How to separate boards, issues and users?

[Emelie]

Hi all, I have issues with the following. 

I work in a big UX/UI team of +100 people. In this team, we have several projects/smaller teams. We now want to use Jira to set up scrum boards to manage our work. 

I have created one Jira site for the whole UX/UI team. In this team, I have started with 3 different boards (one board per project within the UX/UI team) and created some first Jira issues, which I have placed in their different boards. 

What I don't understand is:

1. All issues are seen, for all boards. When I go to board 1, I can still see issues belonging to board 2. I tried fixing this with filters, creating board filters. Adding labels to all the issues and filtering only the issues with certain labels, to be seen in the board. That worked, even though it's not optimal to have to teach everyone to use filters, otherwise tickets will get lost. 
2. Now I want to start a sprint for one of the boards, but here is also trouble. When I clicked to start the sprint in Board 1, it seems like it's affecting the other boards as well. At least it seems to be affecting the other issues, not only the issue I can see in the current board I want to start sprint from. I want the boards to be separated from each other as they are separate projects. 
3. I also want to add some users to have access to Board 1 and some other to Board 2. Right now it's like everyone can see everything. That is not how it should be. 

Maybe I have understood this wrong. Maybe I need to create different Jira sites for all these different projects. Instead of having one huge Jira site for the whole UX/UI, having one Jira for Board 1, another one for Board 2, etc. Is that correct? 

Thank you!

[Chris Buzon]

There are several problems here:

1. Boards are driven by the JQL query for it. It's the same type of query you use when searching for bugs, stories etc.  I assume that all 3 boards are using the same (or similar) JQL query, and likely have all the same statuses mapped to the different columns.  You can fix this by making a better JQL query for each board - each one should only return the results for the tickets you want to see on those boards.  Do that by first using the simple query interface, then swap to the advanced one to get the actual JQL syntax you need, unless you're already good at writing JQL queries.

2. These boards are probably looking at the same project(s), thus they're using the same sprints.  You can't have 2 sprints in progress for the same team.  SO, yes, you are affecting other boards. Same problem as problem 1, actually.

3. That's probably permissions for either the project, or the JQL query you're using to power the boards.  You can find the name of the JQL filter in the board settings (it's a hyperlink), and with that, you can then check the permissions on that query. That can also be done by searching for the name of the filter directly in the Filters selection.

[Chris Buzon]

You definitely do not need additional "JIRA sites", you can use separate projects (as identified through their key, such as QA-123 or ACC-123, etc) to dictate almost anything you need to be different.

[Emelie]

Thank you for your feedback!

Ok, got it. 

How do I create several separate Jira projects within the same project? I have only found that it's possible to create boards. Not several projects within the project. 

[Chris Buzon]

You make different projects within your JIRA instance, not within another project. There is no sub-project.  For example, I could create 100 new projects in my JIRA server, each would get a different Key.  Those projects can share settings (but it's not required), and they can appear on the same boards if the boards settings are set up that way.  

To make a new project you'll require the appropriate permissions, and you find the interface in the bit Project dropdown (see screenshot - it's the one at the top of the screen in JIRA).  If there isn't a button that says "Create project" in the dropdown, you don't have the permissions.

Based on this question, I am going to assume you'll have more questions.  Creating a new project isn't necessarily user-friendly. You'll have to understand a few other concepts to actually solve your problem.

[Emelie]

Ahaa, okay. I understand. I might be using the wrong terminology here, sorry for that. What I mean is what you are explaining. 

In my organisation, I cannot create new projects myself. I need to apply to the helpdesk for a new project each time. And if I am to set up lots of these projects; it will be lots of maintenance and setup work. But indeed, if I can copy the settings of my first Jira project, that would be convenient. 

I understand better now however and need to discuss internally what to do. Thank you for your valuable help!

[Chris Buzon]

I think that you should be able to solve at least a bit of the problem through better JQL queries (per board ones, basically). The project part is definitely going to be more work. 

Good luck!!