Can't sort subtasks; parent issues with different owners

Question

Hi, I just started using the Kanban Boards feature with my teams, and I'm running into this issue: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-10481. I can't change the rank of any subtask items (even though none of the other tasks - parents or fellow subtasks - are on the same board). It seems like the suggested workaround is to use the parent tasks for ranking, but my parent tasks often have different assignees, and per organizational rules, I can't change that. This makes it difficult when I'm looking at a board for one specific developer.

For example:

CDV-7596 is a parent issue assigned to developer A

CDV-7640 is a subtask assigned to developer A

CDV-7639, the parent issue of CDV-7640, is assigned to developer B

I need to be able to look at the board I created for dev A and rank CDV-7640 above CDV-7596, but the position is locked. I can add the parent issue CDV-7639 to the board, assign it to dev A, and track that one instead of 7640, but - aside from that not being a great workaround for us - what about the case where multiple subtasks are being worked by multiple different people? If I can only rank the parent issue, I can only track it on one person's board at a time.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

That's one of the best, yes.

Sticking with the analogy, the person working through Box C finds a really shiny thing and the others agree it's far more important than Box B or anything in there.  They'll need to discuss whether its best to put it in the list between A and B (convert it to a story-level issue) or move it into Box A (change parent issue).

Amy Vandergon · Answer

That makes sense. Any idea what the best workaround is? Moving a subtask out from under a parent issue?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

I'm afraid this is technically the correct behaviour, and Atlassian are unlikely to change it.

The underlying concept is that sub-tasks are part of their parent issue, not (semi) independent objects.

Imagine you've got three boxes that have several objects in them that need some attention.  You decide Box A is the most important to deal with and Box C the least.

You have three people, so you give each of them one of the boxes to start with, and look at the list again - you've now got a set of sub-tasks in each box.  If you look at an object in box C, you cannot logically say that object is more important than anything in box A or B, because it is from a box that is less important than them.

That's why you can't rank subtasks (outside their parent) - it makes a nonsense of the ranks of the parent issues.