How to create subtasks under subtasks in Kanban Board view in Cloud version?

[derek chan]

We want to break down a subtask into three smaller subtasks, the then break down those three new subtasks into much smaller subtasks. Is it possible to do that in Jira?

Thank you

Concept diagram:

Subtask A

--> A.1.

--> A.2

--> A.3

----------> A.3.1

----------> A.3.2

----------> A.3.3

[carlos_marin · Accepted solution]

Hi @derek chan 

Jira only has 3 levels (Epic -> Stoy/Task -> sub-task).

Review these threads, some people propose plugins to do what you want:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/In-a-business-project-wanting-more-than-2-levels-of-task/qaq-p/1769339

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/How-do-you-create-two-levels-under-Story/qaq-p/1465474

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Want-to-create-a-multi-level-hierarchy/qaq-p/217234

Best regards,

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @derek chan -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

What problem are you trying to solve to break down the sub-tasks further?

Sub-tasks are often the pieces of work needed to deliver a user story, and if you break them down too far they may no longer map well to your Kanban steps/workflow and lead to a lot of overhead to manage them.  For example, a sub-sub-task may only be relevant for one step on your board, making it difficult to determine overall work progress.

Best regards,
Bill

[Ryan Scougall]

Firstly, without knowing more, I'd struggle to be able to give you relevant advice to your specific use case. 

However, I'd suggest instead of continuing to get more granular with your sub-tasks, that you break you research project out into smaller chunks, but at a higher level. 

For instance in stead of:

- Research what the best fridge on the market is: then having loads of subtasks to solve that problem

- Research the best fridge at Epic level (AC: Freezer stores food below -18C; stores at least 10L of fruit/veg; ice dispenser; etc.)

- Task: Shortlist top 10 fridges

- sub-task 1: Specific action to help shortlist

-sub-task 2: Specific action to help shortlist

Continue adding sub-tasks organically as your team discovered new ways of shortlisting. At the end of that activity, you've produced a short list. That's useful for researching fridges.

- Task: Narrow to best fridge

- sub-task 1: narrowing action 1

- sub-task 2: narrowing action 2

At the end you have the best fridge.

Obviously this is just a simple example of how you could undertake a research project. The point being, is that when you get to the sub-task level, you're really performing a specific step, that doesn't make much sense to break down further. Do you have a sub-task to "change the tire", or do you have sub-sub tasks to: jack car up, retrieve wheel nut remover; remove wheel nuts; remove old tire from car - etc. It's much better to just have all of that as work instructions inside the original "remove the tire" sub-tasks. 

Hopefully that helps.