Any ideas on how to organize parent/sub-task commenting

Question

I'm beginning to wonder if sub-tasks are particularly useful, at least for my case. I have an issue, "New Client Onboarding" that can create a variety of sub-tasks and linked issues depending on which options are chosen. That's working great, as long as there are no problems. But when I start looking at communication between the customer and our service desk, I start to see some problems.

I've done some experiments and it's become apparent to me that comments on sub-tasks  and linked issues do not go to the reporter, which makes sense since the customer has no idea that the sub-tasks/linked issues exist. But it also makes it difficult for all the people doing the work to communicate with the reporter if an issue comes up. For example, if the client forgets to add some instruction or a user's email address or puts in the wrong information. As an ok workaround, I think I can figure out how to write a rule that copies all the sub-task comments to the parent issue and one that copies the parent issue's comments to the sub-tasks, but it has the potential to be messy, confusing and share a lot of information that may be unnecessary to some. Kind of like trying to ask one person a question across room full of people. Sure some synergy might happen and get you a better answer, but more often than not it's just going to create a lot of noise and confustion.

Does anyone out there have a better way to allow sub-tasks to communicate with a reporter? Maybe something that would allow for a more one-to-one experience? Or maybe an idea that would at least help group comments together in some way so that it's less a stream of information?

brbojorque · Answer

Hi @Kimi Nakashima ,

So the problem is the task was started even if all the necessary information is not yet gathered.

There are a lot of ways to do fix it:

* Convert the request to a Parent issue so they can follow the process you've added.
* Put the status on hold and @ mention the assignee of the parent issue about the lacking requirements (Manual)
* Stage the process by only creating subtask if a specific requirement has been met. (ScriptRunner)* Transition -> Requirement Complete
* Post function -> Auto-create subtask to register the account

* Every comment in the subtask will also comment on the parent issue (ScriptRunner)

At the end of the day, it is all about the process and you should brief your team on how it works properly.

What you have right now is good, if the ProServ team wants to create 1 request then they should follow the whole process instead of doing a shortcut.

Kimi Nakashima · Answer

@brbojorque Well, to be honest, the whole reason why I'm creating this issue and it's sub-tasks is because currently our ProServ team has to create 3 separate requests when we get a new client. It's not particularly efficient and it's a pain point for our ProServ staff. I set up a parent issue that captures and distributes all the information that was captured in the 3 separate issues that they have to create now so that they only have to put in the 1 request. And for the most part, I don't anticipate that there would be much communication on these requests between our customer (the ProServ team) and the IT team, as there really isn't much communication going on in the current process. However, occasionally there are cases when a ProServ member will put in a request before they have all the information so that the time consuming work can be started while they gather the rest of the information. I'm just trying to cover all my bases and  anticipate any similar future situations.

brbojorque · Answer

Here's my two cents,

The purpose of having a subtask is to facilitate the internal task that normally the customer does not need to be aware of.

For example User onboarding, the user don't need to know if someone from the engineering team is currently creating the account for the user. What the customer is really after is if the account is already created.

It helps if in the create screen all the necessary information is captured.

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What you can do is to automate the response from the parent link every time a specific sub task is transitioned, it may be when it is Completed it will say "The account creation is completed, please check your email."

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Ultimately you have to define which particular action a sub task should do and plan the responses

* Automate the responses from Parent to Sub task vice versa.
* Minimize the manual comment unless absolutely necessary
* Make sure to capture all the necessary information from the start to avoid the use of manual communication.