Swimlanes in Kanban?

roymarriott March 26, 2020

I've just created a new Jira account, created a new project as a Kanban board (by following the setup wizard) and imported a trello board.

How do I enable swimlanes?

(I've checked https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/ and it says to click on "..." to get board settings - but I don't get that option. I clicked on the link to learn more about permissions and it takes me to a list of blog posts!)

Thanks for you help!

 

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Jack Brickey
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March 26, 2020

what type of project did you create? Next Gen or Classic and if Classic was it a software or business project? When you create a business project you will get a default non-configurable board. If you have a Classic Kanban board you should have ellipses in the top right-hand corner. Click that and go to board settings then choose swimlanes.

roymarriott March 26, 2020

Thanks for helping Jack.

I don't remember choosing - but it shows bottom left as "Next Gen". Which I guess explains why it's not configurable (why???)

How do I go about changing it to Classic in order to make it configurable?

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
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Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
March 26, 2020

you can either start over (often cleaner) or you can see this article - migrate-between-next-gen-and-classic-projects 

roymarriott March 27, 2020

Great, thanks Jack - I started over, created a new project with the "Kanban" template and I got a "Classic Software Project" board. I can now access the swimlanes settings - thank you :-)

And that brings up another question, if I can ask it here?

How can I set up "manual" swimlanes? I simply want to give each swimlane a name, and put cards in the relevant swimlane. (For example, the lanes could be "new features", "bug fixes", "support requests"). 

Looking at https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/, the best option seems to be "query." (Would you agree?). But what field should I base the query on? I can't see anything suitable when I open up issues, so should/can I create a new field?

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Dimitris Haristos July 15, 2020

Hi @roymarriott 

you already have appropriate rights to create a project, so this does not seem a matter of permissions. 

Check first that you have properly created a kanban board for your project and then you will be able to configure its swimlanes, indeed as advised in https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-swimlanes/

Cheers,
D.

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Evan Underwood-Harley
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March 26, 2020

Hi,

You need to ensure your a project admin or an admin of the board before the 3 dots will appear.

If you go to the project -> project settings -> people , then check if your in the project admin role.

You should then see the three dots on the board:

board.PNG

Hope this helps.

Regards

Evan

roymarriott March 27, 2020

Hi Evan,

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, when I go to project I don't see "project settings" on the menu (see screenshot).

Perhaps this is a "next-gen" thing?

Best wishes

Rox.png

Evan Underwood-Harley
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March 27, 2020

If you go into the project first, then you should see Project Settings on the left hand side, like the below example:

settings.PNG

You will only see this option if you have administrator rights on Jira (or your already a project admin of the project your on)

Regards

Evan

roymarriott March 27, 2020

Thanks Evan - I've followed Jack's advice and deleted my next-gen project and moved to a "classic software project" which has given me access to project settings. I don't see a project admin role, but I seem to be able to set up the swimlanes now, so all set.... thanks for you help anyway

Jack Brickey
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
March 27, 2020

Roy, FYI... a project admin is designated as an administrator under project > project settings > people

People_-_JIRA.jpg

roymarriott March 27, 2020

That's good to know, thanks Evan. I'm on the free plan, so I don't have access to those settings.

(FYI, I just want a simple kanban board with swimlanes, for my personal use, and to learn a little about Jira along the way. I'm not sure that "simple" and "Jira" are compatible!)

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