How to assign subtask to specific sprint

[Kan Wong]

Hello,

There is a need here to leave a task without sprint but assigning one of the subtask to specific sprint. The problem we having is how to add sprint field to subtask. And second, it is a proper way to use Jira that way. Thanks a lot.

[Jack Brickey]

Not really, no. Sprints should consist of story/task level issues. Subtasks are just a way to add some clarity or break the story into smaller bits of work. Regardless of whether you use subtasks or not the full story or task should be completed within the sprint. Now for subtasks and their usage in sprints, they inherit the sprint from their parent. 

[Sage Arbor]

Atlassian enforcing this seems to go against the simple agile manifesto.  For example 2 of the 4 big bullets

* Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

* Responding to change over following a plan

I have read multiple posts where users are requesting agility with subtasks.  I would prefer if Jira was infinitely nestable , any parent child relationship we want, pointed, in any story.

[Nic Brough _Adaptavist_]

No, they're not going against the manifesto. 

They're supporting Scrum.   Components or parts of sprint items are not sprint items in their own right, that's nonsense in Scrum.  

It's not a case of "enforcing" anything, it's a case of "this is a Scrum tool, and this is how Scrum works"

I think there is a failure here in Jira's reporting functionality - I would argue that a sub-task should have a searchable (but not editable) sprint field.  It should inherite directly from its parent, so that you can see that it is part of a sprint (because its parent story is) when asking "show me everything in a sprint"

What you really want to talk about is if Scrum goes against the manifesto, not Jira.  I'd argue that it probably doesn't, but I'm no authority on it, just an ordinary scrum master.

[rokunin]

The problem is not in the field of "sub-task is a part of story" here but in that we need more nesting support. Nobody needs a sub-task to be alone in the dark and cold. We want a usable Themes-Initiatives-Epics-Story/Task structure, so one could decompose his project into deliverable bits and bins and put them into boards :) 

[Nic Brough _Adaptavist_]

>Nobody needs a sub-task to be alone in the dark and cold.

Yep, they're not, they're part of their parent!

>We want a usable Themes-Initiatives-Epics-Story/Task structure, 

Epic-Story-Task is built into Jira Software, so we already have that.  Atlassian recommend the use of Advanced Roadmaps to go up into Themes and Initiatives, and Align if you want to scale higher.

[Dave Rosenlund _ALM Works_]

Hi, @Sage Arbor & @rokunin (welcome to the community).

I don't disagree with what @Nic Brough _Adaptavist_  said above in the least. This is exactly what Atlassian recommends.

However, IF you're looking for infinite nestability and flexibility I think you may find Advanced Roadmaps and Align to be more prescriptive than you'd like. They align (no pun intended) with Jira.

All is not lost...  There are other, and perhaps more affordable, Jira apps that add these capabilities to Jira.

BigPicture and Structure (full disclosure, I work for the company that makes Structure) are the ones I see "in the field" most often, but there are other options, too.

This search (or a similar search of your own) will help you find things you may want to consider:

Product: your flavor of Jira
Hosting Type: your hosting type
Best(?) Search Term in this case: Hierarchy (the same as nesting, but that's not a common term around here the way "hierarchy" is -- in fact, if you use "nesting" there are zero results returned)

Here's an example:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/addons/app/jira/top-selling?hosting=cloud&query=Hierarchy 

I used "top-selling" mostly because that's what most people are looking for — tried and true.  But, admittedly, Structure is first on the list when you do that. ;) 

You can sort the list any which way you'd like of course.

Hope this helps, 

-dave [ALM Works]

[Nic Brough _Adaptavist_]

Sorry Dave, yes, I should have mentioned the alternatives!  I slipped up this time!

[rokunin]

Thanks, @Dave Rosenlund _ALM Works_ 

We use the corporate (and feature-wise much outdated) server jira solution with close to zero chance to update it to the Cloud, so we stuck there. Some updates come at some point, but almost all the fun stuff stays in the cloud or works super clumsy. We have the BigPicture plugin but the infrastructure is so huge (5k+ employees) that waiting time for say gantt or board update (Ctrl+R) could take literal minutes. So we're lurking there with some hopes of longer hierarchy that could come in a form of core functionality server update but I guess as or today we're hopeless :)

[Dave Rosenlund _ALM Works_]

@rokunin  If I were you, I'd talk to the BigPicture folks about optimizing performance. I bet they can help you get that 5-minutes way, way down.  ;)

You probably already know this, but you can reach them via support@softwareplant.com. 

-dave

[Jimi Wikman]

Is there a reason you can not break out the sub-task to become a task instead? Also, what is the reason to not bring in the task itself? It can live in two sprints if you will only partially do the activities it contains?

[Nic Brough _Adaptavist_]

You put a sub-task in a sprint by placing its parent issue in the sprint.  Sub-tasks are a part of an issue, not separate stories in their own right, and hence can only be part of a sprint by virtue of their parent being in it.