Can issue types consist of multiple sub-task types?

[Lolly Roy]

Dear JIRA community 

Id like to be able to create a story based defect subtask issue type under Story issue type but also keep the standard subtask issue type for all other tasks team needs?  

Is it therefore possible to create two / multi sub task types under a parent item? 

Please advise. 

Thanks

[Sachin Dhamale · Accepted solution]

@Lolly Roy ,

Yes we can have a multiple type of subtask.

You need go to Admin > Issue Type > Add Issue type > select the subtask type radio button

Accept the Answer if it helps

[Trudy Claspill]

@Lolly Roy @Sachin Dhamale 

That is possible only for Company Managed projects.

For Team Managed projects you can not create additional sub-task issue types.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-20901

[Lolly Roy]

We have JIRA server version 7.14.1 - which option do i have in this case? 

[Trudy Claspill]

If you are using Jira Server (not Jira Cloud), then the answer does apply to you. Team Managed projects are not available in Jira Server, only in Jira Cloud.

For future reference when posting questions in this community, if you are using Jira Server you should specify that for you hosting type on your post, and mention the version number in your post. This post was tagged as Jira Cloud hosting type. The two offer different functionality.

[Lolly Roy]

Hey Trudy thanks for getting back to me. Yeh fair point, school girl error in not double checking that in the first place. However, I believe we are migrating to cloud so it's good Im now aware of both these contexts/answers.

Thanks 👍🏼 

[Micheal Planck]

"For Team Managed projects you can not create additional sub-task issue types."

Why not? Why does Team managed projects have so many limitations - that you only find out about after you create a Team managed project and try to do something obvious?

Note that in your team managed project you can rename your one sub-task and give it a new icon. So it looks like a custom defined task. But you only get the one.

And note: when I went to Manage Sub-tasks to add my new type, it told me I already had a type named that (even though it did not appear in the list of defined types). I changed my sub-task name back to sub-task, and then Manage Sub-tasks allowed me to create my new sub-task type... but I still couldn't use because I can't add it to my Team managed project. But if can't add it to my team-managed project then why does have a different issue type in my team-managed project stop me from adding it to Company managed ones? How does Manage Sub-tasks even know about the custom subtask in my project (but not show it)?

Why do new versions of Jira do less than old versions? Why roll out Team managed before it does everything its supposed to do? Why is it so obvious that this software is only half-done?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Micheal Planck 

Team Managed projects are a newer development feature in Jira Cloud. Company Managed projects are the original project architecture, and Team Managed projects are the "next generation". Team Managed projects also target a slightly difference audience/use case (i.e. customizations per project by Project Admins vs. customization that can be managed only by full Jira Admins).

For many "next generation" product/features it is often considered desirable and useful to release a "minimum viable product" that includes enough functionality to be useful in its current state, even if it doesn't include all the functionality the vendor hopes to eventually provide.

Atlassian continues to develop the Team Managed project feature and add more features.

[Micheal Planck]

The hip thing to do these days in game development is "early access." You pay for a game that's only half done, mostly so the developer can get funding to keep developing it. But you pay for half a game; the early access prices are way cheap. And the purchase is loaded up with disclaimers about how the game is only half done and might not even ever be finished.

Atlassian is charging full price, doesn't need funding, and when you start a Team Managed project, the creation screen does not say, "this product is only half-baked, so good luck, mate."

I am not sure cribbing your business strategy from Valhiem and Coffee Stain Studios is really the sterling defense you seem to think it is.

[Trudy Claspill]

Please note I am not an Atlassian employee. I am offering my observations about next generation product development based on the decades I've spent working for both small and large software development companies. This is not an uncommon methodology in software development in diverse industries.

Atlassian still provides the functionality to create multiple types of sub-tasks - in the original architecture of Company Managed projects. And I would not expect to pay less than full price to get the original product plus the current version of their next generation functionality.

Personally I have found the documentation resources provided by Atlassian to he a great help in determining which type of product architecture is most appropriate to fulfill the requirements of the teams and clients with whom I've worked.

We are each, of course, entitled to our own opinions on the matter.

[Micheal Planck]

Is the fact that you can't create different sub-task types in the documentation about Team Managed projects? Do you have a link to a document that lists all of these various deficiencies? I would find that very helpful!

Given that they want people to move to their new version, it seems odd to make people's first experience of that new version a negative one. But, we can agree to disagree.

[Trudy Claspill]

Do you have a link to the documentation where Atlassian has stated that they want people to move from Company Managed projects to Team Managed projects? I have not seen such documentation.

Given that the two architectures are designed for different use cases, there is no reason to switch unless one's use case matches the design intentions.

[Micheal Planck]

From the discussion on how Epic links are handled differently in the two schemes, I got the distinct impression they were moving away from the older and to the newer. Or maybe that was just for the links issue.

(Team managed projects cannot sort by epic link. They sort by parent link; and when you import from csv you cannot assign them an epic link because parent links are only for sub-tasks during an import. Yet another feature that is different between the two use cases for no discernible reason.)

[Trudy Claspill]

Regarding Epic Links, Atlassian has already stated that they are making changes so that the two types of project architectures will handle that relationship the same way. That will simplify filtering and other functionality; not having to do things in two different ways. I would guess that they will update the import process to match when they finally deprecate the use of Epic Link.

I can't speak to why they did it differently in the Team Managed architecture, but that way does seem simpler to me, and it makes sense to me that they would shift to the simpler way for consistency 

Is there a single document that catalogs every functional difference between the Team Managed project architecture and Company Managed projects? No. But there are documents that talk about the differences at a high level. Here is a starting point.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/learn-the-basics-of-team-managed-projects/

This document about creating issue types in Team Managed projects does state that if you want to use Subtasks you must use the Subtask issue type that is provided.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/set-up-issue-types-in-team-managed-projects/

If you are familiar with Company Managed projects, then that will enable you to discern many of the differences while you peruse the documentation related to Team Managed projects.

The public Atlassian backlog is another resource for finding change requests and bugs related to Team Managed projects. There might also be information in the Cloud Roadmap.

https://jira.atlassian.com/secure/MyJiraHome.jspa

https://www.atlassian.com/roadmap/cloud

This exhaust the time I have available for discussing this topic at this time.

I would suggest that if you want to continue engaging in a discussion, perhaps you would consider starting a thread in the Discussions board rather than adding to a Question post where the question asked has already been addressed.

I'm not trying to discourage the discussion; just trying to redirect it to a more appropriate venue.

[Lolly Roy]

Ok thank you both! Will look into which JIRA version we have to know if we can do this. cheers