Need Guidance for setting up Kanban Teams in JIRA Align with the JIRA Connector in place

[Bob Hunt]

We've been able to successfully integrate a bit more than 50 teams (10 ARTs) between JIRA and JIRA Align. I've got a handful of teams who are operating in Kanban (vs. Scrum) mode.

I'm looking for direction on how to best implement these Kanban boards within JIRA Align.

Of course, I understand the mechanics of adding the board but am struggling with the Kanban Set-up / configuration work within JA. 

Within JIRA Align I would think that we want to mimic the presentation / board.

For example, within JIRA the board is set up with workflow states mapped to Kanban Columns (i.e. In Progress, Code Review, Blocked, Done) and they've set up swim lanes for each PI)

Within JIRA Align we also define 'swim lanes' and "columns" within each swim lane. 
I'm not sure how to best configure this board. 
Is there any published detailed guidance on configuring Kanban boards? Of course, I've found some of the help pages (i.e. Create a Kanban Board, Setting up a Kanban Board) but these don't really describe the Swim Lane and Columns adequately for me. 
Any idea where I can get add'l sources?
Thanks in advance!

[Steve Sauser]

@Bob Hunt Hello Bob, great question!

I believe what you are hoping to do is create a Process Flow (Value Stream) for the Story Level.  This article expresses how to do that - Create Process Flows

If you choose to do this, you will also want to read Jira Integration Set-up specifically the section on Map statuses to states.

The lowest level you can set a Process Flow is at the Program Level (meaning all teams inside the Program must use the same Process Flow for the Story level.  

Typically we don't advise doing this at the Team/Story level in Jira Align because the team level is really best suited to Jira and the connection at Story is a sync to bring in the data; however it is 100% best suited to be managed in Jira itself rather than Jira Align. 

• This might make you ask, why is it an option then?  Jira Align was purchased when it was a stand alone application and there are customers who work ONLY in Jira Align with no connection to other products (like Jira or ADO) so it has not been removed. 

Managing Process Flows at the Story level is often quite consuming for Admin Teams, unless everyone follows the same workflow in Jira (Scrum and Kanban).  It is considerably simpler (and prevents confusion about "where do I work") to keep Stories a Uni-directional sync (Jira to JA) and only map the main statuses for the Story Level in the State Mapping.  

Please let us know if you have additional questions on this topic.