Jira issues and workflows

Question

Let's say that my team is going to build 35 go karts. I'll have the same 80-item task list for each go kart. The simple tasks (assigned to one person) will be in a Confluence check list. The tasks that require multiple people and communication with different divisions in the company will use Jira workflows.

I don't want to create a new Jira project for each of the 35 go karts!

Question: Should I create Jira "projects" for the different divisions like Procurement, Painting, Safety, Marketing which each have a unique workflow and responsible personnel?

Or should I have different issue types "Procurement", "Marketing", etc and have building the 35 go karts be one big project?

Thanks for any ideas!

(I only have Jira 7 and Confluence 7 licenses and don't have the ability to add plug-ins or additional products)

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Right.  I had not had enough coffee when I wrote that.

I am very sorry I made that mistake.  If you ever meet me (AUG? Summit?  Team Tour?), please feel free to kick me and demand a free coffee, because that sort of silly mistake on my part definitely warrants me buying you a drink!

I meant something more like "Jira Core or Jira Software"

You have agile boards, which answers my question.  I would probably go for one project, with many boards that allow your "developers" (people building karts, people getting the bits, people trying to sell the karts) to focus on what they need to see.  I say "probably" because there may be quirks in your organisation I don't know that may lead to very good reasons for several projects.  But, boards are great because they let you select the right issues for a team even if I'm totally wrong there!

Your original question suggests that you already suspect what will work best for your people, and I think your instincts are right.  "one project per kart" is definitely wrong, "project by department" is much better, especially when you use Agile boards to draw in the issues that various teams need to work with.

Joanne Davis · Answer

>>"do you have Jira Software or Jira Software"?

I've only had one cup of coffee but those look the same to me? I think you're asking if we use the agile boards? Definitely!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

One project per kart is overkill, definitely.

A big question here for me is "do you have Jira Software or Jira Software"?

If it's Jira Software, I would heavily lean towards one project, with different issue types.  I'd then set up appropriate Kanban and/or Scrum boards for each team, with filters like "Project = Karts and issue type = procurement".

Without access to those boards, I would be more tempted to align a set of projects against your teams, with Procurement, Marketing, Engineering etc.