Kanban board column vs label

[Weilies Chok]

I have a "modeling" or "framework design" query. I know we could create any number column in Kanban, also any label as our will. And i am serious to onboard JIRA as my next gen project management toolkit.

I get confused and wonder what is the best to 'model' my Kanban?  with following component for tracking? It's too much possibility and make me undecisive to tag them as "column" or "label

• Severity: S1, S2, S3
• Product Component: Payroll, Leave, Invoice, Security, Payment, Account, etc
• Bug & Roadmap: They are items to work on, similar to Todo but should be something i could categorize them into Phases, severity

There are so many project management methodology out there and JIRA is too flexible. Is there any model (or template) suit kanban? mayb come with series of dashboard/report trackers, so we noobs can follow?

[Deepanshu Natani]

Hi @Weilies Chok 

Columns in a Kanban board should be used to map with status.

Using column for other attributes like Severity will create complexities for you.

As @Carlos Garcia Navarro has mentioned above, you can create a custom field to manage "Severity",

you can use Labels or Components to manage "Product Component". Please note that Both the labels and components have their own advantages and limitations.

[Weilies Chok]

@Deepanshu Natani  do u mean create custom field call "Component" to hold my product features? Which i jz did that.

If severity and component both handled by custom field, i find label is no longer important. I also find i couldn't filter since label no longer in use

[Deepanshu Natani]

@Weilies ChokSeverity can be handled using a custom field, Product component using "Component" or "label" in Jira.

When you are saying you can not filter, where are you trying to filter out the issues? In a search or in a board?

[Weilies Chok]

if i model my severity, product component (e.g. payroll, leave, account, receipt) by label, i could easily filter by label, so at one glance i know Todo vs Done by Severity, by Component (as shown in the screenshot). I am not able to filter by "Custom field".But as advises provided by the JIRA guru like you guys, i would prefer to follow the JIRA/Agile/Sprint best practices coz i rather suffer now than future,, if my methodology are completely wrong and can't run/create proper reports/dashboard in JIRA

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Hi @Weilies Chok ,

Kanban is actually an agile methodology (but not necessarily iterative). If you're using Jira to implement a Kanban project I'd define the (workflow) statuses and then map the columns to statuses. Severities could be fields, product components could be components and you could have a roadmap for those items in the 'to do' list. I'd suggest to create swimlanes where you can separate severities e.g., or bugs, from the rest of tasks.

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Hi @Weilies Chok ,

To follow up on your questions: This may be a matter of opinion, but I'd use a field for severity. You can always create a filter (or a quick filter in the board) to select the tickets with certain priority. And I wouldn't create a field to emulate components, instead I'd use components which have bonus functionalities such as the ability to set a component leader.

There is something that I missed in your original question though: you talked about phases and 'to do' list. Have you thought of using a Jira project with a scrum board and a backlog for 'to do' items?