Default Kanban columns

[Megan Little]

As an admin, do I have the ability to default columns on a Jira kanban board for new projects?

[John Funk]

Hi Megan - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

What do you mean by "ability to default columns"?

[Megan Little]

After I create a project the columns in my Kanban board are pre-determined and set. Maybe similar to a default issue scheme.

[John Funk]

There's not really a straightforward way to do that. One option is to create the new project based on an existing project. That gets you all of the shared schemes. However, it does not create a board. 

Then the next step could be to create a new board either by copying an existing board that has those "default" columns - you'll need to create a new filter for the board using the new project name. Or you can create a board based on an existing project (the new one you just created). That should get your columns based on your statuses in your attached workflow scheme - but you would need to test that out as to whether it gets what you want. 

[Megan Little]

Thank you, John. I'll test that out!

[Megan Little]

Hi John, when I created a new board based on an existing board for my new project, the Statuses were there, but not the columns.  This is still requiring me to create new columns and assign out the copied over statuses.  I also noticed that not much else was copied over - card colors, layout, etc. 
My requirement is that I'd like to create a new project with a kanban board that has as many as the same default board settings as possible.  But it sounds like this is largely going to be a manual process, yea?

[John Funk]

Ah, that's good to know. Thanks for trying that out! You will need to create a new board by copying the existing board that has all that you want on it. 

Then immediately go into the Board Settings for the board.

Then click on the Edit Filter Query link. That will take you to the Filter query function. 

Change the old project code to the new project code, click the search button, and then do a Save As. Don't hit save because that will change the filter of the initial board you copied.

Be sure to share the filter after you save it so that others can see the board. 

Then come back to the board and click on the actual name of the previous filter. That puts you in Edit mode where you can now replace that filter with the new one you just created. 

It sounds like a lot but it's actually quite easy and fast to do that. Especially versus changing all of the columns, adding colors, quick filters, swimlanes, etc.