TM-08
Sub-Task Summary Suggests a Full Story
Type Misclassification
Default severity: medium
Product BacklogPrioritizationQualityBusiness Value
What it detects
A Sub-task issue has a summary that matches user story format patterns or contains user-facing feature language — it may be too large to be a sub-task and should be a Story or Feature. Misclassified stories as sub-tasks are invisible to sprint planning, velocity, and backlog metrics.
Detection formula
story_indicators = config.tm.story_format_patterns + config.tm.outcome_indicators IF issue.type IN config.workflow.subtask_types AND (summary MATCHES any(story_indicators) OR issue.story_points >= config.discipline.max_sp_per_type\[\'Sub-task\'\]) // too large for subtask THEN FLAG probable_story_as_subtask IF issue.story_points > config.tm.subtask_story_sp_threshold // default: 3 SP THEN CRITICAL — subtask sized like a storyExamples in practice
- A team shows a sub-task issue has a summary that matches user story format patterns or contains user-facing feature language while story format patterns is set to \[\'As a .+ I want\',\'Ako .+ chcem\'\].
- Example signal: A Sub-task issue has a summary that matches user story format patterns or contains user-facing feature language — it may be too large to be a sub-task and should be a Story or Feature.
Suggested response
Retype or rewrite summaries so issue types match the actual work described.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
A Sub-task issue has a summary that matches user story format patterns or contains user-facing feature language — it may be too large to be a sub-task and should be a Story or Feature. Misclassified stories as sub-tasks are invisible to sprint planning, velocity, and backlog metrics.
Why it matters
When "Sub-Task Summary Suggests a Full Story" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Retype or rewrite summaries so issue types match the actual work described.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Sub-Task Summary Suggests a Full Story" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.