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Hierarchy and/or Nesting for JIRA Tasks (JIRA - software)

Ania Bodeit

Hi Everyone,

I am totally new to JIRA (though certainly not new to software products).

My client would like to create a hierarchy for their Tasks. We are using JIRA Software - Software Product (Company-Managed project). The client is interested in having a Sprint with a number of Epics, and under the Epics that would like to have Tasks. Under these Tasks they would like to have "Child Tasks". Something like this:

Sprint1

> Epic1

>> Task1

>>> ChildTask1.1

>>> ChildTask1.2

>> Task2

>>> ChildTask2.1

>>> ChildTask2.2

> Epic2

Is this possible?

I know about SubTasks - that is different. They actually want "Tasks" and "ChildTasks".

Thank you,

Ania

Comments

Nick Scott

For context how do you see "SubTasks" being different to "ChildTasks" are you referring to name or do you mean by function?

Florian PEREZ _Valiantys Administrator_

Hello,

If you want a real hierarchy (a hierarchy understood by Jira) there's just 2 level possible

Epic > Task > Sub-task

This is the only real hierarchy without additional plugin.

You can add some kind of dependencies between issue by using links, but again it's not a real hierarchy.

Hope this help!

Ania Bodeit

By "ChildTask" I mean it is of type "Task", but it is a child of "Task". So I would expect both "Task" and "ChildTask" to have to ability to have a "SubTask".

Ania Bodeit

Yes, that's great, thank you. I mean, I was kind of hoping that we could have more of a hierarchy, but now I can give my managers a proper substantiated response.

Rajendro Sau

This is possible. Can I guide you? how to do...

Johnny FromCanada

AFAIK, not possible with Jira proper (aside from Subtasks).

Consider Advanced Roadmaps (Premium tier), which introduces the "Parent Link" custom field, and enables hierarchy to apparently arbitrary depth.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-custom-hierarchy-levels-in-advanced-roadmaps

Ania Bodeit

We've looked at Advanced Roadmaps. If my understanding is correct, Advanced Roadmaps allows hierarchy to be defined above an Epic. Is that right?

So, you cannot actually define a hierarchy between Epic and Story, or between Story and Task.

Medhat Ahmed

Create a new issue type and name it "Child Task" and make its type subtask

please let me know if this satisfy your requirements or not.

Nick Scott

Thanks for clarifying! florianper's answer sums it up.

Johnny FromCanada

“Cannot” is a strong word. Jira is flexible to do pretty much whatever you want. But OOTB, it will not necessarily provide you structured ways of doing so (which is what you seem to be requesting).

In Adv Roadmaps config, you can add layers above the Epic “level”, but not below. You can change the issue type at the Epic level, but not remove that level.

AFAIK, Jira itself does not afford OOTB a structured way to represent a hierarchy below Epics. The relationship between Epics and standard issue types (Story, Bug, etc) is long-lived and structurally embedded in the Jira GUI.

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