Kanban Board in JIRA

What is Kanban Board in JIRA?

Firstly, let us understand what Kanban symbolizes. Kanban is an  Agile workflow management methodology. It uses visualization of tasks to improve the efficiency of the development process. It helps the development process work and improves continuously.

We use the concept of the Kanban Board in it. Kanban Board in JIRA consists of all the different works being done in the project. It consists of details like assignee, priority, etc. It has various categories like requested, to do, in progress, done, etc. These categories have different labels or cards under them stating other parts of the project. It can contain screenshots, labels, etc. Also, it puts a limit in each column according to the team's capacity.

Since Kanban originated from manufacturing units, it can also be in a physical form. One such can be the one below.

But, since we will be using JIRA, the one in JIRA looks like the below image.

Components of a Kanban Board

Now, let us discuss the different components of the Kanban Board.

• Kanban Columns: Each column depicts a stage in the cycle of the development process of the software—E.g., to-do, in-progress, done, etc.
   
• Kanban Cards: A Kanban card is an information label for a particular task. It tells about the task details, like assignee, priority, etc.
   
• Work-In-Progress(WIP) Limits: When there are multiple stages in the workflow. Work-in-progress limits set a bar to the maximum number of tasks in a stage. It helps in the faster completion of tasks. Also, with it, the team concentrates on the current tasks rather than many of them.
   
• Commitment Point: All the tasks are shown on the Kanban board in different stages. At the point of time when the work on a task starts, that point is the commitment point.
   
• Delivery Point: When the task is completed and all set for delivery to the customer, it reaches the delivery point. At this point, all the work is done on the task. The task travels from a commitment point to a delivery point.

Also, generally, the states of a Kanban Board in JIRA are Backlog, To Do, Development, Testing, Deployment, and Done.

How to Create a Kanban Board in JIRA

Now, let us create a Kanban Board in JIRA with the help of the following steps.

Step 1: Logging IN

Log in with your Atlassian credentials and select the JIRA work management option. The JIRA work management comes when you get the JIRA software and service management.

Step 2: Create a Project

After you select the JIRA work management option, create a new project.

Step 3: Kanban Project

Select the Kanban option from the multiple project options.

Step 4: Select the Kanban Template

Now, select the Kanban template for this project. This step explains the WIP.

Step 5: Select the Project Type

Now, you will see two options: team-managed project and organization-managed project. For our project, we are choosing the team-managed one.

Step 6: Fill in the Project Details

Now, type in the name of the project.

Step 7: Create the Tasks

Now finally, your Kanban Board is ready. Make the tasks and assign them to the different categories(or columns).

Step 8: Configuration

Now that the Kanban Board in JIRA is ready, you can configure it differently. You can edit columns, WIP limits, etc.

Like, in the image below, you can use advanced settings like export to XML, export to Word, etc.

Also, you can change other settings in the issue type, like creating a field in a short text, drop-down, timestamp, label manner, etc. Also, you can change the issue's start, end, priority, risk, impact, etc.

Also, Kanban Board has a default backlog column. But, it can become long and congested. So, Kanban provides you with a separate column for the backlog to manage it. It comes in a different tab and does not affect the team’s task.

Advantages of the Kanban Board in JIRA

Let us see some benefits of using the Kanban Board in JIRA.

• It increases the level of transparency in the team. Anyone can see which task is under which column throughout the process.
   
• Kanban Boards have WIP limits which help improve the team’s performance. Also, bottlenecks and overwork situations can be avoided using the WIP limits.
   
• Workflows and control charts help the team work in a better way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is JIRA?

Jira is a popular project management tool. It is also an issue-tracking tool. It is developed by Atlassian. It helps teams in planning, tracking, and handling the work optimally. It is also used for IT service management, bug tracking, etc.

What is a Kanban Board?

Kanban Board helps in visually understanding the workflow. It has different columns, each depicting a different stage of the workflow. It has cards to represent work items. Also, it puts a limit in each column according to the team's capacity.

What are some benefits of using a Kanban Board in JIRA?

It increases transparency in the team as every task under every column is visible to the whole team. Also, the WIP limits help prevent bottleneck and overwork scenarios. It also helps increase the team’s performance by limiting the current work and visualizing the whole process.

What are the different components of a Kanban Board?

The different components of a Kanban Board are Kanban Cards(or Visual signals), Kanban Columns, WIP(Work In Progress) limits, Commitment Point, and Delivery Point. Each component is helpful in a Kanban Board and helps visualize the whole process.

Conclusion

Project management is a crucial part of the development process. Today, we have different tools for it, like JIRA software. In JIRA software, too, we have different methodologies we can adopt for the working of the project. Kanban is one such agile workflow management methodology. It uses the concept of boards known as Kanban Boards. This article studied Kanban Boards, its components and states, its benefits, and its implementation.

If you want to widen your horizon in this field, we recommend you read the following articles:

• How to Create Backlogs in JIRA
   
• Introduction to Kanban Board
   
• Kanban Vs. Scrum

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