Can I create a story that requires all tasks (not sub-tasks) to have a status of done before the story status can be done?

[Larry Stein]

We need the ability to enforce a workflow with User Stories such that all Tasks for a specific User Story must be Done before the User Story can be marked as Done. This is similar to the current functionality that exists for Tasks and Sub-Tasks. The result being that Stories can have Tasks that have Sub-Tasks. Current, when a Sub-Task is complete, the Task can be complete, We want to extend that up one level so that the Task must be complete before the Story can be complete,.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

How are you telling JIRA that an issue at the same level as the Story is a related task?

[Larry Stein]

That is the question. By default, a Story and a Task are simply Issue Types (i.e, the have the same level as each other). This as opposed to Issues and Sub-Tasks, which are not at the same level, and JIRA supports enforcement of completion of Sub-Tasks related to Issues, We want to go one level deeper and create a relationship from Story to Task to Sub-Task (i.e., Story becomes a grandparent of a sub-task).

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid you can't do that. Jira only has Issue and sub-task levels. You can have many types of sub-task, but that's it, just two layers. There is an open issue for "sub tasks should be able to contain their own sub-tasks", but it's not seen a lot of movement over the years, and there are a number of hideous bodges talked about in places (they all break Jira in spectacularly interesting ways). The only safe work-around at the moment is to use the Structure plugin.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

(unless someone else has written a similar plugin that's demonstrably reliable)

[Larry Stein]

Thank you, Nic, for such a quick response and guidance towards the Structure plug in. It says "Create structures for your project, your team, your personal backlog. Arrange issues in meaningful hierarchies of any depth." That is intriguing if it works and can be tied to workflows. Thanks again!