Can't Add Category to Board Without Status. Can't Add Status Without Category

[soriyo]

I added a category and status to my board a couple of years ago and subsequently deleted it. I now want to add another.and can't figure out how to do it. Has something changed?

On the manage board page, I can add a category/column. When I do, I get a warning flag saying I need to add a status to it. There are no unassigned statuses in the view and can't complete the add without assigning one.

I have selected Issues and then Statuses to add additional statuses. There, I'm forced to assign it to the category, IIFC, Open, In Progress, or Done. Since I have other categories on the board this may be reuse of the term category to mean something else. I've also added a category to the project. It seems to be unrealated to the board so maybe a third use of category.

It's a kanban project using the classic workflow. I add the statuses to the workflow as well.

I have a free account if that is a limiting factor.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Ok, there's a confusing word in use here, so I want to explain it before we go further.  

The word "category" has two meanings in Jira and they should come out as

Project category:  a way to group projects together, the list defined by you

Status category: a kind of meta-status, gathering your actual status into To-do, In-progress and Done.

I'm pretty sure you mean status category here.

You start by saying "add a category to a board" - that cannot be done.  Boards are made up of columns that you define, and you then map various status into them. 

When you create a new board, it will default to three columns, to-do, in-progress and done, and mapping the status it finds in your workflows based on their current status category.  You can change that, adding, removing or rearranging columns, and mapping any status into any column.

So, I would step back from the category.  Ignore it for now and just look at your columns and what status you map into them.  The category has no relevance here, other than defining a default and changing the colour of the status so you can easily see where a status should probably go (the usual logical mapping expected is anything in the to-do category to go into the left-most column, all the "done" status in the last column, and all the in-progress across all the columns in the middle)

[soriyo]

I've been looking at too many Jira pages. Your'e right about the board. When I hover over the + symbol it say create column. I was wrong calling it a category. Thanks for the clarification on project category.

After creating a column on the board, there is a warning in column header ... I just went to the project to get the message and was able to add the column without the error. I realized I had done it differently. It was only when I select the board display, click on the ellipsis, select configure board, select create column that I get the warning. If I just select on the board without goi8ng to configure board it appears to work. A status was assigned to the column by Jira. It happens to be the right one.

So it looks like I should avoid configure board. Is there any otherpurpose for it? Is it not necessary for a Kanban board perhaps?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The board configuration is there for maintaining the board, there's no reason to avoid it.  The error message you're getting is not an error, it's just a reminder that for the column to be of any use, you'll want to map at least one status into it.  If your add column directly from the board is getting the right status, great, but you'll need to use configure board to update it if it gets the wrong one, or you need to re-map status, remove columns and so-on.

Kanban boards need the same sort of mapping and configuration (but are more simple in some areas because they don't need sprints and the cards are the estimates)

[soriyo]

Thanks for the additional info. The problem I had on the configure panel was that I could create the column and view the warning message, but couldn't complete the update to the board as the update button was grayed out. It could be I was doing something else wrong. At any rate, I'm all set.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @soriyo -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Would you please clarify what you mean by "category" and perhaps post an image of your board settings?

I believe that status category values are hard-coded into Jira Cloud with three values possible: to do, in progress and done.

Kind regards,
Bill