Issues, Epics, Workflows & Boards

Issue Types & Hierarchy

Story, Task, Bug, Epic are the common issue types. An Epic groups multiple Stories/Tasks under a larger initiative. A sub-task is a smaller, tightly-coupled child of ONE specific parent issue — different from an Epic's broader grouping of independent items.

Workflow: Statuses & Transitions

A defined sequence of statuses (To Do → In Progress → In Review → Done) with allowed transitions between them, representing a team's actual process. Different projects can configure different workflows to match their real process.

Scrum vs. Kanban Boards

Scrum board: organized around fixed, time-boxed sprints (1-4 weeks), showing the current sprint's committed issues. Kanban board: continuous flow, no sprint boundaries, emphasis on limiting work-in-progress. Jira supports both — pick (or mix) based on team working style.

Backlog & Sprint Planning

The backlog is the prioritized pool of not-yet-scheduled work a team draws from during sprint planning. Story points estimate relative effort/complexity (often Fibonacci: 1,2,3,5,8,13) rather than direct hours. Velocity — historical story points completed per sprint — informs realistic future sprint commitments rather than optimistic guessing.

Swimlanes & Components

Swimlanes group board rows by a category (Epic, assignee, priority) for easier scanning. Components tag an issue by technical area (Frontend, Backend API) — useful for filtering/reporting on larger, multi-area projects.