Configuring Columns

Screenshot 1: the 'Board Configuration' screen — 'Columns' tab.

The number in brackets after the status name shows the number of issues currently in that status.

Mapping Columns to JIRA Statuses

By default, a board's columns are mapped to the default JIRA statuses as shown in the following tables. You can change this if you wish. For example, if you are using additional, customised JIRA statuses, you will probably want to map them to appropriate columns in your board.

To edit the mapping of JIRA workflow statuses to columns of a board:

1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.

2. Click the Columns tab.

3. Change the mapping statuses as described in the following table and Screenshot 1 (above).

   To do the following:	Do this:
   Map a status to a column	Drag a status from the Unmapped column to the appropriate column on the right.
   Unmap a status from a column	Drag a status from its current column on the right to the Unmapped column on the left.
   Change the column mappings of a status	Drag a status from its original column to its relevant new column.

   All statuses configured in the JIRA server are available from the board Configuration page. However, some statuses (in particular, custom statuses) may not be available for issues on your board if the JIRA workflow(s) used by these issues do not utilise those statuses.

See the Tutorial - Adding a Column to a Board for an example of creating a new column and mapping it to a new JIRA status.

Adding a new Status

If your board is using Simplified Workflow:

1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.

2. Click the Columns tab.

3. Click the Add Status button at the right of the page.
   Note that the Add Status button is only available if you have the JIRA 'Project Administrator' permission for this board's project.

If your board is not using Simplified Workflow, please follow the Tutorial - Adding a Column to a Board.

Deleting a Status

If your board is using Simplified Workflow:

1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.

2. Click the Columns tab.

3. Drag the status to the Unmapped Statuses column.

4. Click the delete icon (trash can) for the status you wish to remove.
   Note: that you can only delete a status if you have the JIRA 'Project Administrator' permission for this board's project.
   You can only delete a status if there are no issues that currently have that status.
   If any other workflows are using this status then the status will be removed from your workflow, but not deleted.

If your board is not using Simplified Workflow, you can only delete a status vis the JIRA administration interface — please see the JIRA documentation on Configuring Workflow.

Setting Column Constraints

Constraints specify how many issues a column can contain. You can specify constraints for all columns, or just some of them.

You can choose to exclude sub-tasks from the count. This is useful if you want to constrain the number of major tasks (stories) your team is working on, rather than the total number of individual tasks. This is likely to be more relevant to Scrum teams than to Kanban teams.

To set 'Maximum' and 'Minimumum' constraints for a column of a board:

1. Select Agile > Manage Boards from the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the board of interest.

2. Click the Columns tab.

3. Edit the constraints as described in the following table and Screenshot 1 (above).

   To do the following:	Do this:
   Enable column contraints	In the Column Constraint drop-down, select either Issue Count or, if you don't want to include sub-tasks in the column count, Issue Count, excluding sub-tasks.
   Set a column's 'Min' constraint	Click the yellow box at the top of the column, type the new value and press Enter.
   Set a column's 'Max' constraint	Click the red box at the top of the column, type the new value and press Enter.
   Remove a column's 'Min' constraint	Click the yellow box at the top of the column, delete the current value and press Enter.
   Remove a column's 'Max' constraint	Click the red box at the top of the column, delete the current value and press Enter.
   Remove constraints for all columns	In the Column Constraint drop-down, select None.