Story vs Task contradiction

[Pietros]

I have been quite confused as in JIRA glossary, it says that a task is a unit of work within a story. In the community discussion, people say that a story is the same level as a task.

So in JIRA Agile, should I use Stories or Tasks as parents for sub-task? Is there a difference if I use the Epic-Story-Subtask or Epic-Task-Subtask?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

JIRA refers to things as simple "issues", although there are usually many types, and users can, and do, define their own types.

The heirarchy is simple:

• Epic
• Issue
• Sub-task

But, for issues and sub-tasks, you can define your own types.  Most of us are used to having something like:

• Issues:  Issue, task, story, bug
• Sub-tasks: sub-task, technical task

A common variation:

• Issues: Issue, story, bug
• Sub-tasks: task, technical task

The point here is that you can call your issues anything you want.

[Deleted user]

The issue hierarchy in the version of JIRA that i used was as follows:

Epic > Stoy > Task > Sub-Task 

I'll use an example of how i interpretted this:

• Epic
  • Login functionality
• Story - 
  • API integration
  • FE design
  • FE development
• Task - 
  • Include captcha

The thumbrule i follow is as follows:

• Epic -
  • A broad bunch of features/functionalities that stands on its own
  • Ex - Login functionality
• Story - 
  • Bunch of slightly less broader features that also stand on its own but rollw up to the Epic
  • Ex - API calls to the secure database like say a Ping federated login service
• Task - 
  • Unique units of work that maynot explicitely fall under or not broad enough to come under a story
  • Ex - Adding a captcha functionality

Hope this helps.

Stay curious yo!!

Cheers!