Set up Jira Cloud
Learn how to set up Jira Cloud and integrate it with other products and applications.
Configure columns
This page applies to company-managed projects only.
Learn more about the difference between company-managed and team-managed projects.
The vertical columns in both the Active sprints of a Scrum board and the Kanban board represent the workflow of your board's project.
At its most basic, a column describes the current status of an issue. For example, the default columns of a Scrum board are To Do, In Progress, and Done. The default columns on a Kanban board are Backlog, Selected for Development, In Progress, and Done.
As your team’s workflow matures, you may start to introduce many more statuses to your team’s working process. To help organize and discuss your team’s work, you can assign multiple statuses to a single column, reducing the number of columns your team uses when moving cards across your board.
You can add, delete, rename, or move these columns if you wish. You can also choose which statuses are mapped to specific columns, and whether any constraints apply to each column.
Before you begin
To configure the board and any of its settings, you must be either:
a project administrator for the location of the board
a board administrator for the board itself
See Permissions overview for more information.
Edit columns
To edit your board’s columns:
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
Under Map statuses to columns, you can edit the columns as described in the following table.
Add a new column | To the right of the columns, select the + icon. Enter a name for the new column and select its category, then select Add column. If you’re using the simplified workflow, a new status will automatically be created to match your new column. |
|---|---|
Change the name of a column | Select a column’s name to edit, modify the existing name, then press Enter. |
Delete a column | Select the icon at the top of the column. Any Jira workflow statuses mapped to the deleted column are moved back to the Unmapped statuses panel. |
Move a column | Hover over the top of a column, then drag the column left or right to its new position. Drop the column to place it in its new position. |
Each column has a gray, blue, or green bar, as shown in the screenshot above.
The single leftmost column will always be grey, representing items in a new state.
The single rightmost column will always be green, representing items in a successful state.
The middle column (or columns, if you add more) are always blue, representing items in progress.
These colors are shown in a number of places in Jira, such as gadgets for Jira applications.
Map statuses to columns
By default, a board's columns are mapped to the default Jira statuses, as shown in the following tables. You can change this if you wish. For example, if you are using additional, customized Jira statuses, you will probably want to map them to appropriate columns in your board.
If your board's project is using the default Jira workflow:
Default column | Default mapped statuses |
|---|---|
To Do | Open, Reopened |
In Progress | In Progress |
Done | Resolved, Closed |
If your board's project is using the simplified workflow:
Default column | Default mapped statuses |
|---|---|
To Do | To Do |
In Progress | In Progress |
Done | Done |
Edit which statuses are mapped to specific columns
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
Under Map statuses to columns, you can edit which statuses are mapped to specific columns as described in the following table.
Map a status to a column | Drag and drop a status from the Unmapped statuses panel to the appropriate column. |
|---|---|
Unmap a status from a column | Drag and drop a status from its current column to the Unmapped statuses panel. |
Change which column a status is mapped to | Drag and drop a status from its original column to its new column. |
Note: Some statuses (in particular, custom statuses) may not be available for issues on your board if the Jira workflows used by these issues do not utilize those statuses.
You can view workflow statuses and transitions in company-managed projects. Select the status dropdown when viewing an issue and select View workflow.
Add a new status
If your board is using the simplified workflow:
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
In the Unmapped statuses panel, select Add status.
Enter a name for the new status and select its category, then select Add status.
Note: The Add status button is only available if you have the Jira project administrator permission for this board's project. See Permissions overview for more information.
Delete a status
You can only delete a status if:
you are the project administrator for this board's project(s), and
no issues currently have that status.
If any other workflows are using this status, then the status will be removed from your workflow, but not deleted.
If your board is using simplified workflow:
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
Drag and drop the relevant status to the Unmapped statuses panel.
If no issues have the status, you can select the icon to delete it.
If your board is not using the simplified workflow, statuses can only be deleted by Jira admins in the workflow editor. See Workflows for more information.
Set column constraints
Setting constraints on each workflow state is a crucial part of Kanban, so that you can ensure that work is continually flowing through the pipeline. You may also find it handy in Scrum, so that you can see bottlenecks early, and adjust the scope of your sprint. You can specify constraints for all columns, or just some of them.
Constraints trigger a visual indicator when a minimum or maximum number of issues appear in a column. On the board, you’ll notice
On the board view, if a column constraint is exceeded, then the column header will change color, as follows:
Red column header — Maximum number of issues exceeded
Yellow column header — Minimum number of issues not met
The values of the column constraints will appear at the top of each column you set them for. These values don't have any impact on the number of issues displayed in the columns.
Column constraints apply to the total number of issues in a column, regardless of whether issues are hidden by a quick filter.
To set column constraints of a board:
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
Edit the constraints, as described in the following table.
Enable column constraints | Under Column constraints, select either Issue count or Issue count, excluding subtasks. Enabling column constraints will show the issue count in each column. You may want to exclude subtasks (recommended for Scrum teams), so you can constrain the number of stories for your team, rather than the number of individual tasks. |
|---|---|
Set a column's minimum or maximum constraint | Under a column’s name, you can enter a minimum or maximum value. To remove a constraint, clear the existing value. |
Remove constraints for all columns | Under Column constraints, select None. |
Configure columns directly on the board
If you’re a project or board admin, and the board uses the simplified workflow, you can configure columns directly on the board:
To create a column, select the + icon to the right of all columns.
To rename a column, select its name to edit directly.
To move a column, select its top, then drag the column to its new position.
To set column constraints, right-click its name or hover to select more actions (•••) > Set column limit.
To delete a column, right-click its name or hover to select more actions (•••) > Delete.
Enable the Kanban backlog
You must be a Jira administrator or a board administrator for the board to enable the Kanban backlog.
Managing your backlog in the first column of your Kanban board is easy to do — as long as there are only a few issues in your backlog. As your backlog grows, viewing and scrolling through these issues can become inefficient.
When you enable the Kanban backlog, you’ll get a bigger backlog in a dedicated space where you can create and rank issues for your team. You can also plan story development in the backlog, without distracting your team from their work-in-progress on the Kanban board.
To enable the Kanban backlog:
Go to your board, then select more () > Configure board.
Select Columns in the left menu.
Under Map statuses to columns, you’ll notice the Kanban backlog panel. To enable the backlog, drag and drop an existing status on the panel. To create a new status instead, select Add status, then drag and drop it on the panel.
If the Kanban backlog is enabled, you can select how epics are displayed on your board and backlog. Epics can be displayed as either issue cards, or in the epic panel in the backlog.
Need help? If you can't find the answer you need in our documentation, we have other resources available to help you. See Getting help.
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