Can I create a epic and subtask in a team-managed project using KANBAN Simplified Workflow?

Alain Vandermeersch

I just started with JIRA for a small team and created my project using the KANBAN template( free plan I have less than 10 users in my team - 2 developers and 4 reviewers providing business requirements) - I just need to document work items( requirements actually) to follow up. I want to keep it as simple as possible the simplified workflow is good enough( todo, in progress done) - no scrum board just document issues. The project content is described in Confluence and linked to JIRA.

I want to structure the project in functional domains(Epics) and subdomains(Stories) . and for each subdomain create tasks( and subtasks eventually) and bugs.

But looking at the Issue types Epic is not there. Subtask is present. But when I Click on the Create Button to create a new issue, the dropdown menu lets me only choose between Story, Task and Bug.

Am I limited in subdividing my project in Stories only, and within each Story only use Tasks without subtasks?

 

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @Alain Vandermeersch 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Can you go to the Projects menu, select View all projects , then find your project in the list and tell us what it says in the Type column?

Can you provide screen images of what you are seeing when you click on Issue Types, and when you click on the Create button

In a Team Managed project it should be possible to create new issue types by clicking the Add issue type button.

After clicking that you get a list of the types of issues you can create.

 

Select the type you want to create from the Suggestions and then click Add, or click the Create issue type button at the bottom.

That should enable you to add Epic to your project.

Epic would then be available in the drop down when you click the Create button to create a new issue in the project.

The hierarchy for Jira is limited to three levels:

Epic > standard level issues > subtasks

"standard level issues" include Task, Story, Bug, etc.

So you cannot create a parent/child hierarchy of 

Epic > Story > Task > subtask

Story and Task are siblings and can't have a parent/child relationship in the way Jira understands parent/child relationships.

You could use generic issue linking to connect the Story and Task issues, but Jira would not see that as a parent/child relationship.

 

As for creating subtasks, you will not see that option when you click the Create button to create a new issue. Subtasks cannot exist without a parent issue. So the only way to create them is from the parent issue itself.

Go to your Story or Task and click the "Add a child issue" button to add a subtask to it.

 

Once you have added the Epic issue type to your project you will see the same button when viewing Epic issues. In that case you will be adding a Story or Task or Bug as the child of the Epic, not a Subtask.