Are Epic Sub-Tasks Only Visible via Epic?

[John Tucci]

We have identified an issue where Epic sub-tasks do not appear on the Kanban Board; this causes the Assignee to miss the issue because it is not visible in "Assignee" view. I have only found two ways to view the sub-task:

1. Open the Epic, and view the "Child Issues" list;
2. Know the Jira Issue# and search for it using the search-window in the upper-right-corner of the board (not the Issue Filter) directly above the left-most Status column.

Is there a way to make Epic Child Issues visible in "Assignee" view? The child issue shows a valid Status column designation and a valid Assignee...but the child issue is not visible on the Kanban Board.

Thanks.

-John Tucci

[Jesse Kona]

When you say "Epic sub-tasks", are you talking about specifically the Sub-task issue type, or do you mean stories and tasks under the parent epic?

Either way, the reasons why an issue would not appear on a Kanban Board are:

1. Excluded by the board filter
2. Excluded by the board sub-filter
3. Status of issue is not mapped to a column
4. Issue is closed and the board is configured to not show issues closed after a certain number of days.
5. Permissions (but that is not the problem here, since you can see the issues).

By default, a Kanban board will show Epics, Tasks, Stories, and Sub-tasks:

Will you please check your board filter and sub-filter in the board settings?  That is the most likely culprit. 

[John Tucci]

Thanks, @Jesse Kona for taking the time/interest to respond.  Is the "board sub-/filter you mention as being the likely cause the "Custom Filter" feature? If so, our board has no Custom Filters. Also we use "Dev Task", "QA/Test Task", "Sub Task", and "Epic" as our Issue Types, but they have identical definitions/contents.

The Dev Task in question is WIN-1085 on our board; it is part of an Epic (WIN-407). When I open WIN-407, I see WIN-1085 in the Child Issues list; it is assigned to an active board member and its Status = Next. However, when I navigate to that board member's swim lane, WIN-1085 does not appear in his "Next" column. Other WIN issues assigned to that programmer appear as expected.

I can open WIN-1085 from the Epic Child Issue list and it appears as expected, showing the correct Assignee and status column ("Next"). If I enter "WIN-1085" in the Filter text-box, the issue doesn't appear either on the board or in the Backlog. If I use the broader Search (Board upper-right), WIN-1085 appears in the resulting Search list.

I hope I'm explaining this well enough to give you a picture of what I'm seeing.

Regards,

-John Tucci

[Jesse Kona]

Thank you, @John Tucci , can we check your board settings?  I am assuming you are a board admin.

First, please paste a screenshot of the board (showing WIN-407) and one of WIN-1085.
(Be sure to obscure any sensitive data)

In the upper-right corner of your board are three dots - please click those and select "Board Settings"

Then please click on the "General" section in the left navigation and paste a screenshot of that like I did below (just checking the Filter Query and sub-filter)

Next, please click on "Swimlanes" in the left navigation and post a screenshot of that.

Finally, please click on "Columns" in the left navigation and post a screenshot of that.

That should help me understand more what is going on.

[John Tucci]

@Jesse Kona ,

I'm starting with this screenshot, as I think it may explain something significant, and is likely to change your above directions:

As you can see, my drop-down menu differs from what you show above. Does this tell you anything?

Regards,

-John

[John Tucci]

@Jesse Kona 

Hi, Jesse. I'm just checking in to see if we can continue this discussion/investigation; if so, does my previous message help...or confuse things?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

-John

[Jesse Kona]

Hi @John Tucci , I would be happy to help, but I'm really going to need to see the board settings.

[Jesse Kona]

OK, I think I see what is going on.  You are on a Team-Managed project, which comes with many limitations.

By default, Sub-tasks are not seen on the simplified board of a Team Managed project.  However, you can see them by selecting "Subtask" in the "Group By" menu in the upper-right.

With this selected, you will see sub tasks when filtering on assignee even if the parent task is not assigned to you.

[John Tucci]

@Jesse Kona 

Again, my sincere thanks for guiding me through this. We are using Team-Managed projects. I did use the "Group by Sub-Tasks" and was able to easily see the issue that provoked this request.

Once again, this awesome Community comes to my rescue!! I have a personal goal to become accomplished enough to contribute a knowledgeable and helpful response to some future question(s).

Kind Regards,

-John

[Jesse Kona]

Glad it worked out!