Based on the associated story, can I add color to a subtask ticket (kanban board)?

[Yarden N]

We would like to manage our subtasks more easily based on the associated story. Based on the associated story, can I add color to a subtask ticket (kanban board)?

We wish to have functionality/logic like stories have epic colors and titles.

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Yarden N,

No, not really. If it were technically possible, you would still have to somehow define what colour you would want to associate with each story. As you keep adding new stories time and time again, that would mean a lot of maintenance. The functionality that exists for epics (with the epic name being displayed in a coloured lozenge) is only available there.

If you would want to color your issues based on some kind of common characteristic of your stories, there may be a potential workaround. By setting up a custom field that defines this characteristic (e.g. to make it simple: story colour), you can configure card colours in your Jira board based on JQL filters:

You'd have to make sure you specify the desired card colour and link it to the corresponding criteria (such as: "Story colour" = Red, ...). And make sure that you copy the values of the stories over to the sub-task of each story.

As that may be a lot of hassle just to colour your cards, you may also consider using swimlanes on your board by stories (from Board Settings > Swimlanes):

This would group all sub-tasks on your board under the corresponding story and, as such, also create a visual aid in organising your work.

Hope this helps!