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!   

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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.

[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?

Thank you! 

[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:

1. Go to the Kanban Board in question
2. In the top-right, select Options (3-dots) and choose Board Settings
3. Go to the General tab on the left-hand menu
4. 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. 

[Lindsey Jensen]

Hi @Hamza Chundrigar I'm making progress but have hit a wall.

I was able to elevate my permissions to Site Administrator so I can create company managed projects. I created a Software Project and edited the Filter Query to pull in two projects that I can see on the Kanban board. The problem that I'm running into now is that the issues are out of order. 

As you can see in the image "Phase 1," Phase 1 is a parent issue with several child issues. This is displayed within a dark gray box to group the child tickets together.

Then as I scroll down, you can see in image "Phase 4 and 6a," that Phase 5 is missing and should fall in between those. 

Rather, as you can see in image "Phase 7 phase 5," phase 7 falls after phase 5. 

Additionally, some phases don't have the dark gray box previously described - see image "Phase 2 and 3." 

I would like to be able to re-order how these appear on the kanban board. I can drag and drop child issues within the dark gray boxes, but I can't move other issues into those gray boxes, and I can't move the gray boxes themselves. 

Ideally, I'd like to be able to collapse the child issues into the parent issues, and just see Phase 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 in order, then have other projects that I full in via the filter query appear the same way. 

I hope this makes sense. Any additional tips you can provide would be immensely helpful.

Many thanks!

[Hamza Chundrigar]

Hey @Lindsey Jensen 

Thank you for dropping those screenshots for reference. I'd be happy to help but first can you please confirm the following:

• Are you using a Kanban board or Scrum Board and can you confirm if ranking is enabled?
• Can you tell me what this board's filter JQL query is? is it something along the lines --> project in (X, Y) ORDER BY Rank ASC
  • Where X is one Jira Project
  • and Y is another Jira Project

Based on the screenshots you've provided it seems the tasks "Phases 1 to 7" belong to the same Jira project (DL2023). Looks to me that you also do not have any swimlanes enabled on your board to group certain issues together, correct?

---

Ideally, I'd like to be able to collapse the child issues into the parent issues,

A simple way to do this is by using Quick filters.

Go into your Board Settings > Quick Filters

Then:

• Name = Collapse Subtasks
• JQL = issueType != Sub-task
• Description = <This is optional, feel free to fill this out if you wish>

Click Add once you're done. This is how it should look like:

Go back into your board, and you'll see the "Collapse Subtasks" quick filter button (like seen below)

Once you click on it, it'll collapse all subtasks within the board. (you can view them by going into the parent task, or simply toggle off the quick action filter button to expand all sub-tasks)

Quick Recording on Ranking Tasks 

I would like to be able to re-order how these appear on the kanban board. I can drag and drop child issues within the dark gray boxes, but I can't move other issues

Hmm that's weird. You can rank an issue by dragging and dropping it to a higher or lower position in the Scrum or Kanban backlog or main board. When you rank an issue that has sub-tasks, all of the sub-tasks are automatically moved with the issue.

I can drag and drop child issues within the dark gray boxes

Correct. Sub-task issues can only be ranked in relation to their 'sibling' issues.

I have created a short recording clip ranking/dragging-and-dropping issues on my board. Please see below.

Hope it helps!

- Hamza

[Lindsey Jensen]

Thank you @Hamza Chundrigar ! 

I am using a Kanban software project, and can confirm the JQL query syntax is just as you provided: project in ("Project Plan 2023", "testing 123") ORDER BY Rank ASC

I created the quick filter to collapse subtasks as you instructed, and that helps immensely! I now only see the parent issues, and I was able to drag and drop them into the proper order. 

However, when I don't have the collapse subtasks filter engaged, the subtasks for phase 5 still appear down at the bottom, after phase 7. I think the reason for this is I had to add that phase in last and the issue number is higher (phase 7 is DL2023-36 and phase 5 is DL2023-40). Is there a way I can change the actual issue number?

I haven't used swimlanes, how would they help in this instance?

Thank you again so much for your help!! I'm so much closer to my goal and am extremely pleased with the progress so far.