What is the main difference between a Kanban project and a Process Control project?

[Sara Petrosian]

Setting up a Project in Jira for my team. We're not agile, so I'm wondering which project type will be better to use? What are the advantages/disadvantages of each project type?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Sara Petrosian 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

The Jira product has two basic project architectures - Business/Work Management projects and Software projects.

The Process Control project is a template that will result in creation of a Business/Work Management type of project.

The Kanban project is a template that will result in creation of a Software type of project.

The two types of projects have some different features available by default.

A Business project gets one and only one board view set up automatically for it. A Software project will initially get one board view set up but it is possible to add other board views that will show up in a list of boards under the project.

A Business project's board is kanban-like in that it generally shows all the not-done work. Business project boards don't support enabling a Backlog screen, where Software project boards do. With a Backlog screen, future work can be separated from the active work that is displayed on the board.

In both types of projects it is possible to have different workflows for the different issue types in the project. However in a Business project the board can show the cards that match only one workflow at a time. In Software projects the board can show all cards regarless of multiple workflows being used.

Business projects have an issue "tagging" feature called Category. This is a single-choice selection list where you specify the selectable values. Software projects don't have such an option set up by default. If you needed that you would have to add a custom field.

Software projects using the Kanban template will have available some pre-built reports, like Burndown charts, which will not be available for a Business project.

There are a variety of other differences. The above is just a partial list.

[Sara Petrosian]

Hi Trudy,

Thanks for the elaborate explanation! Do you think it is okay to use a Kanban template if you team isn't in software development? I think the ability to create several boards and have a backlog would be helpful for our team. Let me know your thoughts!

[Trudy Claspill]

It is absolutely okay to do that!! You don't have to a be a software team for the functionality to be useful.

Atlassian tries to minimize the complexities involved in getting started with the products, but they are very customizable and you should use them in a manner that helps your organization the most.

[Sara Petrosian]

Awesome! Thanks for your help, Trudy.

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Hi @Sara Petrosian

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

The main difference between the Kanban template and the Process control template is that the Kanban one has more work item types and allows you to track and limit work in progress, while the Process control one is based on what used to be called work management an are limited to two issue types.

[Sara Petrosian]

Hi Mikael, thanks for the speedy response. This was helpful!