Creating a Sub-Task

Sub-task issues are useful for splitting up a parent issue into a number of tasks which can be assigned and tracked separately. Splitting issues into smaller tasks often provides a better picture of the progress on the issue, and allows each person involved in resolving the issue to better understand what part of the process they are responsible for.

All the sub-tasks related to a parent issue are summarised on the parent issue's main screen (see 'Working with Sub-Tasks' below). Sub-tasks always belong to the same project as their parent issue.

Sub-tasks have all the same fields as standard issues, e.g. Summary, Description, Reporter, Assignee, Status. Note that sub-tasks have a different set of issue types from the standard issue types.

Sub-tasks cannot have sub-tasks of their own. However, if you need to break up a sub-task into smaller sub-tasks, you could achieve this by first converting the sub-task to a standard issue (see below). You would then be able to create sub-tasks for it.

On this page:

Creating a sub-task

Navigate to the issue which you would like to be the parent issue of the sub-task you are about to create.
Select 'Create Sub-Task' from the 'More Actions' drop-down menu.
The 'Choose the project and issue type' screen will be displayed. Select the sub-task issue type (the default is 'Sub Task', but others may have been added by your JIRA administrator) and click the 'Next' button.
The 'Enter the details of the issue' screen will be displayed, similar to creating a standard issue. Type a summary for the sub-task and complete any other required fields, which are italicised and highlighted by an asterisk.
Note that there is no option to set security on a sub-task, as sub-tasks inherit their parent issue's security levels (if any have been set).
Click the 'Create' button at the bottom of the page. The sub-task will be created and you will see the 'View Issue' screen, showing the sub-task's details that you have provided. The parent issue's summary and issue key are displayed above the sub-task's summary. You can easily return to the parent issue by clicking its summary or issue key.

In the above screenshot, the new sub-task is DEMO-6 (Enter competition) and its parent issue is DOVE-3 (Win 'homing dove' contest). Both belong to the Dove project.

To create sub-tasks, you will need to have the 'Create Issue' permission in the parent issue's project. Also note that sub-tasks can only be created if your JIRA administrator has enabled sub-tasks and added the sub-task issue type to the project's issue type scheme.

Working with sub-tasks

If an issue has sub-tasks, then the issue screen will show a list of all the issue's sub-tasks:

Screenshot: An Issue's Sub-Tasks

The sub-task list has two views: 'All' and 'Open'. The All view lists all sub-tasks, regardless of status, while the Open view only shows sub-tasks that have not been resolved (i.e. do not have a Resolution ). You can switch views by clicking the 'All' and 'Open' links.
The coloured bars show the time-tracking data for the issue and its sub-tasks.
You can reorder sub-tasks, for example, organise the list in the order of intended execution or priority. Hover your mouse over the sub-task you wish to move, and use the 'up' and 'down' arrows that will appear.
You can perform actions on the sub-tasks, e.g. 'Assign Issue', 'Resolve Issue', 'Close Issue', 'Reopen Issue'. Hover your mouse over the sub-task you wish to action, and click the 'Actions' drop-down menu link that appears.
Once an issue has one or more sub-tasks, you can quickly create additional sub-tasks by clicking the '+' icon, which will display the 'Add Sub-Task' form show below. Type a description in the 'Summary' field and click the 'Add' button. (The other sub-task fields are optional, although 'Issue Type' will default to 'Sub-task' and 'Assignee' will default to 'Unassigned'.)

Screenshot: 'Add Sub-Task' form

The 'Add Sub-Task' form may look different if your JIRA administrator has customised it — see Configuring Sub-tasks.

Searching for sub-tasks

When sub-tasks are enabled, two extra entries will appear in the 'Issue Type' drop-down list in the Issue Navigator's search form. These entries are: 'Standard Issue Types' and 'Sub-Task Issue Types'.

To search standard issues only, click the Standard Issue Types entry.
To search sub-task issues only, click Sub-Task Issue Types entry.
To search for one specific type of issue or sub-issue, select just one Issue Type or one Sub-Task Issue Type.

If no entries are selected from the 'Issue Type' drop-down then the search will return all the standard issues and sub-task issues that meet the rest of the search criteria.

Once you have added the 'Sub-Tasks' column to your Issue Navigator (see below), the search results indicate sub-task issues by displaying the parent issue's issue key above the sub-task's summary, as shown below:

Adding the 'Sub-Tasks' column to your Issue Navigator

To add the 'Sub-Tasks' column to your Issue Navigator as shown in the above screenshot, please see Customising your Issue Navigator columns.

Converting a standard issue to a sub-task

Navigate to the issue which you would like convert to a sub-task.
Select 'Convert to sub-task' from the 'More Actions' drop-down menu
The 'Step 1. Select Parent Issue and Sub-Task Type' screen will be displayed. Type or select the appropriate parent issue type, select the new issue type (i.e. a sub-task issue type) and click the 'Next' button.
If the issue's current status is not an allowed status for the new issue type, the 'Step 2. Select New Status' screen will be displayed. Select a new status and click the 'Next' button.
The 'Step 3. Update Fields' screen will be displayed. If the new issue type requires any additional fields, you will be prompted to enter them (otherwise you will see the message 'All fields will be updated automatically'). Click the 'Next' button.
The 'Step 4. Confirmation' screen will be displayed. If you are satisfied with the new details for the issue, click the 'Finish' button.
The issue will be displayed. You will see that it is now a sub-task, that is, its parent's issue number is now displayed at the top of the screen (see 'Creating a sub-task' above).

Note that you will not be able to convert an issue to a sub-task if the issue has sub-tasks of its own. You will first need to convert the issue's sub-tasks to standalone issues (see below); you can then convert them to sub-tasks of another issue if you wish. Sub-tasks cannot be moved directly from one issue to another — you will need to convert them to standard issues, then to sub-tasks of their new parent issue.

Converting a sub-task to a standard issue

Navigate to the sub-task issue which you would like convert to a standard issue.
Select 'Convert to issue' from the 'More Actions' drop-down menu.
The 'Step 1. Select Issue Type' screen will be displayed. Select a new issue type (i.e. a standard issue type) and click the 'Next' button.
If the sub-task's current status is not an allowed status for the new issue type, the 'Step 2. Select New Status' screen will be displayed. Select a new status and click the 'Next' button.
The 'Step 3. Update Fields' screen will be displayed. If the new issue type requires any additional fields, you will be prompted to enter them (otherwise you will see the message 'All fields will be updated automatically'). Click the 'Next' button.
The 'Step 4. Confirmation' screen will be displayed. If you are satisfied with the new details for the issue, click the 'Finish' button.
The issue will be displayed. You will see that it is no longer a sub-task, that is, there is no longer a parent issue number displayed at the top of the screen.

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