Introducing subtasks for breaking down work in next-gen projects

[Eoin]

@Becky Klein it's on the backlog but no timeline around it yet. It's definitely the longer term direction we want to go. Thanks

[Dennis Christensen]

Can you place a subtask (without the entire task) in a Sprint?

[Yi Xu]

Is there a way to reorder subtasks? Drag and drop doesn't seem to do it.

[Sally Storm]

Really looking forward to "Providing more visibility of subtask estimation at the parent issue, on the backlog, and in reporting" and "Estimation roll-up across multiple levels of work hierarchy". Hope to see them added sooner rather than later :D <3 

[Michał Janicki]

I've noticed that in classic projects, searching for issues belonging to an Epic will return both tasks and sub-tasks. On the other hand, in the next-gen projects, the same will return tasks only. Is this behaviour expected? I'm using Jira Cloud, next-gen project, with sub-tasks enabled.

[Michał Janicki]

Also, there appears to be no way to convert from sub-tasks to tasks or vice versa.

[Larry]

@Michal Janicki, They indicate that the conversion feature is on their roadmap on their write up posting.

[Michał Janicki]

Thanks for pointing out @Larry It's also great to see upward propagation of estimates to be in the works.

There's s few glitches though which have been known and reported for some time now. The ones I'm aware of are

- time tracking not available https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17447?_ga=2.160742843.76938633.1557308088-2133119942.1532596113

- no way to edit workflow https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17434?_ga=2.227384093.1618243734.1563276297-2124849326.1531905745

- labels not visible in backlog https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17450?_ga=2.193466925.1258265852.1565079514-2124849326.1531905745

- REST API not working for epics https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-17305

Also, there is something interesting going on in how the task hierarchy is organised in next-gen.

For epics, when I peek at the epic using REST, its 'subtasks' field is empty. On the other hand, if I do the same for a task or a story, then that same field is populated with a list of sub-tasks. For me, this is causing some interesting behaviour when using Big Gantt - when I import my task board into a program, their system thinks only tasks have sub-tasks, and epics have none.

Also, I seem to have found a workaround for listing tasks with their sub-tasks when using JQL filters. The trick is to include the second Subtasks column in the search results. It's not perfect, because it looks like it's a string field, and as I said this doesn't seem to be an issue in the classic projects (where I find JQL has no problem finding both tasks and sub-tasks assigned to an epic for me), but it's a workaround I can use for now.

[Siddhesh Parab]

Hi , 

I have used subtask and implemented the same in my project. However, the subtask added is not visible on the board of my project. Is there any setting needs to be changed or simply added to view the subtask on the board. 

[Sally Storm]

@Siddhesh Parab I am not 100% sure if this is what you are looking for... but if you are the owner/admin of the board, then when you go to your board, on the right top side there should be a "Group by" drop-down where you can choose Subtask, then they should show in the board. 

[Siddhesh Parab]

@Sally Storm  Thank You for the help. Yes that's exactly what I am looking for , but at same time just wanted to check without using the group down steps as mentioned above , does the subtask are displayed on board directly along with the task once created ? 

[Brian Cunningham]

Is there a timeline on the estimation of sub-tasks or tasks? Without providing estimation, there is very little advantage of breaking stories down to sub-tasks level. 

[JX]

This is the single most important missing piece to my team right now, that would render sub-tasks pretty toothless:

Providing more visibility of subtask estimation at the parent issue, on the backlog, and in reporting

Like you've mentioned, 1 of the core reasons sub-tasks are needed/used is because the task breakdown process provides a better sense of the estimation at the task level. So why wasn't this included in the initial release, and when will it be? This is blocking my team's move to next-gen :(

[LarryG]

Of particular annoyance to me is that subtasks do not appear along with all the other cards on the board just like any other card.

When viewing them (which currently only admin powers can set), it groups by task so everything is separated vertically. All the tasks without subtasks are at the bottom. The tasks that have subtasks run across the whole line so you can't tell what swim lane the task itself is in.

[Partha Gogoi]

Unless I am using some wrong tool -- I don't see something like this....

[Siddhesh Parab]

@Partha Gthe above things are visible under Road Map. If you put the cursor on the epic timespan then at the end you can see a dot there is a link symbol .  

[Partha Gogoi]

I dont see the above  happening -- I see more of this....hope I am making sense...:-)

[Partha Gogoi]

@Siddhesh Parab  -- please check my second post....

[Partha Gogoi]

@Siddhesh Parab  -- Is there a way to show all SUB Tasks and the dependencies together? Its easier to "EXPORT" the Epics with all the SubTasks showing.......

[Siddhesh Parab]

@Partha Gare you using JIRA Cloud or Server. I guess the option is available on Cloud. Also try to put the cursor on the date range in to the end you might see the opition

[Partha Gogoi]

@Siddhesh Parab  -- I am using the current Community Atlassian version -- on this website

[Partha Gogoi]

@Siddhesh Parab  -- thanks for your responses earlier -- will try it on the Cloud....

will Portfolio be able to give this layout? Just curious....

[Brian Cunningham]

I am using the cloud version and do not see a breakdown of epics within the Roadmap view which @Partha Gogoi commented on. Looks like they are showcasing a feature they don't have. I don't even have an export feature which is shown in the image.

[Siddhesh Parab]

@Brian Cunningham the task break down is available under the Board and not under Roadmap. While there are recent updates and under Board, there is a View option on the right-hand side of the window which has two features of viewing the task dependency and progress. 

However, quite surprised to know that you can't find the recent updates visible on the board. Are you sure, you are using the JIRA Software on the Cloud and not on the Server? 

[Siddhesh Parab]

@Partha Gogoi I am not sure