Hybrid Agile - E2E tracebility required

[keerthi_guntupalli]

I am a JIRA BA for a large ERP program where trying to solve the beloe issue to support the program. Currently the team is hybrid agile

The organisation got 4 levels of JIRA hirerachy (Initiative, Epic, Story/Task, Sub-task) where currently all these 4 levels were utilised, now as they get in to build phase they may need atleast 2 more levels deeper below subtask to maintain their end to end tracebility.

here is current strcuture and proposed or structure required

I know JIRA won't any other levels below sub-task, would like get to other alternative suggestions to achieve the similar output. Also, there is lot of reporting that exists today in design phase based on current structure. 

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @keerthi_guntupalli !

It's understandable that your team needs traceability without cluttering Jira with dozens of granular subtasks. However, you are right, Jira doesn't allow you to add custom work types below subtasks, so this can't be done natively.

Here's a workaround I can suggest. While you can’t add "official" Jira issue levels beyond subtasks, you can introduce another structured layer using checklists inside subtasks. In this setup, checklist items act as the lowest execution-level units. 

Your new work item hierarchy would look like this:

 Initiative → Epic → Task/Story → Subtask → Checklist item

Think of checklist items as micro-tasks in your proposed hierarchy.

To add such checklists to your Jira work items, you can use our solution, Smart Checklist for Jira. It allows you to tag responsible people, set due dates, and track progress with custom statuses shown next to each checklist item (e.g., “In progress,” “In Review,” “Blocked”). You can also include rich content, such as links, images, and expandable detail sections for specific steps.

Overall, Smart Checklist offers most of the functionality of a subtask, plus additional useful features, such as creating checklist templates and automation.

Here's an example of such a checklist. In this case, it's added to a task, but it can be added to any other work type, including subtasks.

This gives you more control and structure without requiring changes to Jira’s core hierarchy. While this workaround doesn't give you the required 2 hierarchy levels below subtasks, it provides a decent 1 extra level.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

[keerthi_guntupalli]

Thanks a lot for detailed resoultion. however, all the micro tasks need to be assigned to someone and required to track them in JIRA as invidual items and these need to be available in sprint board for the team to talk through in daily standup. so the option to treatthem as checklist items wouldn't help.