can you create a task from a story instead of a subtask?

[Stefanie Sullivan]

I have the issue type Story and the ability to create subtasks from a button right on the user story. Is there a way to create related tasks right from the user story instead?

[Kevin Morris]

Not being able to make a Task under a Story makes no sense.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

It makes perfect sense if you have defined tasks to be at the same base level as issues in the hierarchy.

[Reuben Priestley]

Having this issue as well - in the non-software template 'Project Management'. 

Any work around suggestions (apart from the problematic ones mentioned on this thread) would be welcome.

Reubs

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

What issue?  Can you not create issues that are not sub-tasks?  Or is something going wrong with your sub-tasks?

[Reuben Priestley]

Thanks Nic. Apologies, I shouldn't have used the word 'issue' in the context I did - definitely makes it confusing.

I was referring to other queries in this thread on creating a task as a child to a story. It appears that you can't, but I was curious as to any other work arounds where I can have something between a story and a sub-task, and it is still a child to the story, not the Epic.

Hope that makes sense?

R

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Hi Reuben, 

I think it's worth a quick look at how Jira handles issue types in hierarchies, rather than getting buried in the phraseology.

Plain Jira has a very simple structure, and in Jira-speak, we have 

• Issues - the core of Jira issue tracking.  You can have issue types with lots of different names at this level, and I tend to call it "base level issues".  Even an off-the-shelf Jira with an admin who has not even started to tinker with it  beyond starting to create projects has issue types like bug, issue, and story.
• Sub-tasks.  These are fragments of a base-level issue, not separate issues.  But again, you can create many types with different names ("technical task" is a common sub-task type for example) 
• Note that I've avoided using the word "task" - people often define tasks as base-level issue types, but it is not uncommon to see them defined at the sub-task level too.  Fortunately Jira won't let you use duplicate names for issue types.
• Jira Software adds a layer above base-level issues, defaulting it all to "Epics"
• Premium Jira, or Advanced Planning if you are on DC, enables you to go higher again, as well as allowing for Epics without having Jira Software, creating themes, initiatives, sagas, whatever, in layers over and above Epic (and makes it easy to rename Epic and have it work properly)

I have a feeling that you may be looking for sub-tasks of sub-tasks.  Jira does not support that.

[Reuben Priestley]

Hi Nic,

Thanks very much for taking the time to outline some of the fundamentals. Very helpful.

I'll digest it further, and go from there.

Thanks again,

R

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It has evolved over the years, and I don't think it is particularly clear any more (I started with Atlassian stuff using what I called "plain Jira", just the two layers, and I've evolved with it, but I can still see it can look complex from the outside)

I hope what I wrote at least clarifies how Jira thinks about the hierarchy, even if it's not quite what you want.  I think my most important point was "you can have many differently named types at any level in the hierarchy"

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

@Stefanie Sullivan, 

You cannot create a related task directly from a Story. You can only create subtasks.

Thanks,

Kian

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

But you could have a sub-task type called "task"!

[Stefanie Sullivan]

I receive the following error when I go to create the new issue type : 

An issue type with the name "task" already exists.

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

You can't create two issue types with the same name. If you are okay with using Subtasks, there is an existing issue type called "Sub-task".

[Stefanie Sullivan]

please read the response from @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

[Kian Stack Mumo Systems]

@Stefanie Sullivan, 

I read the response from Nic before I posted my previous response. I also tested the suggestion he made and got the exact same error as you.

Unless Nic is suggesting you delete the standard "Task" issue type, you cannot create a sub-task issue type called "task" as it would conflict with the existing "task" issue type. 

As far as I'm aware, having two issue types of the same name has never been possible, regardless of whether or not one of them is a standard issue type and the other is a sub-task.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yep, you have to delete the standard "Task" before you can create a new "Task".

Or, you can rename it (which means not having to migrate any issues or faff around replacing it with something else)