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How to organize smaller projects within one big project with work management

Lindsey Jensen

Our team works with big contracts that are comprised of many smaller implementations. Right now, we create a Jira work management kanban board/project for each of those implementations. Is there a way for us to create a project for our whole contract, then incorporate those individual projects within it? The idea is we can go to the larger project, and see all of the component implementations in one place, while still keeping all of the flexibility of having separate kanban boards for each.

Thank you!

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Hamza Chundrigar

@Lindsey Jensen

Yes, you can create a Kanban Board (using a Jira Software Project) and modify the JSW board filter that includes multiple projects across your Jira instance (including JWM projects, which is what you're after).

A board’s filter query determines what projects and issues are displayed on the board.

Jack Brickey

Hi @Lindsey Jensen ,

Disclaimer – I don't do a lot with JWM projects much so keep that in mind as a percent my fault here.

From the information that you have provided it would seem to me that having a project for each big contract would be wise. Then I would deal with the smaller implementations within that contract/project by identifying the issues within the implementation uniquely. For example, you might choose to use the Components field to uniquely identify the separate implementations, e.g. Initiative#1, Initiative#2, etc. Of course use unique implementation names so they are immediately identifiable. Then you can use the filters available on your Kanban board to view a specific implementation by the appropriate component.

One of the shortcomings of the JWM default board is the lack of configurability (currently) IMO. With JSW you have much more flexibility. As such, if you happen to have JSW licensed, then you may wish to create a Kanban board based on your project filter. What this would allow you to do is to leverage things like Epics (for your different implementations) and swimlanes by Epics to visually represent the various implementations. There are a number of other benefits this is well.

Please hit me up with any questions you may have so that I might help clarify things.

Mikael Sandberg

It can be done within JWM by using the Category field. I have a couple of JWM projects that does this, one of them is for customer requests that are then categorized based on what part of our platform it belongs to.

Lindsey Jensen

Thanks @Hamza Chundrigar !

This sounds like what we need, but I'm new to Jira and haven't gotten this to work yet.

So far what you said tracks: when I create a Work Management kanban board, there is no option to add a filter query. When I create a Software Development project, the kanban board does have the custom filter function with a line to add a filter query. So, our "master project" will be a Software Development project and we need to pull in Work Management "sub projects".

Now, in looking at the above chart, I used the syntax - project = "Project name" ORDER BY Rank ASC - and I now see that option in the custom filters drop down. However, when I check that box, my sub project doesn't appear anywhere. Any guess as to what I'm doing wrong?

test .png

Thank you!

Lindsey Jensen

Thanks for the suggestion @Jack Brickey ! I can picture what you're saying, which I think is having one big project, the filtering out individual implementation's tasks using components. I'm still new to using Jira in this way, and I haven't some across a components field when I create my test projects. As a PM, I like the Work Management projects because it offers the best view options like list, calendar, and timeline - whereas the Software Projects just have the roadmap and board. I think I will need more training to learn how to leverage Epics, project filters and swim-lanes.

I appreciate your time!

Hamza Chundrigar

@Lindsey Jensen while you did create a Software project — it seems that the type is that of a team-managed project instead of a Company-Managed Project. Team-managed projects do not have the ability to facilitate what you're looking for.

So you would have to create a Company-Managed Software Project. Once that is done:

Go to the Kanban Board in question
In the top-right, select Options (3-dots) and choose Board Settings
Go to the General tab on the left-hand menu
Select "Edit Filter Query"

The query syntax would be:

project in (<Proj-A Key>, <Proj-B Key>, <Proj-C Key>) ORDER BY Rank ASC

Then save this filter to be used in this board in order to access all issues across various Jira projects/boards into this one Master Board.

Note: You need to be a Jira administrator (i.e. someone with the Administer Jira global permission), if you want to set up a new company-managed project in Jira Software

Hope that helps.

Lindsey Jensen

Thanks again! I don't currently have the ability to create company managed boards, so I will have to contact my Jira administrator to give me that access. I really look forward to trying this again then. I appreciate your answer.

Jack Brickey

Yep I get the benefits you mention and understand your desire. A Jira Admin can add the Components field to your project screens and then filter the board as shown below.

Lindsey Jensen

@Jack Brickey This is a very helpful screenshot. I have to contact my Jira administrator and see if my team is interested in adding components. Then I will try out this method as well. It's great to have options on how to accomplish my goal, I've been learning a lot. I appreciate your answer!

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