Add default subtypes

Question

I'm very new to Jira so apologies as I struggle with the terms.

I have a new Project I've set up. When someone clicks on Create a new task is setup. This contains basic info for a request to do something. Each of these new tasks then require a subtask, all of which should be pre-defined. I've created the sub-tasks but I can't get the Sub Tasks drop down button to show up in the Issue form that comes up. How do I get the Sub-Tasks to button to show up and to link the Sub-tasks?

And WHY is everything so maddingly difficult to do in Jira?

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Steve Ruzila

Since you said you are new to Jira, I'm going to provide some extra information to help explain this more fully.

There are two aspects to specifying the type of a project. One is specifying the type of Jira Product for which the project is created; i.e. Work Management, Software, or Service Management. The other aspect type is whether the project is Team Managed or Company Managed. Team Managed projects "stand alone" and can be customized by their Project Administrators without impacting any other project. They also cannot share their customizations or configurations with other projects. Company Managed project are (mostly) customizable only by Jira Administrators, and can leveraged shared configuration information.

The type aspects are selected/determined when the project is created. Jira Administrators have access to create all types of projects and there are templates to choose from. Some templates are able to create only Team Managed projects, or only Company Managed projects. Some templates can be used to create either. In some cases Jira prompts you to ask if you Team or Company Managed. In other cases Jira makes an assumption about which you want, but you may have the option to change that at a later step in the creation process.

In other cases where only one of those aspects is supported, you don't get a choice.

People who are not full Jira Admins may also be able to create projects (depending on a Global Permission setting managed by the Jira Admins), but in that case they are only allowed to create Team Managed projects.

After the project is created you cannot change either of its aspects. If what you have does not suit your needs, you have to create a new project and then move the issues into it.

Next, in Jira the native issue hierarchy is

Epic
|-- standard level issues types; i.e. Task, Story, Bug
    |-- subtask level issue types

In a Team Managed project the types of issues that are available are specific to that one project, and you add more issue types through Project Settings > Issues.

At this time in a Team Managed project you are allowed to have only one type of Subtask issue. There is a change request to support adding additional types of subtasks, to which you can add your Vote and Comments.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-20901

You may have found a screen that looks like this, where you were able to add more types of issues:

That is part of the shared configuration that is available only to Company Managed projects. When you add more issue types here, those are not available in Team Managed projects.

Steve Ruzila · Answer

It's currently set as a Team Managed (I don't see a way to change that). And the Create Child Issue has the same problem...It doesn't see the sub-tasks I created. Yes Subtasks are turned on.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Steve Ruzila

Are you working with a Team Managed project or a Company Managed project?

If you go to the Projects menu and select View all projects and find your project in the list, its type will be shown in the Type column.

Can you provide a screen image of what you see when you navigate to Project Settings > Issues?

To create a subtask in an issue, in a Company Managed project you would use the Create subtask button

In a Team Managed project, the button is labeled Create child issue

There is also a global setting for enabling and disabling the use of subtasks. That setting is accessed from the gear icon (near your avatar in the upper right corner) to access Jira Settings > Issues. Then you have to find the page for Sub-tasks. In my system subtasks are enabled.