How best to set up same set of tasks for multiple clients?

[Susan Korrel]

I've been tasked with creating a project for an upgrade process. Simple scenario:

- set of about 8 major steps in the process (bunch of little tasks in each one)

- about 400 clients

- each client has be taken through each of the steps.

I'm currently considering creating each of the major steps as a workflow/column and each client as a task. Each client would then progress across the board through all the steps.

I think this structure would rule out using sprints - clients could take up to 10 weeks to upgrade depending on how quick their internal processes are. But I also think it creates the least amount of repetition and manual maintenance of the board (i.e. 400 tasks instead of 400x8 tasks).

I'm very new to Jira and don't have a lot of practical experience. I'm looking for suggestions or comments about issues this structure causes, so I can avoid some of the pitfalls I don't know about.

[Nguyen Tran · Accepted solution]

I think you're on the right track to setup 8 workflow steps. However, 400 clients would be a lot to see on a kanban board. I would suggest breaking them down to major groups based on your team's structure using components. For example: by regions (europe, north/south america, asia, australia). You can also filter them on the board by priority or using swimlanes.

[Susan Korrel]

Thanks for your response. We will be using Components and Epics to create 'mini projects'.