Manage subtasks in team-managed projects

In Jira, an issue can have subtasks that can be assigned and tracked individually. This allows you to break down the work in your project to smaller, more manageable pieces. See how to convert issues to subtasks.

Add a subtask issue type

Subtask issue types are different from regular issue types. By default, team-managed projects have subtask issue types enabled. If your project doesn’t have the subtask issue type, you’ll need to add it:

1. Navigate to your team-managed software project.

2. Go to Project Settings > Issue types.

3. Select Add issue type.

4. Select Subtask.

Create subtasks

You can create subtasks under any standard issues, like stories, bugs, or tasks. Unlike in company-managed projects, subtasks can’t be nested directly beneath issues at the Epic level.

To create a subtask from an issue:

1. Navigate to the issue under which you want to make a subtask.

2. Select Add then Child issue.

3. Enter a description for the subtask and select Create.

To create a subtask from the board:

1. On the board of your team-managed project, next to Group by, select Subtask (project admins only).

2. Select Create issue (+) to create a subtask under that issue.

Once created, the project admin can view these subtasks on the team-managed board by selecting Subtasks from the Group by dropdown. The parent level issues of the subtasks (which is to say story-level issues) show in the headers for each swimlane issues, and the cards underneath represent subtasks.