How to use Kanban Status Board for Jira: real workflow transitions by drag and drop, WIP limits, swimlanes, column sums, bulk moves, shared views and gadget.

Overview

Kanban Status Board shows a Jira project’s issues on a Kanban board with one column per status of each issue type’s workflow — a separate board for each issue type (“Story Issues”, “Bug Issues”…). Dropping a card on another column runs the real workflow transition into that status.

Every change is made as you, with your own Jira permissions and your workflow’s rules: if Jira would refuse it, the app does too — the card goes back and a message gives Jira’s reason. The app runs on Atlassian Forge and stores only your saved filters and views, in your Atlassian site.

Install and open the board

Install Kanban Status Board from the Atlassian Marketplace (a Jira admin approves the permissions).
Open a project. Kanban Status Board is in the project’s navigation (under More when the row is full).

The Payments Platform project navigation: Summary, Timeline, Backlog, Active sprints, Calendar, Reports, List, Forms, Goals, Components, Development, Releases, Archived work items, Docs and Kanban Status Board, which is selected.

The board shows that project only; you need “Browse projects” in it.

Columns are your workflow

Each column is a status of the issue type’s workflow, coloured by its category (to do, in progress, done).
Without a saved order, columns go To Do → In Progress → Done by category. Drag a column by its header, or use Move left / Move right in its menu; the order is the same on every issue type’s board of the project and is kept with Save.
Statuses your workflow cannot reach from a card’s status are blocked while you drag (“No transition to …”) and greyed out in the card’s Move to menu.
If a transition needs fields (a resolution, for example), the card goes back and the message names the field — open the issue to finish the transition there.

Move cards

Drag a card to another column, or open its ⋯ menu:

Move to runs the transition, also from the keyboard.
Rank (Jira Software sites): Move up / Move down, or drag inside the column, stores the issue’s rank in Jira — your Jira board shows the same order.
Edit summary renames the issue (Enter saves, Escape cancels); View the issue opens Jira’s issue dialog. Click the avatar to change the assignee.

Move several issues and undo

Ctrl+click (⌘+click or Shift+click) cards, or Select them from their menus. The bar “N selected” offers Move to… and Clear selection.

Each issue is changed like a single move: one that Jira refuses goes back with the reason, the others move. Undo in the message — or Ctrl+Z (⌘Z) — reverses the last move, for every card in it.

WIP limits, swimlanes and column sums

WIP limit — a column’s ⋯ → Set WIP limit…, a whole number from 1 to 999 (empty or 0 removes it). The header shows “cards / limit” and turns red over it. With swimlanes, “1 · 2 / 1” means 1 in this lane, 2 in all lanes, limit 1. Limits warn; they do not stop a move — as on Jira’s own boards.
Board settings (the gear next to Refresh):

Swimlanes — None, Assignee, Parent (epic), Priority or Project. Each lane has a title and count; click it to fold the lane. Columns keep one order in every lane, and a card moves within its lane.
Column sums — issue count only, original or remaining estimate (hours), Story Points or any number field; Σ appears next to each column’s count. Done issues are not counted in remaining estimate.
Card fields — Parent, Status, Due date, Labels, Components, Fix versions or Remaining estimate on every card.
Auto-refresh — off, or every 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes while the page is visible and nothing is being dragged.

Cards are marked Overdue, Due today, Due tomorrow or Due in N days (up to 3); Done issues get no mark.

Filters and quick find

Only my issues and Assignees are always visible; More filters opens Include statuses, Exclude statuses, Issue types, Priorities and Created after / before. Clear filters empties them.

Find by key or summary, Mine and Unassigned narrow the cards on screen at once and are not saved. A board loads up to 1,000 issues; if more match, the board says “Not every issue is shown”.

Profiles

The Profile select keeps named filter sets for this project; the board opens with default. Save stores the filters, column order, WIP limits and board settings (“Unsaved changes” shows until then). Type a new name into the select and choose Create profile “…” to add one; ⋯ → Delete profile… removes one. Profiles are yours only.

Views for every way you work

The first tab, By status, is the board above. + (Add a view) adds By due date, By priority, By assignee, Workload, Sprints (Jira Software) and By field… — Labels, Components, Fix versions or a single-select field.

On a By field board, dropping a card on another column replaces the value it was shown under; None removes it.
The Sprints view shows a Scrum board’s Backlog, active sprint and future sprints; a drop moves the issue between them in Jira.
An added tab has its own filters, saved with Save into the view.
With a view selected, the ⋯ menu next to Save renames, moves or removes it, exports it, and shares it with the project:

Everyone who can open the project page finds a shared view under + → Shared views. Its owner and project admins can save changes for everyone; others can Save as my view. The address follows the selected tab, so a link opens that view.

Export to CSV saves the cards on screen with key, summary, column, status, priority, assignee and due date — the file is made in your browser.

Dashboard gadget

Add Kanban Status Board to a dashboard (Edit → Add gadget), and in Configure choose the board, the Project, the column sums and the refresh interval. The gadget lists issues per status with a bar for each column’s share:

The gadget searches Jira as the person viewing the dashboard.

Dark theme

The board follows Jira’s theme:

Keyboard

The cards are one Tab stop: ↑ / ↓ within a column, ← / → to the next column with issues, Home / End and Ctrl+Home / Ctrl+End to the first and last issue. Enter or Space opens the card’s menu; unreachable statuses are disabled there.

Permissions and data

Issues stay in Jira. Transitions run through Jira’s REST API as you, with your workflow’s conditions and validators.
Stored by the app: your profiles, view tabs and shared views, in the app’s Forge storage inside your Atlassian site. Nothing is sent outside Atlassian.
Permissions: read and write Jira work, read users and groups, app storage, Jira configuration (to list group members), and Jira Software’s board, sprint and rank permissions for ranking and the Sprints view.
On uninstall profiles and views are removed; the status changes stay in Jira’s history.

See the privacy policy.

Troubleshooting

I can’t drop a card on a status — the workflow has no transition from the card’s status to it. Use another path, or ask a Jira admin to add the transition.
“… is required” after a drop — the transition has a screen with required fields. Open the issue and complete the transition there.
An issue is missing — a filter hides it (Clear filters), or more than 1,000 issues match.
“Issues could not be loaded: …” — press Retry. “Profiles could not be loaded” — Try again; nothing is lost.

Still stuck? Contact support.

Priority Board — the same board by priority, ranked like your backlog.
Deadline Tracker — deadlines across projects, rescheduled by drag and drop.
Workload & Capacity Planner — per-person load against weekly capacity.

Kanban Status Board for Jira – User Guide and Setup