How can I add bugs to a subtask?

[Nancy Stankovich]

I have subtasks that fall under stories, and the subtasks are tested and have bugs, but we can't create a sub work item (bug) for a subtask. Is it possible to somehow set this up?

[Mikael Sandberg]

Short answer is no, subtasks cannot have a subtask. The way you can associate a test to a subtask is to use link work items.

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @Nancy Stankovich !

As it was mentioned in earlier replies, Jira doesn’t support creating work items under subtasks. So, unfortunately, you can’t add a bug directly beneath a subtask, even if you use Jira Plans and set up a custom hierarchy.

But there’s a practical workaround that can be helpful in your case: using checklists inside subtasks. This allows you to add a new hierarchy level below the subtask and manage bugs with checklists.

This can look like this:

 

Here, two bugs are added under two different headers, and each one has its own subset of checklist items. You can include bug description and other information in the expandable "Details" section. Each checklist item has its own status (ToDo, In Progress, etc.). You can also add due dates and tag responsible people - in the headers and individual checklist items, if needed. 

The section with the checklists will be displayed directly inside the subtask, under the work item description.

You can add such feature-rich checklists to your Jira subtasks (and any other work items) with the help of our solution, Smart Checklist for Jira.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any questions

For more details, you can also take a look at my article Jira for Testing: How to Optimize Jira for QA Needs. Maybe you'll find something useful there

[John Funk]

Hi Nancy,

You cannot add sub-tasks to sub-tasks. There is no way to go to that level in Jira. You can create a Bug sub-task work type and have it under a Level 0 work type like Bug or Story, but not under another sub-task. 

[Mykenna Cepek]

This documentation might help clarify how the Jira work item hierarchy is structured:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/issues/overview#what-is-jira-work%20item-hierarchy

[Gor Greyan]

Hi @Nancy Stankovich

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Jira’s native issue types are restricted to a 3-level hierarchy. Sub-tasks are the bottom level, and Jira doesn’t allow creating any children under them, regardless of issue type.

I think you can do this with this solution.

If you want the bug to “live” within the same context as the subtask, go to the parent Story, create a Sub-task type, and set it as Issue Type  Bug. You can also do with automation, when, for example, your sub-task is resolved with exact resolution( If you want, I will help with this)