Story vs Task contradiction

Pietros May 12, 2017

I have been quite confused as in JIRA glossary, it says that a task is a unit of work within a story. In the community discussion, people say that a story is the same level as a task.

So in JIRA Agile, should I use Stories or Tasks as parents for sub-task? Is there a difference if I use the Epic-Story-Subtask or Epic-Task-Subtask?

 

 

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Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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May 12, 2017

JIRA refers to things as simple "issues", although there are usually many types, and users can, and do, define their own types.

The heirarchy is simple:

  • Epic
  • Issue
  • Sub-task

But, for issues and sub-tasks, you can define your own types.  Most of us are used to having something like:

  • Issues:  Issue, task, story, bug
  • Sub-tasks: sub-task, technical task

A common variation:

  • Issues: Issue, story, bug
  • Sub-tasks: task, technical task

The point here is that you can call your issues anything you want.

1 vote
Shishir Rattan June 26, 2019

The issue hierarchy in the version of JIRA that i used was as follows:

Epic > Stoy > Task > Sub-Task 

 

I'll use an example of how i interpretted this:

  • Epic
    • Login functionality
  • Story - 
    • API integration
    • FE design
    • FE development
  • Task - 
    • Include captcha

 

The thumbrule i follow is as follows:

  • Epic -
    • A broad bunch of features/functionalities that stands on its own
    • Ex - Login functionality
  • Story - 
    • Bunch of slightly less broader features that also stand on its own but rollw up to the Epic
    • Ex - API calls to the secure database like say a Ping federated login service
  • Task - 
    • Unique units of work that maynot explicitely fall under or not broad enough to come under a story
    • Ex - Adding a captcha functionality

Hope this helps.

Stay curious yo!!

Cheers!

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