Why can I see subtasks in the Kanban Backlog, and not sprint backlog???

[Andrew]

I understand subtasks in the backlog is considered "clutter" and generally subtasks dont belong there. 

I want to know why , however, in the same Jira project, I have a kanban and sprint board, and I can only see subtasks in the kanban backlog.... but if i go to the sprint backlog, I can only see stories?

Is there a fundamental difference between a typical backlog (sprint backlog) and the kanban backlog?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Yes, there is a difference, although it's actually the same reason! 

Scrum and Kanban have nothing to say about sub-tasks.  Jira implemented sub-tasks (well before it started to support Scrum and Kanban directly) because a lot of people find them useful in all sorts of processes.  

It is important to understand that Jira's sub-tasks are very much a part of their parent, they're not separate entities or loosely connected, they are a chunk of the overall story.  A good analogy is a jigsaw puzzle.  Your story is "complete a picture", and "put this piece in the right place" is a sub-task of that.  You can't complete the story without every piece being "done", but you can't complete a piece without referring to the story as a whole.

So. 

Scrum backlogs do not show sub-tasks because of exactly what you say - they're noise in the backlog.  The backlog is for ranking, refining, and building a sprint from a list of sprint items.  Sub-tasks are an irrelevance - as part of a bigger story, they can't be ranked outside it, they're not relevant to other stories, and they only go into a sprint as part of their parent item.

Kanban runs every item as a single story.  It does not actually care that an issue is a sub-task, it's just another item that needs doing.  The backlog for Kanban is, again, for ranking and refinement, but it's a simple to-do list.   A sub-task is a Kanban card, so it appears in the backlog with all the other types.

[Andrew]

This was so helpful, thank you so much!!!!