, we have solved the visual problem: you can finally see who is collaborating on the timeline without duplicating cards. The second step is math.

Our team is currently building the logic to spread the workload across multiple assignees. Soon, you will be able to dictate exactly how those hours are split—whether it’s 50/50, or an 80/20 split.

We are building this based on how you actually work, so if you have a specific way you want this to function, drop a comment below. We are listening.