Create a work item and a subtask

The building blocks of any project are work items. Work items house the work that needs to be done and travel through their respective workflows within their projects until the work is complete.

A work item can have subtasks that can be assigned and tracked individually. You can also restrict a work item to select members of your team with work-level security. 

On this page, you'll find out about creating and converting work items and subtasks, and setting work-level security. You can also import multiple work items and subtasks via the CSV import. Find out how to import multiple work items from a CSV file.

For those just getting started, head over to our admin docs to discover how to configure work types. 

You need the Create work item project permission for the work item’s relevant project.

Create a work item

To create a work item anywhere in Jira:

1. Select Create ().

2. Type a Summary for the work item.

3. Complete all required fields and any other fields that you want.

   1. Optional: To change which fields appear when you create another work item, select Actions (•••), then Configure Fields. Select Custom fields from the dropdown menu, then choose the fields you want. This will update the fields in the work item you’re currently creating as well any future work items created.

   2. Optional: To create other work items with the same Project and Work type, select the Create another checkbox. Depending on your configuration and work item creation history, some fields may be pre-populated. Review these before creating the new work item.

4. When you're finished, select Create. 

If you create a work item on a board that’s using a JQL filter, the work item will inherit fields such as custom values and labels.

Your newly created work item will appear at the top of your backlog, unless;

• you've selected a work item in the backlog — your work item will be created right below the selected work item

• you have specified a sprint when creating the work item — your work item will be created at the bottom of the sprint.

You can quickly create work items using the inline create in the Backlog (for Scrum boards, backlog, and future sprints only). Just select + Create. 

If your board's filter specifies more than one project, you'll still need to complete the full Create work item dialog.

When you use the inline work item create, your work items won’t be restricted to certain roles in the project. These work items can be accessed by anyone who can see your project. To restrict work items, you can create them using the global navigation bar.

You can also create a work item that automatically belongs to a particular epic. If you're using epics, select Configure Fields and add the Epic Link field to the screen. Then, you can add work items to epics as you create them. Read more about working with epics.

Clone a work item

Clone a work item to quickly create a duplicate of it in the same project. The cloned work item contains most of the same details stored in the original work item, like the summary, affected versions, and components. Some details aren't cloned, like time logged, comments, history, and links to Confluence pages. The work item status also returns to the first step of the corresponding workflow, and the resolutions are cleared. The cloned work item can be linked to the original work item, but doesn't have to be.

To clone a work item:

1. Open the work item

2. Select more actions (•••), then Clone

3. Optionally edit the cloned work item’s Summary

4. If applicable to the work item you're cloning, you can also select from these options:

   • Clone subtasks to copy existing subtasks

   • Clone attachments to add any existing attachments

   • Clone links to add any existing linked work item

   • Clone sprint values to copy across the work item’s current and closed sprint values

5. Select Create

Automatically clone a work item

With Jira automation rules, you can set a work item to clone automatically on a schedule.

Once the new work item is cloned and created, it inherits the automation rule which will be turned on automatically.

Split a work item

Splitting a work item is useful when a work item is so big, that it's better to divide it into two or more work items and make work more manageable. Note that you can only split a work item from the Scrum backlog and the Kanban backlog (if enabled), and not from Active sprints or the Kanban board.

1. Navigate to the Backlog of your Scrum or Kanban software development project.

2. Right-click a work item and select Split work item. 

You'll also find the option to split a work item in the sprint or Selected for Development section of your Backlog. Discover more about your Kanban backlog.

What happens when I split a work item?

In a Scrum backlog

• If you split a work item in the backlog, the new work item will be sent to the Backlog section.

• If you split a work item in an active sprint, you can choose to send the new work item to either the backlog or a future or active sprint.

In a Kanban backlog

After splitting a work item, the new work item will be sent to the Backlog section. This depends on the column configuration of your Kanban board, but this is essentially the section for the column that's mapped to the initial status of your workflow.

Discover more about setting up your Kanban board. 

What happens to the work item details?

• The new work item will be of the same type as the original. For example, if you split a story into two or more work items, the new ones will also be stories.

• The new work item will have most of the same details stored in the original, including priority, component, label, custom fields, etc.

• Details that won't be copied over include work log, comments, history, links, etc — though the original will be linked to the new work item.

• The new work item will have the summary that you entered upon splitting the work item.

• If the original work item has estimates, you'll be able to enter estimates for the new one as well. You can also update the estimate of the original as necessary.

• The status also returns to the first step of the corresponding workflow, and the resolutions are cleared.

Create a subtask

A subtask allows you to assign different aspects of a standard work item to different people. You can only create subtasks if your administrator has enabled subtasks, and has added the subtask work type to the project's work type scheme.

In most cases, subtasks can only be created and nested under standard work items. Company-managed projects can assign subtasks directly to an Epic using either the Add+ menu on the subtask or the subtask table on an Epic. This can’t be done in team-managed projects.

