Swimlanes in Kanban?

[roymarriott]

I've just created a new Jira account, created a new project as a Kanban board (by following the setup wizard) and imported a trello board.

How do I enable swimlanes?

(I've checked https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/ and it says to click on "..." to get board settings - but I don't get that option. I clicked on the link to learn more about permissions and it takes me to a list of blog posts!)

Thanks for you help!

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

what type of project did you create? Next Gen or Classic and if Classic was it a software or business project? When you create a business project you will get a default non-configurable board. If you have a Classic Kanban board you should have ellipses in the top right-hand corner. Click that and go to board settings then choose swimlanes.

[roymarriott]

Thanks for helping Jack.

I don't remember choosing - but it shows bottom left as "Next Gen". Which I guess explains why it's not configurable (why???)

How do I go about changing it to Classic in order to make it configurable?

[Jack Brickey]

you can either start over (often cleaner) or you can see this article - migrate-between-next-gen-and-classic-projects 

[roymarriott]

Great, thanks Jack - I started over, created a new project with the "Kanban" template and I got a "Classic Software Project" board. I can now access the swimlanes settings - thank you :-)

And that brings up another question, if I can ask it here?

How can I set up "manual" swimlanes? I simply want to give each swimlane a name, and put cards in the relevant swimlane. (For example, the lanes could be "new features", "bug fixes", "support requests"). 

Looking at https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/, the best option seems to be "query." (Would you agree?). But what field should I base the query on? I can't see anything suitable when I open up issues, so should/can I create a new field?

[Dimitris Haristos]

Hi @roymarriott 

you already have appropriate rights to create a project, so this does not seem a matter of permissions. 

Check first that you have properly created a kanban board for your project and then you will be able to configure its swimlanes, indeed as advised in https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/

Cheers,
D.

[Evan Underwood-Harley]

Hi,

You need to ensure your a project admin or an admin of the board before the 3 dots will appear.

If you go to the project -> project settings -> people , then check if your in the project admin role.

You should then see the three dots on the board:

Hope this helps.

Regards

Evan

[roymarriott]

Hi Evan,

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, when I go to project I don't see "project settings" on the menu (see screenshot).

Perhaps this is a "next-gen" thing?

Best wishes

Ro

[Evan Underwood-Harley]

If you go into the project first, then you should see Project Settings on the left hand side, like the below example:

You will only see this option if you have administrator rights on Jira (or your already a project admin of the project your on)

Regards

Evan

[roymarriott]

Thanks Evan - I've followed Jack's advice and deleted my next-gen project and moved to a "classic software project" which has given me access to project settings. I don't see a project admin role, but I seem to be able to set up the swimlanes now, so all set.... thanks for you help anyway

[Jack Brickey]

Roy, FYI... a project admin is designated as an administrator under project > project settings > people

[roymarriott]

That's good to know, thanks Evan. I'm on the free plan, so I don't have access to those settings.

(FYI, I just want a simple kanban board with swimlanes, for my personal use, and to learn a little about Jira along the way. I'm not sure that "simple" and "Jira" are compatible!)