How can i implement customer Kanban tokens in Jira

[Ivan Belis]

In our fysical boards we use tokens to limit the WIP coming from a customer.

These tokens are called "kanban tokens" or "customer tokens". For a detailled description see this explanation https://kanbanize.com/blog/patrick-steyaert-customer-kanban/#_ftn2

The fysical tokens are just post-it's with a special color code.

There are a limited number of these tokens available.  If no token is available the customer (or project planners) have to wait for a free token before they can put new issues to the teams.

Is it possible to implement the same technique with JIRA ?

[Tim Wallis]

Ivan, I want to do this same thing. Did you find a satisfactory solution?

[ivan_belis]

Hi,  

To implement the token principle we 

• created a custom multiselect  field with the names of the tokens (1 name for each team)
• to assign a token to an issue, you just select the correct tokens.  There is a 'token limit' but is not enforced.
• dashboards give on overview of all tokens  (multiple dashboard , on the team level and generic ones)
• on the same dashboard the token-limits are also displayed (just plain text)
• those limits can be changed based on availability of the team

So we do not have an automatic validation of the number of tokens but a manual process with a regular follow-up in the teams and x-teams.

This gives use the needed flexibility and also visibility of the load on the teams.

[Andrew Laden]

You could probably do it with some sort of scripted validator, that can use a JQL search to find the number of active reported issues by the user, and fail validation if that number is higher then x.

[Jack Nolddor _Sweet Bananas_]

Hi Ivan,

Is WIP limits feature what are you looking for?

Regards.

[Ivan Belis]

No not really.

The WIP limit is on a single column on the board, the 'busy' state for example.

We want to limit the total number of active requests a customer can have, they can be in any state of the workflow, 'busy', 'validating', ....

[Gustav L'Estrade]

Hello Ivan,

It is possible to set a Max number of issues in a column on the board. In that way you can limit the customer from putting new issues there until one or more issues have been transitioned. 

This is done via Board (top right corner from the board-view) > Configure > Columns. Then on each column there is a Min and Max setting.

Hope this helps!