Board Columns
Rename, merge, hide, limit, colour and reorder the columns on a project board
Board Columns
A board's columns are a project setting, not a fixed layout. You choose what each column is called, which statuses it shows, whether it appears on the board at all, what colour it carries, how much work in progress it tolerates, and what order the columns sit in. Elixion, the platform for Engineering Intelligence™, keeps one rule underneath all of that: every status has exactly one column, so no issue can fall off the board.
Open the settings
Go to Project Settings > Board. The tab is labelled Board and the page is titled Board, at /projects/{project-id}/columns.
You can also get there from the board itself:
- the Configure columns tile at the far right of the columns
- Configure columns in any column header's kebab menu
- the Configure columns link on the hidden-columns strip
Personal projects have this tab too, because they render a board.
The seven statuses
A column shows one or more of these, and nothing else:
Backlog, To Do, In Progress, In Review, Testing, Done, Deferred.
There are no user-defined statuses. A new project is seeded with one column per status, in that order, with Done marked as the terminal column and Deferred hidden.
What a column row offers
Each row on the settings page carries:
| Control | What it does |
|---------|--------------|
| Column name | The name shown on the board |
| Statuses | A chip per status; click to add or remove it from this column |
| WIP limit | A switch plus a number field. The placeholder is None |
| Colour | No color or one of eight presets: Indigo, Blue, Teal, Green, Amber, Orange, Rose, Purple |
| Eye button | Hide the column from the board, or show it again |
| Bin button | Remove the column |
| Grip handle | Drag to reorder. It also works from the keyboard: focus the handle, press Space, move with the arrow keys, press Space again to drop |
Under the status chips, the row tells you which status a dropped card takes, for example Cards dropped here become In Progress. That is always the first status on the row.
Nothing is written until you click Save. Reset throws the draft away and returns to the saved layout.
Merge two statuses into one column
There is no merge command. Click a status chip on the column you want it to live in, and it leaves whichever column had it. One click moves In Review onto the In Progress column, for example, and the board then shows one column carrying both, labelled · 2 statuses.
To split them again, click the status chip on a different row, or add a column for it.
Add a column
Click Add column. A row appears called New column with no statuses, no limit and no colour. Give it a name and at least one status, then save. Because a status belongs to exactly one column, taking a status for the new column removes it from the column that had it.
Hide a column instead of removing it
Hiding takes a column off the board and touches nothing else: its issues keep their status and stay reachable. The board lists hidden columns in a strip above the columns, each with its name, its count and a Show button, so hidden work is never invisible.
The Done column cannot be hidden. Velocity, cycle time and burndown all depend on knowing when work finished.
You can hide and show a column straight from the board too, using Hide column in the column's kebab menu or Show on the hidden strip. Those are immediate, single-column changes; they do not need a save.
Remove a column
Click the bin on the row. The column's statuses do not disappear with it: each one comes back as a hidden row named after the status, so every status still has a home. Save to commit.
Two limits apply:
- The Done column cannot be removed. Rename it or change which other statuses share it, but Done has to stay on a visible column.
- Removing a column is restricted to the project owner and project leads. A member who can edit the board but not remove a column sees the bin disabled, with the reason: only the project owner or a project lead can remove a column. Hiding is the alternative that is open to them.
Removing a column from the board's kebab menu is stricter still: the menu item is offered only while every one of the column's statuses is empty, so a column still holding cards has no remove control at all. Move those cards out first, or remap the statuses onto another column here in settings. The board's remove dialog is titled Remove column? and says plainly that it cannot be undone. The API refuses the same removal, and its message says how many issues are in the way.
WIP limits
Turn the WIP limit switch on and type a number. Turning the switch off clears the number with it, so a stale limit cannot hide behind a disabled switch.
A limit of 0 is legal from this page, and means the column accepts nothing new. The board's own inline editor only takes positive numbers; anything else there clears the limit.
On the board, the count badge reads count/limit and turns red once the count is strictly greater than the limit. Nothing is blocked: a limit colours the number and reports itself, and that is all.
The count a column is judged against is the total across every status it shows, taken from the server, so a long column that is only partly loaded still reports its true size.
What blocks a save
Save stays disabled until the layout is valid, and the reasons appear in a red block above the button:
| Problem | Message |
|---------|---------|
| A status on two columns | {Status} is shown by two columns. A status belongs to exactly one. |
| A status on no column | {Status} has no column. Issues in it would be invisible on the board. |
| Done hidden | "{name}" shows Done and cannot be hidden. Velocity, cycle time and burndown depend on it. |
| A column with no status | "{name}" shows no status. Give it one or remove it. |
| A blank name | A column needs a name. Give this one a name or remove it. |
Save is also disabled while a save is in flight, when nothing has changed, and when your role does not allow editing. Hover it and the reason is given.
A successful save confirms with Board layout saved, and every open board in the project refreshes itself.
Who can change what
| Action | Who | |--------|-----| | Edit names, statuses, WIP limits, colours, hidden state, order | The project owner, and members whose role is not view only | | Remove a column | The project owner, or a member whose role is Scrum master, Product manager, Project manager, Project owner, Owner or Admin |
Without edit permission the page is read only, and says so: this board's layout is read only for your account, and the project owner and members whose role is not view only can change it.
Things worth knowing
- The layout saves as a whole. Column identifiers change on every save, so do not treat one as a stable reference.
- A column's icon and auto-assign settings are not editable here, and a save leaves them exactly as they were.
- If a board somehow ends up with a status no column shows, reading the board repairs it: the status gains a hidden column, and a missing Done gains a visible one.
Next: Roadmap, the timeline of epics and milestones.