If I want to create a master kanban board, do all projects need the same workflow?

Question

My dev team has traditionally worked in a scrum but is moving to Kanban. The kanban board has different filters than the projects we have today ( we have about 10 projects that filter into the master dev backlog for scrum).

As I'm creating the kanban, I've been able to create the same filter that exists in our master scrum project, however I can't properly move the issues through the kanban ( it keeps saying that it's a workflow problem). So I updated the workflow in the kanban project to include all the same statuses as the other projects and allowed all of the statuses to transition to each other thinking it would solve the problem, but it didn't. So now I'm wondering, will I even be able to use those projects issues if they all have a different workflow?

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Monica Ross

As your team is moving from scrum to kanban, please consider one of the key ideas of kanban: start with where you are now.

You note the different projects have different status values (workflow steps).  Why the steps are different?  Could they be merged to one set of steps, or instead could they be independent, due to project needs, and just rolled-up for summary visibility.

Once you know those answers it will help you make an informed choice about Jira tool usage.

Best regards,

Bill

John Funk · Answer

Hi Monica,

You can have multiple workflows attached to a board, but that doesn't mean they will all be able to move to the same statues.

Yes, the best route is to use a common Workflow scheme across all of the projects involved. You can have multiple workflows within the scheme (which we do). But they really should be in the same Workflow Scheme.