Why can't I make a board for a business project?

[Rich Ireland]

How to I make a board for a business project?

boards > view all boards > create gives me the option to make three flavors, but they all insist on having a software project to use.

I've added the free trial of JIRA Core (which seems odd since JIRA Software should include that already) and the situation hasn't changed.

 

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Business projects have their own, out of the box board with somewhat more limited functionality.

Scrum and Kanban boards are a feature specific of Jira Software and indeed can only be built on Software projects.

[Rich Ireland]

Right.  But out of the box, a business project doesn't have a board and there doesn't seem to be a way to make _any_ flavor of board.

[Walter Buggenhout]

That's not right, @Rich Ireland,

A business project (Jira Core) does have a default board out of the box, that gets created with the project and just reflects the project's workflow:

You cannot edit it though, it does not have a backlog view and so on.

If you say a business project does not have a board, how do you define 'business project'?

[Rich Ireland]

Ok, here's the flow.

I have Jira Software cloud.

I created a "business project"

I attempt to create a board for this project.

Each option, "Agility", "Scrum", and "Kanban" all demand a software project.

There is no option for a business board.

So I go and install "JIRA Core"

no change.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Correct,

You cannot create a board yourself for a business project. If you just select your business project from the projects list, what is your default project view?

The screenshot I added above shows where you should find the board from the side bar. In the old layout it should look like this:

If you really want a full blown software board, you can switch your project to a software project instead (through project settings / details / select software project as type instead of business).

[Rich Ireland]

That would be nice.  I don't see that at all:

[Walter Buggenhout]

Ok,

You actually are at the board. Some of the reasons why you don't see your issues are these:

Read more here and have a look at your project configuration.

[Rich Ireland]

Confused.  "At the board" implies that I can actually configure something.  Yet there is nowhere to go from here.

I love using Atlassian products.  Administration is a nightmare.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Rich Ireland,

The screen you are seeing IS your Jira Core (Business) Board. Normally, you should see your issues there by default, no configuration required at all.

The configuration of the project itself has something in it that prevents your issues from being shown on the board.

You cannot configure your board in a business project, but you can configure your project settings. And something there is preventing your board from showing issues.

So to fix the issue you are seeing, either:

• click project settings on the left of your screen and check whether your project is using more than 1 workflow OR has 2 transitions going to 1 status. If so, make sure you fix that.
• convert your project to a software project as I described earlier and create any Agile Board the way you have been trying to do from there.

[Rich Ireland]

This is it.  The "content management" project template has an unmapped "draft" state and is, I suspect, the source of all my pain.

Now I need to figure out how to fix that.

[Rich Ireland]

Nope.  it's not the unmapped workflow states.

[Mark]

I am using JIRA Software (server). I create a new Project with "Business - Project Management" type. Now it is just a project. I cannot find anywhere I can add a board. I don't even see the "board" icon at the left.

Is it possible to add a scrum board on Business project? Also what's the point to create a "business project" if it is just a limited version of software project? 

[Jack Brickey]

Can you try to create a board outside of the project. When you create the board use the business project. It should ask you for a location and here choose your profile. If you are successful you should be able to add the board to the project as a link. At least this is how cloud has worked for sometime and wonder if it is the same under server new UI.

[JIRA Support Team]

I am using JIRA software server v7.1.10.

I cannot find a way to create a board outside a project. Not sure it is available to server version or not....

[Mike McNamara]

I have server version 7.10. I can create a Board for a business project by going to the Boards menu, selecting View All Boards, and then clicking the Create Board button.

In my case I selected a Kanban board, selected "from existing project", specified a name and selected my business project. This creates the board, and I can configure it as needed like any other board.

The disconnect I have right now though is that the board does not show when I am viewing the project. There does not seem to be a Board section on the left pane to show the board I created. I can only access it through the Boards menu.

I was able to use the Add Link function to add a "Project Board" link to the URL of the Board (copied from the browser as I do not see a specific link specified anywhere in the Board information). This works, but is not consistent with the boards in the software project. 

