Configure Jira board columns and statuses
15 min
By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to:
- Differentiate between columns and statuses
- Customize columns to match your workflow
- Use column constraints to prevent bottlenecks
- Describe the impacts of mapping statuses to columns
Match your board to your workflow
Your board should represent how your team really works. In Jira, we call that your workflow. You can tailor your workflow using statuses and transitions.
On a board, statuses are represented by board columns, and transitions are represented by dragging work items between columns. Each column has at least one status.
👇 This is an example of a board with multiple columns.
Configure columns
Your columns should reflect the different stages that your work will be in. Remember, when you move a work item from one column to another, that represents a transition in your workflow.
You have several options to configure the columns on your board as needed.
👇Click the tabs below to explore how you can change columns to match your workflow.
You can create new columns on your board. You’d add a column if you add a new status to your workflow. Or, if you had two statuses in one column, you can add another and separate them.
Board configuration is different in company-managed and team-managed spaces.
To configure board columns in a company-managed space:
- From your board, click Board actions (represented by •••) next to the board name, then Board settings.
- In the sidebar, expand the Layout section, then Columns.
- To add a column, click Create column (represented by +).
- To remove a column, click Remove column (represented by a trash can icon).
- To rename a column, click the current name, then type your new name.
- To reorder columns, click and drag the top of the column to a new position. Changes are saved automatically.
To configure board columns in a team-managed space:
- From your board, select More actions (represented by •••), then Configure columns.
- To add a column, click Create column (represented by +).
- To remove a column, click More actions (represented by •••), then select Remove column.
- To rename a column, click the current name, then type your new name. Click anywhere outside the column to accept your change and then select Publish.
- To reorder columns, click and drag the top of the column to a new position.
Can you control how much work is in a column?
You can manage your work in progress in Jira boards using column constraints in a company-managed space and column maximums in a team-managed space. These features are slightly different, but both help your team quickly identify problems in your workflow by changing the appearance of columns that exceed the constraint or maximum.
👇 Click the tabs below to explore these features.
Company-managed spaces use column constraints to set a maximum and minimum work item count for each column.
To configure a column constraint in a company-managed space:
- In board configuration settings, go to the Columns section.
- Set the Column Constraint to Work item Count.
- Set the maximum and minimum number of work items for any column.
You can also choose whether or not to include sub-tasks in the count.
Users will still be able to add more work items than the maximum or leave fewer work items than the minimum, even with a column constraint or maximum set. The column just visually flags that the minimum or maximum has been broken.
Let's explore an example!
Let’s say a team decides that they want to have at least two work items in the In Progress column and they never want more than four work items in the column.
👇Click the boxes below to explore what this example looks like in Jira.
Configure statuses
There are some restrictions to how you can configure statuses and columns.
👇 Click the boxes below to explore how columns and statuses can interact in Jira.
If a work item is currently in a column, you can’t drag it to a different status in that same column. Instead, users can open the work item and change the status from the Status dropdown.