Tip of the week: How Jira sub-tasks impact story points ✅

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Helloooooo Startups friends! 👋

During office hours last week, we covered a few common questions that many teams face when using Jira:

• Are sub-tasks counted as part of story velocity?
• How do they impact engineers getting credit for work completed in the sprint?
• Do sub-tasks keep a story or epic from being completed?

Short answer: No, sub-tasks don't impact sprint metrics.

By default, sub-tasks are estimated in time rather than points and are not something you commit to when you start a sprint. They're part of the parent story, not a part of the sprint.

Impact on sprint velocity 📈

Sub-tasks are designed to break down a larger task (like a story) into smaller, manageable pieces. However, when it comes to calculating velocity, sub-tasks are not directly included. Here's why:

• Estimation: Sub-tasks are typically estimated in time (hours, days, etc.) rather than story points. Story points are used to estimate the effort required for stories and epics, which are the units of work that contribute to velocity.
• Commitment: When you start a sprint, you commit to completing stories, not sub-tasks. Sub-tasks are part of the parent story and are not considered separate commitments.

Since sub-tasks are part of the parent story, they don't directly impact sprint metrics like velocity. The velocity is calculated based on the story points of completed stories and epics, so sub-tasks won't affect the velocity calculation*.

* @Peggy Graham did some extra testing for us and found that even if you add points to a sub-task, they don't count toward the story or sprint. Thanks Peggy! 🤩

Tasks vs. Sub-tasks ✅

That said, it's important to differentiate between tasks and sub-tasks:

• Tasks: These are at the same level as stories and can be estimated in story points. They contribute to the sprint's velocity.
• Sub-tasks: These are child issues of a story or task and are estimated in time. They do not contribute to velocity directly.

Automation Tip: Completing stories and epics ⚡️

By default, Jira requires all sub-tasks to be completed before you can close the parent story. However, there's a handy out-of-the-box automation rule you can use:

When parent is completed → then close all the child issues present.

Happy sprinting! 🏃‍♂️💨

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Peggy’s Picks 🎁

• Share company highlights with this Confluence template for an All hands meeting
• Suppress background noise in Loom videos (@Rachel Fischer just used this feature while recording an upcoming Loom video for you... it worked wonders on cleaning up the audio! ✨)
• Share a Jira Product Discovery view externally - this can be a great way to share product roadmap updates with investors and customers!

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See you in office hours! 👋

No time for office hours? Check out the September AMA for Startups, where you can submit your questions throughout the month. Shoutout to @Tyce Herrman for being brave and asking the first question!