create a child work items under subtask

Question

in my jira space ,i have hirarchical levels

Level 1 — Epic

Level 0 — Story / Task

Level -1 — Subtask

Level -2 — Child items

Not natively supported

i need level -2

Paul Glantschnig _Appfire_ · Answer

Hello @Madhuri Veerabathini,

Building on the work item link workaround that @Varun Chillamcharla suggested, here is how I would set that up so it stays manageable:

* Ask a Jira admin to add a dedicated link type, for example outward "has child item" and inward "is child of". A dedicated type keeps these links separate from "relates to" or "blocks".
* Use a standard work type (for example "Child item") for the level -2 items and link each one to its subtask with that link type.
* To list all child items of a subtask, use JQL such as issue in linkedIssues("ABC-123", "has child item").

The limitation is that Jira still treats these as links, not parent/child, so boards, Plans and the parent field won't show them as a level.

If you're open to an app from the Atlassian Marketplace, JXL for Jira can turn that link into a real level in a tree view. In a custom structure, each level defines its parent relationship either through the Parent field or through linked work items. So you could build Epic > Story/Task > Subtask > Child item, where the last level uses your "is child of" link. You can then edit all four levels inline and also roll up values like estimates or story points with sum-ups if you want.

Disclosure: I work for the team that builds JXL.

Best regards,

Paul

Tomislav Tobijas · Answer

Hi @Madhuri Veerabathini ,

As Varun said, you cannot configure additional levels below the sub-task. The question is rather why you'd like to do that 🤔 I mean, what's the requirement? I've often seen different issue where Orgs would only do Tasks/Stories and not sub-tasks at all as they've seen those as not necessary and needing to have additional ones, hah

The closest feature request to that is/was this one: JRACLOUD-89889: Ability to add hierarchies below an Epic in Jira but it was closed in 2024.

If you really need something like that, probably the Marketplace would be a way to go 🤷

Cheers,

Tobi

Varun Chillamcharla · Answer

Hi,

Jira doesn't support this natively. Sub-tasks are the lowest level, and nothing can be created under them, even on Premium. Custom hierarchy levels in Plans can only be added above Epic, not below

A few ways around it:

* Shift the structure up instead of down. On Premium or Enterprise, add a level above Epic (like Initiative) so everything fits above the sub-task level
* Link the child items to the sub-task with a custom link type. It isn't a true parent/child, but it tracks the relationship
* If you need to see the links as a tree, an app like Structure can do it