The only alternative I can find is to change it to a software project, but that is not ideal as it adds tings that really are not needed, like backlog, releases, components, for what I using the project for.

[Rich Ireland]

Mapping the draft status to the 'todo' or 'in progress' states isn't enough.

I attempted to reproduce by changing the order of operations with no success.

It all boils down to having multiple workflows on the same project.

I have a personal board up for the team to use, but it's certainly less than optimal.

[Gavin Johnson]

I'm having the same problem here.

I have 2 workflows in a business project, there was only 1 at one point and the board worked as expected.

Now there are 2 I'm getting the same results as @Rich Ireland.

I've followed the help guide (see screenshot for advice) and made amendments to ensure that the workflows are identical (not what I want, but Atlassian).

I'm still getting a blank board.

Can anyone help me out please?

Many thanks!

[Gavin Johnson]

I've fixed my problem above by using the exact same workflow for my 2 issue types.

It seems silly than we can't have multiple boards in a project for different workflows / issue types.

[Sam Clark]

This saved me hours of work migrating projects over to the software type. Thanks for the info everyone.

[Rich Ireland]

So.  It appears that the answer is JIRA doesn't allow non-software projects to have more than one workflow on a board.  Even though JIRA Software boards already easily accommodate this.

This is sad.  I'm feeling 'monetized' today.

[Rich Ireland]

And after a bit more digging, this is really because the "content management" business project template has an unmapped status, "draft" - which makes the board impossible to use.

[Jack Brickey]

thanks for the info. have never used the that template. keep us posted.

In the end you may want to write up a clear summary as a solution so others can benefit. Too, if you are finding what you believe to be a bug then you should open a ticket w/ Atlassian.

[Dan Chase]

@Rich Ireland maybe just change to a software board, I know "Just" doesn't exactly cover it, but my experience is the business project is a dummied-down version of a software project anyway. You could say it's "easier" to configure the project, but so far I've had to google everything from how to edit a workflow, to how to.. do just about everything, anyway. And that's using a business project! Some features are unnecessarily dummied down (like it has pictures of the field type for text box, instead of just saying text box) but to even get there you have to weave your way through all these screens that have no breadcrumbs - so to find it, you really probably know what a text box looks like, they just seemed to have put all of their effort in the wrong place.

[Jack Brickey]

@Rich Ireland, not sure I understand what a business board is. You have the options to create a Scrum, Kanban or a recently added (cloud anyway) Agility board type. The next screen (below) gives you options for setting up the filter to be used for the board. Note I'm not using just Core so maybe there are differences that would explain you question.

If you want a board based upon a Business project then chose the 2nd or 3rd option. All this means is that you first create the business project and/or filter and then the board.

[Rich Ireland]

Nope.   If you select "Board from an existing project" it will error out if you select a non-software project.

[Jack Brickey]

@Rich Ireland & @Walter Buggenhout, you are RIGHT!

It appears that this is a recent change by Atlassian. I have been creating boards based upon business projects, JSD projects and software project for a long time. They have added a new parameter to board creation called "Location" and it is that field that must refer to a software only project. So I can create a board for my business project as long as I don't have it "appear" within a business project. To be honest not sure what that even means.

So as a work around I set the Location to my TEST software project. It works fine.

So then I went back to an existing business project board and looked at the settings the Locations = my profile.

@Rich Ireland,

try to create you board selecting existing project and then set Location to "Rich Ireland". LMK if you are successful.

[Walter Buggenhout]

@Jack Brickey, @Rich Ireland,

I tried too and this works indeed.

The issue is related to the new UI Atlassian is rolling out on Cloud: Boards in the new Jira experience.

[Jack Brickey]

@Walter Buggenhout, in fact I'm sure you are correct on the new UI being the cause/driver. I don' think it was nefarious but simply an unfortunate side effect. Regardless, I'm really not sure what Location actually is used for and don't care that I have to use my profile as the location. As long as I can have my boards. :-)

[Rich Ireland]

Interesting.  If I change the location, it gives me a useful board.

I still have the unmapped "draft" status problem, but this gives me a board.

[Rich Ireland]

Nope.  It's not the unmapped status.