Best Jira App to achieve a more than the 3 epic/task/subtask hierarchy like todoist or asana ?

[Barry Scallan]

Hi Folks

I am currently evaluating how my company can use Jira purely for task management.

The experience right now seems limited. This means I can only have 3 levels (1 epic / 2 task / 3 subtask)

Our use cases require more levels in the hierarchy and the ability to easily move items freely among the levels.

After an assessment of similar todo task management tools, Asana and ToDoist are coming out more superior, which could mean moving to those platforms.

Looking for advice on how best to fulfill this use case in Jira Cloud.

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi @Barry Scallan , you might try Premium tier as it provides Advanced roadmaps which introduces 2 additional levels.

[Barry Scallan]

Hi Jack, looking into this now, I have not been able to access menu bar Plans to review it but it looks promising if I can define a hierarchy as per https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-custom-hierarchy-levels-in-advanced-roadmaps/

So we may get another tier

Initiative

    Epic

        Task

            Sub-Task

and then in all of these including a checklist app 

Thanks for the tip, I will check in with my IT team

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Barry Scallan

if you're open to a solution from the Atlassian Marketplace, here's another app that you might like: JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields. You can also view your issues in configurable hierarchies and groupings, calculate sum-ups, and apply conditional formatting.

For the configurable hierarchies, you can either use Jira's built-in parent/child relationships, or issue links, or any combination of these. There's virtually no limit on the number of hierarchy levels.

Here's how this look in action for a 5 level hierarchy:

You may already know that you can trial any app for free for 1 month, so perhaps give it a try and see if it provides value to you.

Disclaimer: I work on JXL :)

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

[Madhu_RVS]

Hi @Barry Scallan 

You can use Jira Issue Links to create your own hierarchy at any level.

If you are fine with a mktplace app to visualize the hierarchy based on your issue links and also your std jira hierarchy in the same view, you can try out our add-on

Issue Hierarchy Reports 

Disclaimer : I am part of the team which developed this app

[Barry Scallan]

Hi Madhu,

Nice one for the tip, may give it a trial so thanks for sharing the app.

Best regards,

Barry

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

Ηι @Barry Scallan 

As very well stated by @Jack Brickey , you can go premium and have advanced roadmaps. In addition, don't look to use Jira Software for tasks. Maybe Jira Work Management is more to your everyday task management. However this too is "limited" if you need more that 3 levels.

If that's your only criteria for choosing a software, then move to Asana or Todoist. If you have more criteria than the one presenting, then write them down, give em a proper weight and then decide.

You lose some, you win some. I'm pretty sure that Asana and Todoist do not have all the functionalities that Jira currently offers. So I wouldn't call them "superior".

[Barry Scallan]

Hi Alex,

I'm the Jira admin for the department so am absolutely in the Jira corner.

We are exploring purely task management tools at the moment away from product development Software projects as from a day to day task approach there is some complexity. I've introduced a Jira Work Management project for this as you suggest and it's great.

If only the Software project had use of the features in Work Management like Summary, Lists and Calendar. These are very useful and in a complex Engineering department with lots of projects and goals, they would help with management and visibility, dashboards don't really do the same job.

I'm guessing premium naturally requires an upgraded license so will look into it, if you have any info on the cost difference, sharing would be appreciated.

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

Jira work management comes only on free and standard. There is no premium:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/work-management/pricing

For jira software:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing

[Barry Scallan]

Summary of this common case within Jira 

Natively Jira provides a hierarchy of 3 levels Epic/Story/Sub-Task and everyone knows

Jira cloud Standard > Roadmaps provides a list view where you can move Epics around and it shows 2 levels, Epics/Story(or items using Epic Link) 

For my use case I'm looking for a tool to be able to have a hierarchy > 3 for the main purpose of Task management and be able to view tasks in list view.

A solution natively is to use the project type Jira Cloud Task Management which provide the list view and also the visibility on the 3 level hierarchy. Limitation is also that it's cumbersome to move child tickets around and require manual edits to parents and move actions within tickets.

Possible solutions as recommended here:

Purchase Jira cloud Premium to avail of Advanced Roadmaps which provide hierarchy customization.

Purchase Jira Cloud Issue Hierarchy Reports to give some visibility through linked issues of a hierarchy.

Workaround without a fee, Stick with the Project Task Management which uses the 3 tiers and add a checklist app which gives in a roundabout way a subtask within a subtask.