To create a child work item:

1. Open the work item you'd like to be the parent

2. Select the icon beneath the summary

3. Add a summary and select Create

Note that when you create a subtask, the following values are inherited from the parent task:

• project

• work security level

• sprint value (if any)

You can customize the Create subtask screen to show the fields you use most often. To do this, select Configure Fields at the top right corner of the dialog, and use the All and Custom links to switch between the default screen and your custom settings. Your changes are saved for future use.

Work types

Change the work type

After you create a work item, you may want to change its type to better represent the work that needs to be done. For example, you may want to turn a work item that was raised as a task into a bug.

1. Open the work item you want to change

2. Click the work type icon in the top-left corner next to the work item key

3. Choose the new work type

If there are different fields in the new work type, or if it has a different workflow, we'll open the move work item screen to complete the change.

Convert a subtask to a work item

1. Navigate to the subtask you want to convert

2. Select more (•••), then Convert to work item

3. In Step 1. Select work type screen, select a new work type (i.e. a standard work type) and select Next.

4. If the subtask's current status is not an allowed status for the new work type, Step 2. Select New Status screen is displayed. Select a new status and select Next.

5. In Step 3. Update Fields screen, you will be prompted to enter any additional fields if they are required. Otherwise, you will see the message 'All fields will be updated automatically'. Select Next.

6. The Step 4. Confirmation screen is displayed. If you are satisfied with the new details for the work item, select Finish.

7. The work item will be displayed. You will see that it is no longer a subtask, that is, there is no longer a parent work item number displayed at the top of the screen.

Convert a work item to a subtask

1. Open the work item and select on the work type icon at the top-left

2. Select Subtask from the list of available work types

3. Select the parent work item for the new subtask

You can't convert a work item to a subtask if the work item has subtasks of its own. You first need to convert the work item’s subtasks to standard work items, then you can convert them to subtasks of another work item if you need to. Subtasks can't be moved directly from one work item to another—you need to convert them to standard work items, then to subtasks of their new parent work item.

Restrict access to a work item

While we recommend working openly, there are times where you may want to restrict who can view a particular piece of work. For example, you may want to restrict who can view tasks related to sensitive financial information, hiring or other personal employment information, or security-related software engineering work.

You can restrict who can view a work item in both company-managed and team-managed projects, but the procedure is different in each.

You can't edit project permissions or roles on the Free plan in Jira, and you can't configure work-level security on any Free plan (including Jira Service Management). Find out more about how project permissions work in Free plans. To take advantage of Jira's powerful project permission management features, upgrade your plan.

Restrict access to a work item in a company-managed project

In company-managed projects, you can restrict access by setting a security level to the work item.

To set the security level on work items in company-managed projects:

1. Choose the lock icon at the top-right of the work item. This icon only appears if the project has a security scheme configured.

2. Select the desired security level.

You can also remove a security level by selecting the lock icon and selecting Remove security level.

Jira admins can add, edit, or remove security levels (and their membership) through work item security schemes. Find out about work item security schemes.

Restrict access to a work item in a team-managed software project

In team-managed projects software projects, you can restrict access to specific roles in your project.

To restrict access, you must have a role with the Restrict any work item permission in the project. Find out more about roles and permissions in team-managed projects.

To restrict access when creating a work item:

1. Select + Create from the navigation bar.

2. Complete any required fields for the work item.

3. Select the Restrict to field in the list of fields.

4. Select the roles you want to allow to see the work item from the dropdown.

5. Select Create.

To restrict a work item to certain roles, you’ll have to create the work item using the above steps. If you create a work item using any other method, it won’t be restricted.

If you create a subtask of a work item that has restrictions, then the subtask will inherit the restrictions from the parent work item. You won’t be able to change the restrictions of the subtask individually. To set restrictions to subtasks, you will have to update the restrictions for the parent work item.

To restrict access after a work item is created:

1. Choose the lock icon at the top-right of the work item.

2. Select the roles you want to allow to see the work item from the dropdown.

3. Select Restrict.

You can also remove roles by selecting the X next to the role’s name in the menu.

Team-managed project admins can add, edit, or remove roles and their membership in the Access page. Go to Project settings by selecting the more actions () menu in the sidebar, then select Access. Find out more about roles and permissions in team-managed projects.

While bulk moving work items from a company-managed project to a team-managed project, your work items will get moved without any restrictions and these become open.

Deleting a custom role that has associated work items restrictions will make the work items unaccessible to the role. For instance, if there is a custom role Developer, and the work items are only restricted to this role, then the work items become unaccessible when the role is deleted. If the work items are restricted to a set of roles which includes Developer, then the work items can be accessed by other roles when Developer role is deleted.

Delete a work item

To delete a work item:

1. Navigate to the work item and view its details.

2. Select ... > Delete.