Possibility to link multiple boards within one project?

[Markus Lindberg]

We're just a week in on our Jira-journey within our group and totally new to the tool, we might need some early input on how to adapt it to our specific needs :) We're not a development unit but more like a case-by-case operation with a workflow of onboarding projects related to IT infrastructure.

My thought is to have one board where we can visualize the phase the different projects are in, and one board where we can monitor the workload on the team members. So to my question - there any way of setting up two boards as described above and linke them together somehow? So when I drag a project to another phase in it's process on one of the boards, the workload-board gets updated? Perhaps with the phase status visible on the project card, so I easily can see who is doing what at any given time? 

Thanks!

[Ryan Fish]

@Markus Lindberg

Great question! I use something similar for my program. A couple of things for background:

• Boards represent a view of the JQL query.
• Within/ across boards there is a workflow (status)

For instance, the workflow contains statuses "Program backlog, Review, Funded, Product Backlog, Ready for Sprint, Development, UAT, Release, Complete"

The program board has two options to work with (either, one, or both)

1. JQL - project in (project1,project2, project3...) AND status in (Program backlog, Review, Funded, Development, Release, Complete) AND resolution is not complete
   • The above statuses are relevant to whatever program management tracks or wants to view
2. column management - includes (Program backlog, Review, Funded, Development, Release, Complete) statuses, excludes team board statuses (below)
   • simplifies program management view without excluding issues via JQL

Team boards

1. JQL - project = project1 AND status in (Product Backlog, Ready for Sprint, Development, UAT, Release, Complete) AND resolution is not complete
2. column management statuses = (Product Backlog, Ready for Sprint, Development, UAT, Release, Complete)

The program is managed on the program level but can see when stories are in progress and drill down in to the team level board when we need specifics. the team can see when things drop into the product backlog and select things for a sprint and drill up into the program if they want a 30,000 foot view of incoming work.

There are lots of variations, so use this as example.

[Markus Lindberg]

Thank you for your answer! However, as I'm new to the tool, I'm not sure if I grasp exactly what you mean :) When you say program, do you mean project? Or is program another feature within Jira? Are you using one project with two connected boards to it, and are the boards linked together? If so - how? (And sorry for possible stupid questions :))  

[Ryan Fish]

@Markus Lindberg

"My thought is to have one board where we can visualize the phase the different projects are in, and one board where we can monitor the workload on the team members"
I focused on the multiple board option.

• Why two or more boards?
  
• What constitutes a "project" for you?

For me,

• a program is a collection of projects
• projects have stories, subtasks, bugs (issues)
• teams work on issues
• each team has its own board
• the program has its own board
• boards display the issues as the move through the workflow from inception through release

[Markus Lindberg]

Ok, thanks for clearifying!

What constitutes a project? - Hard to say exactly, both since I'm new to the area and not having particularly deep knowledge within it yet, and since the projects vary a lot (that I do understand :)). But as I mentioned in the main post, our group are not a development team. We run technical onboarding projects (partners, clients, equipment, etc) related to payment infrastructure. I'm guessing the projects span from 1-6 months, but that's a shot from the hip at this point. 

Why two or more boards? - I want the two boards mainly for visualization regarding a) phase of the projects and b) workload on each team member, I figured a two board setup is a good choice for that. But if it's possible to accomplish that in another way, I'm all ears :)