Epic/ subtasks vs Story/ subtasks

[Tatyana]

If a story (parent issue)  is meant to include subtasks (child issues)  ( eg a global feature includes sub features) , what would be a user story to describe a parent issue?  My understanding is that a story should sounds  -  as I user I want to be able to do X to achieve Y. In case of a parent tickets it sounds to me  - As a user I want to be able to do X1, X2...X6 to achieve Y1, Y2...Y6 - which does not sound right to me.
What are your thought?

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Tatyana,

A Story is a parent ticket in Jira, and it describes an end-to-end functionality to be implemented in the product, but small enough to be completed in a sprint (or two). A story can be a stand-alone functionality, or it can be part of a larger feature (Epic in Jira). Stories are divided in sub-tasks, which usually represent actions (work) to be performed for implementing that story / functionality.

Hope this helps.

Danut

[Tatyana]

How is the logic for Epic/ Story different from Story/ subtasks in terms of functionality delivery, testing,  anything tangible?

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Tatyana,

The main difference is that Epic > Story is at a higher level than Story > Sub-tasks, which means that Epic > Story is meant for defining and planning work to do (at a higher level), while Story > Sub-task is for planning/executing the work within a story (at micro level).

So some differences are:

• The stories are higher in hierarchy than sub-tasks. In Jira, issue category is Epics > Story, Task, Bugs > Sub-Tasks
• An epic can have stories from multiple projects, while a story can have only its own sub-tasks (from the same project the story belongs to) 
• Stories are visible in backlog when means you can plan/rank them; sub-tasks are not visible in backlog
• Jira progress reports (sprint burnown, velocity) do not count sub-tasks and their estimates; they only track stories.

Hope this helps.

Danut.

[Tatyana]

Thank you