Why doesn't Jira allow to create or add a task under a story?

Vinh December 4, 2019

So after my researching on this forum and other places, my conclusion is, that Jira doesn't want us to add a task under a story. Given the generally accepted scrum hierarchy Epic > Component > Story > Task > Sub-task, a Jira user will naturally want to see in his sprint board with a story above its tasks above their sub-tasks. In Jira it's only possible to visualize those elements together

A Story and its Sub-tasks, which looks like this:

Story A

    Sub-Task 1

    Sub-Task 2

A Task and its Sub-tasks

Task A

    Sub-Task 1

    Sub-Task 2

Can anyone (from Jira) explain the reasons why doesn't Jira allow the visualization of tasks below a story?

Story A

    Task 1

4 answers

11 votes
Lyle Wagner September 23, 2021

Its demented logic that Jira has 2 types of 3-level structures and does not allow the Epic>Story>Task>Subtask structure, which naturally makes sense. No wonder the software is so difficult to use for even the most basic planning.

Offir Pe'er November 2, 2021

I Could not agree with you more.

Like # people like this
3 votes
DE42 January 28, 2023

I periodically hit this entry when I search to see about this issue.

It is mind-boggling that Jira (still) doesn't support the basic:
Story -> Task -> Sub-Task

But you can go infinitely higher up the other way!!!

Incredibly idiotic that Stories can't have Tasks.  How can you even have a subtask without a task??? SMH

1 vote
Krisztian Kovacs
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
December 4, 2019

Hi @Vinh

in Agile you have Epics that group together (user) Stories and (as far as I'm aware) Tasks in Jira are allowed (with all the other custom issue types) so you can add your own maintenance or non-developing related actions.

There's no plan to introduce more hierarchy than Epic > Story/Bug/Task/Other > Sub-Taks/Other

However, should you want infinite hiearchy, you can try https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/34717/structure-project-management-at-scale

I hope this helps a bit.

Vinh December 5, 2019

Thank you @Krisztian Kovacs for the clarification of the common used hierarchy. Totally agreed with you there

But that does not exactly answer my question, which is about why can't you sub-order tasks below a story, which seem natural to a lot of Jira users. (I edited my question with some "text visualization")

One question:

Why do you see Story and Task on the same level in "Epic > Story/Bug/Task/Other > Sub-Taks/Other"

I thought the structure has 4 levels like this: Epics > Stories > Taskes > Sub-Tasks

Like # people like this
Krisztian Kovacs
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
December 5, 2019

oh no, it has only 3 levels

  1. epic
  2. task-type issues
  3. sub-task type issues

you could try issue linking, that would show you tasks on a story's issue detail page.

what do you think?

Like # people like this
0 votes
Tom McDonough March 26, 2023

Now I remember why I chose ClickUp at my first startup. Back to ClickUp again then.

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer