Configuring estimation field for Kanban boards

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Kanban boards in Jira Cloud do not have built-in support for estimation. To enable estimation using Agile Poker for Jira Cloud on Kanban boards, certain configurations need to be made. These configurations involve:

  • Defining an estimation field

  • Adding the estimation field to the Edit issue screen

This page applies to the Company-Managed (formerly known as Classic) projects. If you use Team-Managed projects, check out this documentation.

Step 1: Define the estimation field

Once your team agrees on an issue estimate, it's important to have a designated field to store the agreed value. For Scrum boards, the recommended field for this purpose is Story points. However, Kanban boards do not have this field by default, which is why you have to define where issue estimates will be stored.

To define where issue estimates will be stored, follow these steps:

  1. Open the third step of the session creation.

  2. Use the Estimation field dropdown to either select an existing field or create a new custom field (check Jira documentation to learn how). If your custom field is not available in the dropdown, please ensure that:

    • It is a numerical field as fields of other types are not supported.

    • It is visible on the View issue screen for all issues on your board.

Step 2: Add the estimation field to the “Edit Issue” screen

If you encounter the following message while attempting to save an issue estimation, please ensure that the estimation field is visible on the Edit issue screen.

Managing field visibility in Jira can be complex, so we recommend using the Field Helper tool for assistance. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the problematic issue.

  2. Click the three-dot icon, and on the Edit issue screen, click Find your field.

  3. Type the field name, and the tool will provide insights into why the field is not visible.

If you want to know more about field visibility, take a look at the following articles in Jira documentation:

  1. Configuring a screen's tabs and fields

  2. Associating a screen with an issue operation