JIRA feature redundancy / minimizing project complexity

Question

Hi! I'm trying to figure out how to pair down a new JIRA project and make it as simple as possible. I'm currently looking at Subtasks vs Checklist & Components vs Labels.

So far I really like subtasks, even though they pose some issues doing batch operations since they seem to be a different type of ticket somewhat, but I can get around that with some selection filters easily enough. I really like their % complete tracker, same as in Epics.. and just the fact that they're assignable to people, etc.

Checklists are interesting, and seem like I could use them sort of like subtasks, where it's a collection of things that need to be complete for the parent task/story to be done. If that isn't their intended use and this isn't a good comparison, and they're more for little things within a subtask, for example.. then I'm not really interested, and I'd just go full subtasks.

Curious on your take!

As for Components and Labels, they seem to have a bunch of overlap. I also just realized in the team managed kanban + backlog project I just started, I only have labels.. so that sort of takes care of the question in that context.. but in the Scrum project, it seems to make sense to hide one of these??

Curious to hear your take on this too!

Thanks~

Allan MacDonald_n07hp1 · Answer

Thanks! I have been reading more on this over the last few days. I'm sad I can't use components in the Team Managed project, otherwise it's really quite perfect for us.

Allan MacDonald_n07hp1 · Answer

Great, thanks! The other thing I'm trying to decide on now is that since I also only want to see Epics from one project, while in a project. I'm not sure if I should use the Company managed Kanban template or the Team Managed one. In the TM one, I don't see other project's Epics, which is great, but I also don't get components there. In CM one, I see the Epics from the other CM Scrum project. The only thing I can think of is to just delete the Epics from the CM Scrum project, which won't really be needed if I migrate. Any suggestions?

Nikola Perisic · Answer

Hello @Allan MacDonald

Regarding subtasks vs checklists:

Subtasks are a native part of Agile methodology whom solely purpose is to breakdown complicated tasks even into smaller parts of work. Of course they are child issue type.

Checklists or checkboxes are only available as a custom field. They do not have that parent-child conenction like the subtasks have. So, I'd suggest to go with the subtasks.

Components vs Labels

Components - used to group issues in one structure PER project. This is project based.

Labels - they are being used globally.

So, if you want to group issues in one project in one way and in other project in another way, use components.