About Kanban with Jira / Greenhopper

[Maria Alejandra Rodas Sánchez]

I have three things that I don't know how can I manage:

1. I have seen in kanban books, that in the board have a status, but in each status has two columns, one called queue and other one called in progress, I don't see how can I manage this case in jira, I have to have two different status or can I have only one status with two sub-statuses?
2. The other thing that I would like to know is how to manage the WIP. Is Possible to define in one status the WIP per number of card and in other status define WIP for example per number of hour that is necesary to invest in this work item?
3. Always I have to define a workflow in jira, for each different board in kanban?

[Benito Picarelli · Accepted solution]

Good afternoon Maria,

1 - I did a simulation and tried to create columns and statuses on a test board I made:

http://imgur.com/Xakm3Gk

Greenhopper will not allow you to create a column inside a column, but you can create custom statuses once you switch the kanban board to Simplified Workflow. This is a link explaining how to do it:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Using+JIRA+Agile+Simplified+Workflow

For the full supported customization on Greenhopper, please check the official documentation on the following link:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Configuring+Columns

2 - Basically, the WIP is a number to set a limit in the number of tasks that are being done at the same time inside it's column. This concept in Kanban is used to help the team to identify any problem that might be stopping some task to be complete (and be considered "done"), since the flux will get stuck once a task finds any solution problem. For this reason, the WIP limit is set per column. One option that you have is to create custom columns (using the documentation I linked above) and set the WIP limit for that specific column as you wish.

3 - I didn't get what you mean. Are you talking about always having to create a workflow inside a Jira project to be able to use the board on greenhopper? If this is what you meant, then the answer is yes. Everytime you create a board in Kanban you always have to link it either to a filter or a project and the project can have multiple workflows.

Best regards,

Benito Picarelli