Sub-epics.

[Mads B]

In my company, we have some "super"epics that span a lot of tasks and, for some of them, thousands of estimated work-hours.

In these epics, we have some larger tasks (with subtasks). Some of these tasks cannot realistically be planned into a single sprint

Now, I understand that Jira does not want to allow adding subtasks to a sprint without adding the parent task.

So my question is this: How can I organise my project, so that I can have something conceptually equal to a "sub-epic", i.e. a kind of epic or story that (a) contains tasks, (b) somehow is part of or links to an epic, and (c) can span several sprints?

We are using OnDemand

[Kim Poulsen]

Maybe you can use the "version" field for these super epics, epics as - well - epics, stories and sub-tasks for the breakdown of the epics.

Versions are nice in the way that you can also get the progress of a version on a chart and see the progress on the project home page.

[Timothy]

Have you considered using the Component field as the "sub-epic"?

[Mads B]

That is an option (or maybe a label). I think it falls short in some areas, however:

* With epics (and tasks containing subtasks), it is easy to track progress of the epic/task. With a component, it can be done, but requires some jql filtering etc.

* The most important: In most cases, it is impossible to describe the wanted functionality of the subepic in the length of the component/label. There is nowhere to discuss/comment on the sub-epic if it is a compent.

So I am looking for a way to do this using an actual epic/task/story for the sub-epic

Surely, many companies need to have stories that span multiple sprints, and that also are part of a bigger story?