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Please point me to the best advice on using subtasks

Nate_u7n84j

I'm fairly new to using Jira, so please pardon my ignorance. I'm trying to create a project organization in my backlog to plan out a software project that might take upwards of a year to complete. At the moment, I'm thinking in terms of stories, and creating tickets or "Issues" that are short descriptions of the functionality I want the program to have.

What I'd like to do next is starting taking the stories and creating tasks that describe the steps required to complete them. Then, I'd like to take the tasks and make them Subtasks of the stories.

Is there some way to connect Tasks to Stories so that a story has links to the tasks that are required to call it complete?

I'm assuming that since this seems like common use-case for a task-managing software like this, there's probably already documentation, community discussions, or blogs somewhere that could help me understand the possibilities here. If this is a duplicate question, please just point me in the right direction and give me a shove. Thanks!

Accepted answers

Jacob Vu

Hi @Nate

Looks like you got some good advice here but would like to chime in as I manage projects using JIRA and Advanced Roadmaps.

If you create an issue, you can link it to other issues via the "Linked Issues" feature. This will allow you to link tasks to stories and show the dependancy of these tasks. You can also link stories to other stories, which will allow you to show dependencies (e.g. one has to be done after the other). If you're looking to use sub-tasks for hierarchy purposes, what kind of configuration would you want to do that isn't offered for sub-tasks right now? That can help determine how you can customize the issue type to suit what you need.

If you're looking for planning beyond epics, stories, etc. you can use JIRA Advanced Roadmaps which allows you to create Gantt charts and schedules of the project. It'll allow allow you to create programs (group of projects) as well, which might help.

Lots to think about and JIRA is very customizable, hope that helps.

Jacob @ NorthTEK Consulting

All comments

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @Nate

Are you planning to leverage the Agile support available in Jira to manage your work in a Scrum or Kanban model?

Jira has a built in 3-level hierarchy for its issues:

Epic

-- Story/Bug/Task

---- Sub-task

The middle level (Story/Bug/Task) are where you have issues of different types (i.e. Story or Bug or Task) that should be units of work that can be completed within a Sprint. It is at that level that you would assign Story Points and/or Effort Estimates and those would be used to establish your teams Velocity. From the perspective of Jira, these mid-level tasks are all functionally equivalent and managed the same way.

Epics are a way to group the mid-level tasks together to describe a larger unity of work that will take longer to complete. Epics are not required to be used, and you can have mid-level tasks that are not associated to an Epic. Jira has some built in functionality that is just for Epic issue types.

Likewise Jira has built in functionality that is just for the third-level issue types - Sub-tasks. Sub-tasks are a way to break down the work required to complete a mid-level issue. Sub-tasks cannot exist independently from a mid-level task, but Sub-tasks can have their own Assignees and effort estimates/actual work that can roll up to their parent mid-level task.

So, depending on the scope of work you are trying to track, I would recommend that rather than trying to use Story and Task as parent/child, you instead use Epics where you thought to use Story, then break your Epic down into Stories, and your Stories into Sub-tasks.

Here is an articles you might find helpful.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Agile-Articles/Best-Practices-Thoughts-on-Issue-Hierarchy-in-Jira-Software/ba-p/1784543

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/what-are-issue-types

Nate_u7n84j

Thanks @Trudy P Claspill for your answer. I think what you're saying is consistent with what I was understanding about Jira's setup. I was kind of hoping for a way for the middle level issues (Standard Issues) to be able to contain each other or link to each other.

To explain my thinking, I've been using Epics to categorize huge, broad, sweeping descriptions of large parts of the program. I came up with 15. I've been creating standard issues within those Epics and thus far I have about 140 of them. They describe the functionality of the program from medium-small stories to medium-large stories. Very few of them are actual tasks. My idea was to create Tasks that are more specific, actionable items that I can then group or link to whichever story or functionality they help to complete.

I did a little bit of research into how Jira sub-tasks are described in the documentation, and since they cannot be managed and manipulated in the same way as "Standard Issues," I didn't think this was the right fit for what I'm doing. Or perhaps it is, and I just need to understand otherwise.

The first link you had shared didn't work right, for some reason. It kept linking me back to my own question. The second one was a good article, although it did verify what I had already been researching about the relationships of Tasks to Subtasks.

