Introducing subtasks for breaking down work in next-gen projects

[Gabriel]

Glad this made it in the app!

Worth mentioning, this is a critical feature for us: 

• Making it possible to convert a subtask to another issue, for example a story or task

[Andy Nash]

@Eoin - I hope you ignore that comment from @Marcel above...

But a good feature in Jira might be to sniff for a keyword, such as "GANTT" and remove that whole comment. ;-)

No place for GANTT anywhere near this product. IMHO!

[Deleted user]

Has this been released yet? Because I am yet to see this on my boards.

[Ivan Deyter]

Great news, thanks!

[Ran Magen]

Can someone who has this enabled post a screenshot of their "issue types" screen in project settings? I have a "add issue type" button but I don't see the option to natively create a subtask type. 

/cc @Eoin 

[Dave Aiello]

I would also like to add sub-tasks to our Issue types and do not see it in the Project Settings.  Please let me know how we can enable it for our organization.  Thank you.

[matt]

When you guys support the importing of sub-tasks through CSVs for Next Gen projects like the way it works for Classic projects. We often define all the User Stories in a CSV first and then import it into JIRA, so would be good to know when we can make the switch to Next Gen projects.

[Victor Burgos]

@Dave Aiello For existing projects, the project administrator must add the subtasks issue type under Projects Settings -> Issue Types.

I just did it. 

[Victor Burgos]

@Eoin I would like to be able to just click on the "ToDo, InProgress, Done" part and have them change without going into the sub-task sub-menu itself. But if you click anywhere on the sub-task outside of the "ToDo, InProgress, Done" part, then you'll be taken into the sub-task submenu. 

[Ran Magen]

@Victor Burgos Can you post a screenshot of what your issue types page looks like? (or looked like before you added sub tasks?)

Thanks.

[Dave Aiello]

Hi @VictorBurgos I asked the Project Administrator of that Project to look but he did not see the Issue Type to add.  Is this the location you are referring to?  Thanks.

[Victor Burgos]

@Dave Aiello Exactly. Now see that +Add issue type  button? You have to click that which will open up another menu, to add Subtasks. I actually did this to add a new one, for Ideas. Anyway, the Subtask one is special. 

[Victor Burgos]

@Ran Magen read above as well please :) That's how it looked like (plus my custom Idea issue type), then I clicked on + Add issue type and then another mini-screen popped up with Subtasks , click on that and you're good to go.

[Ran Magen]

@Victor Burgos I guess it's not rolled out to us yet :(

No "Subtasks" in that little window.

[Dave Aiello]

@VictorBurgos Thank you for the information; I forgot to include the second screen shot.  I did that but there isn't an option currently to add sub-tasks (only custom issue types)

[Eric Mangol]

@Eoin , my wife asked me what she could get me for Christmas and I said, 'Next-Gen Jira Subtasks'. 

Now I have to rethink my list! A pleasant and welcome surprise for Next-Gen! Thank you and keep up the good work!

[Eoin]

@Sarah Ryan Yes, we want to allow you to create multiple issue types at the subtask level in the future so something we'll look to prioritise based on the feedback we are getting. Thanks 

[Eoin]

@Mirek Classic Jira gives us a great source of what to build, and we'll look to supplement that with feedback to help understand whether we are building out next-gen in the best way and in the right priority order.

And although this iteration of work breakdown seems like a small step in functionality from a user experience perspective, we've done a lot of work underneath the covers to set Jira up for the next 17 years. 

Also, we have no plans to make anything that is available in classic Jira projects only available in a premium edition in the future. Hope this removes any concern you have here.

Thanks :)

[Eoin]

@Carl-Fredrik Arvidson yes we've gone with subtasks being only visible on the board as a swimlane view for this iteration. A further iteration to this will be to make the swimlanes (grouping) a user controlled view rather than a board view for all the team. Our main reason for going with this approach is based on our research - where we've seen different individuals in a team are interested in different views of the work. For example, the product owner may create the epic and break down the epics into stories. The team then may break these stories into subtasks that get assigned to developers and testers. The product owner and team lead may want to view and track the work at the story level, whereas the developers and testers want to track their work at the subtask level. We'll be looking to learn whether this is a better approach than having all story level and subtasks level issues shown on the board together. Thanks

[Eoin]

@Victor Burgos we're building out next-gen iteratively and up to we've been primarily targeting the single team with more basic needs. You'll be glad to hear we'll absolutely be increasing the power over time, whilst allowing teams to easily scale up and down this power as they need. 

I didn't quite follow the comment on the status change - could you email me and attach a screenshot at eryan@atlassian.com? Thanks

[Eoin]

@Deborah this will be something we get to but it's not something we are looking at right now. If this is absolutely something you need and are unable to work around it with our Sheets integration for example (where you can easily pull filtered info into Sheets and create reports off it), then the classic projects may be a better option for your team for now. Let me know if you'd like more info on the Sheets integration.

[Mirek]

Classic Jira gives us a great source of what to build, and we'll look to supplement that with feedback to help understand whether we are building out next-gen in the best way and in the right priority order.

@Eoin, My point is that feedback on what people need in Jira was gathered for so many years.. There is not need to gather this again. You simple review all existing tickets and be able to prioritize it.. When you add more new features that never existed in Jira (e.g Roadmaps) it is fine to gather feedback and improve it later over years, but not something that people requested and voted for.. If priority is to invest in Cloud since it bring more benefit for Atlassian then please make in the product all basic features available first, so that people can focus on their business not on figuring out workarounds all the time.

And although this iteration of work breakdown seems like a small step in functionality from a user experience perspective, we've done a lot of work underneath the covers to set Jira up for the next 17 years.

A big commitment :) . I think that it is so dynamic that it is hard to believe that in 17 years we would still use "Jira" as name.. I hope we can meet after 17 years and see the difference :)

The problem that maybe you do not see is that people have currently so many different offerings .. Jira Core, Software, Service Desk Server, .. Data Center.. and two separations on Cloud .. Classic and Next-Gen that multiply options and bring more confusion than before (when it was only Server and Cloud) and people are getting lost in what is available.. Add to this differences in plugins (extensions, addons or as those are actually called.. apps) and you have a huge mix. Consultants are having a headache when they need to propose the best solution for their customers..

When we are responding here on Community to users questions we can get lost too.. We spend too much time on troubleshooting what people are currently using (which platform and project type) then actually helping them..  Every sprint you introduce something new that is installed slowly on customer instances and some of them have new features, some not, so this introduce even more confusion.. Same when something is removed. On Jira Server is crystal clear what is in specific version (it is there or not.. if not it is probably a bug) .. On Cloud you always need to guess what customer have installed and how can we help him. That should be improved.

New users maybe do not care what they use (maybe most of them by default start with Cloud and Next-Gen since nothing need to be installed and this option was be there first to choose) and never ever knew that having sub tasks was always possible, but all people that are using Jira (and other Atlassian apps) for years that make them frustrated that something is here, not there and they need to vote for it or transition to a new way of doing something. Instead be unified in basic features on all offerings all the time over 17 years everyone need to wait or switch to alternative offering which requires a lot of effort (since migration is mostly only one way and you need to sacrifice something.. )

Also, we have no plans to make anything that is available in classic Jira projects only available in a premium edition in the future. Hope this removes any concern you have here.

That is good to know. I would put your sentences on my "wall of promises" and bring it up when someone would break it in the future. I hope not :)

Thanks :)

Thank you also for getting back to me with response. I really appreciate it.

[Guillaume Cougard]

@Eoin could you tell us if it's possible to attach existing tasks as sub-tasks of an epic?

[sstoeger]

Can subtasks be used if a project doesn't have the epic/roadmap featured switched on?

[Eoin]

@sstoeger Subtasks can be used whether you are using the Roadmap or whether you are using epics. In this case, your project will be set up to use two level of work hierarchy.