I’m working on a project where I need to associate a single subtask with two separate user stories in Jira. I’ve been looking through the configuration options and interface settings but haven’t found a straightforward way to do this. The subtask seems to only allow linking to one parent user story at a time. Has anyone figured out how to create this kind of multiple parent relationship? I’m wondering if there’s a setting I’m missing or if this requires a different approach altogether. Maybe there’s a workaround or plugin that enables this functionality? Any suggestions would be helpful since this would really streamline our workflow management.
yea, subtasks in jira r stuck to a single parent. a trick is to link that subtask to other stories using issue linking. does the job but not the cleanest solution, ya know?
Nope, Jira just doesn’t work that way - subtasks can’t have multiple parents. I’ve been wrestling with this for years and honestly, most teams end up changing their approach instead of fighting it. Here’s what actually works: create separate tasks under each user story, then link them with blocking relationships. You get the same traceability without breaking Jira’s structure. You could also bump that shared work up to the epic level or make it its own story for cross-cutting stuff. Bottom line - trying to force multiple parents usually screws up your reporting and sprint planning more than it helps.
Jira doesn’t let subtasks have multiple parents - it’s hardcoded that way. I’ve hit this wall tons of times on complex projects where tasks cross multiple user stories. My best workaround? Create duplicate subtasks under each user story and sync them manually. You could also ditch subtasks entirely and use regular issues with epic links or custom hierarchies instead. Some teams track cross-story stuff with labels or components, but that means more manual work. There are marketplace plugins for hierarchies, but none actually fix the multiple parent issue without messing up your workflow.