I suppose that means the answer you've given is the correct one, and what I'm asking to do is not in line with the intended functionality of Jira.

Trudy P Claspill

Apologies on that first link being incorrect. Here's the correct link.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Agile-articles/Best-Practices-Thoughts-on-Issue-Hierarchy-in-Jira-Software/ba-p/653581

There are tools that you can add to Jira that will extend the issue hierarchy. Look for Portfolio or Roadmap tools.

Trudy P Claspill

Something else you might consider it if you can use another feature to categorize your work at the level where you are currently using Epics. Maybe you could use the Components field to identify those categories, or possibly another custom field for those categories.

Consider the reports that you need to generate at each of these levels also.

There used to be an app called Portfolio for Jira Server. When I last worked with Jira Server a few years ago it had to be purchased separately. Now it looks like it might have been rolled into the Jira Data Center product.

https://www.atlassian.com/blog/jira-software/jira-data-center-includes-advanced-roadmaps

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1212136/advanced-roadmaps-for-jira-software-formerly-portfolio/version-history

There are other products also that help you manage portfolios and initiatives at a higher level, which integrate with Jira Server

Jacob Vu

Hi @Nate

Looks like you got some good advice here but would like to chime in as I manage projects using JIRA and Advanced Roadmaps.

Lots to think about and JIRA is very customizable, hope that helps.

Jacob @ NorthTEK Consulting

Nate_u7n84j

Thank you @Jacob Vu, this looks interesting. I'll have to do some more research on linked issues and see where that takes me. Perhaps that's the piece that I'm looking for to help myself logically organize the tasks and stories in my backlog.

It looks like both you and Trudy are suggesting that I take a look at Advanced Roadmaps as well, which might add more organizational tools to my project. Thanks for that advice.

I'm not sure if I'm yet getting Jira's vision for how to fit the software to my situation. For example, Jira explains that Tasks and Stories are both "bite-sized" pieces of information, that roughly fit within the range 1 - 24 hours of work.

In my mind, the word "Epic" is quite a large, broad-scope, long-range sounding word. Within my project that might take 1-2 years, I currently have 15 epics, which puts each one vaguely as 1-2 months. In asking this question, basically my mind is searching for a way to have a third level of organizing that comes in between the two. Linking tasks might be what I need, I'll have to see. But whatever it is, I'm imagining something that allows me to describe stories about how the program should work that span 1-10 days.

In fact, I think my real problem is that I started within this middle ground. Basically everything I've added into the backlog so far is going to take longer than a Standard Issue, and almost none of it is expressed effectively in terms of actionable tasks.

As I diatribe through my own thoughts, I think I'm beginning to see that what I need to do is shift my thinking about how I'm using Jira, rather than shift Jira to fit my thinking. Or at least, I need to find the right combination of the two.

Anyway, all that to say thanks for your help Jacob and Trudy.

Jacob Vu

Hi @Nate

There's definitely a lot to think about when it comes to using JIRA and how it fits into the work that you're doing. JIRA is very customizable, which is why we preach start small, finish big.

When I'm setting up a JIRA project or Advanced Roadmaps, I'm thinking about what it is that I'm trying to achieve with JIRA. Am I managing a project and looking to create a work breakdown structure within JIRA? Am I trying to manage a group of projects? Am I trying to manage a program but mainly in terms of operations?

Something that you might be looking for is an "initiative". It's at a higher level than Epic is and can help you organize your epics under one "initiative" or program, if you will.

Screen Shot 2021-08-24 at 8.48.00 AM.png

Again, JIRA can be used in so many ways which is why I believe that you should keep thinking about what JIRA can do for you vs. what you need to adjust to fit within JIRA's ecosystem.

(this is a plug, sorry if it's not allowed) If you are ever in need of help, you can always reach out to us at NorthTEK Consulting. This is something that we are experienced helping users with. Check us out here.

Hope this helps.

Jacob @ NorthTEK Consulting

Dave Rosenlund (Trundl)

Not to "rain on" @Jacob Vu's advice, but Advanced Roadmaps is no longer available for Jira Server (unless you already happen to have it). It is now only available in Jira Cloud Premium and Jira Data Center.

There are however a number of Jira add-on applications in the Atlassian Marketplace that do similar things should you want to look for alternatives.

IF that is something you wish to explore, @Nate, let me know. I will share a link here that lists them.

Best,

-dave

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