Work with boards in business projects

Jira business boards are designed to give you an easy and clear way to visualize work. You get a snapshot of project progress, including what work is yet to be started, what's in progress, and what is completed.

To start using boards, open your project and select Board in the sidebar. A few things to know about your board:

• By default, work items are listed in the order of oldest to newest by creation date.

• You can choose if completed work items clear from your board after 7, 14, 30 or 60 days. From your board, go to View settings, then Hide done items after to pick you preference.

• The board can display up to 3,000 work items. If there are more than 3,000 work items, the newest work items may not appear on the board.

Get help with your board.

Board actions

Track work progress

As you start new tasks or finish something, move it along your workflow from one status to the next. Select a work item, then drag and drop as it progresses.

Rank and prioritize work

You can manually sort and rank work items in each column to suit how your team picks up work. Tasks might be ranked by priority, complexity, due date, or something else.

Rearrange columns

Boards are grouped by status as default. In this state, only a project or board admin can re-order the columns, and the set up will apply to everyone using the board.

For boards that are grouped by priority, category or assignee, anyone can change the column order. The order will only apply to the individual.

Complete a work item

Select a work item to open its detailed view. From there you can update fields, like the description, assignee, and due date; comment or watch the work item; and add attachments, linked work items, and sub-tasks.

A work item includes:

1. Quick-add buttons: Add attachments, subtasks, linked work items, and content from Atlassian Marketplace.

2. Transition work items: Quickly get from to-do to done, and any status or workflow step in between.

3. Watch and more actions: Watch the work item, and perform other actions like move and clone.

4. Work item details: Assignee, labels, components, time tracking, custom fields, and more. Choose Show more to view all fields.

5. Configure work item layout: Move and hide fields in the work item view.

6. Docked comment bar: Always there, so you can quickly add a comment no matter how far you've scrolled.

Board columns and the project workflow

There's a correlation between your project's workflow and the columns on your board.

They don’t have to be in the exact same order, but a step in the workflow will be represented as a column on your board, and a column on your board will show in your workflow.

Workflow steps:

To add or rename columns, you need to edit the workflow. For more information, see How do I build the workflow I want?

Board troubleshooting

Why can't I see work items on the board?

If your project contains customized workflows, you might not be able to see your work items on the board.

For instance, you have customized a workflow for a certain work type and you have multiple workflows in your project.

To view a workflow for a specific work type, navigate to your View settings, then select Workflows. Choose the work type and it’s workflow will be visible on the board.

For more information, see How do I build the workflow I want?

Error moving board columns

If you have unsaved draft workflows, you may get an error message when you try to move board columns. To fix this, you’ll require project or board admin permissions:

1. Choose Settings (), and then Work items.

2. Select Workflows.

3. Find the board workflow for the project and select Edit.

4. Save or Discard the unsaved draft.