A working Scrum board from scratch

From the first board to the end of the first sprint: workflow, fields, roles, sprint and dashboard.

This scenario sets up a new team’s first two weeks in order. Each step works on its own; the order matters because each one builds on the last.

Steps

1Create a new board from the sidebar and pick Scrum. If the team already has a similar board, use "Take settings from another board" to copy its workflow, fields, issue types and roles; you set your way of working up once instead of rebuilding it every time.
2Shape the workflow around the team’s real steps. Keep the number of statuses low: every status is a column and every column is a question. Mark the categories correctly, since reports follow the category.
3Add the information the team must track as custom fields. If you end up with more than twenty, split them into sections with field groups, otherwise the form becomes unreadable.
4Add the members. Consider adding a group rather than people: whoever joins the group later gains access automatically, whoever leaves loses it, and you never edit boards one by one.
5Review the role matrix. The built-in roles are enough for most teams; define a custom role if they are not. The Viewer role carries no permissions and is genuinely read-only.
6Write the work in the Backlog tab, prioritize it and add estimates. Define task templates for the kinds of work that recur.
7Create a sprint (goal, start and end dates), pull work from the backlog into it and check the capacity. A board can have only one active sprint at a time.
8Start the sprint. Burndown and remaining work update themselves as you go; no extra data entry.
9Build a dashboard: assigned to me, pie by status and burndown are enough for the first week. A dashboard sources a board or a saved filter.
10Complete the sprint. Move unfinished work to the backlog, the next sprint or one you choose. After the second sprint the velocity widget starts showing meaningful data.

When you copy a board, members do NOT come along by default; they are a separate checkbox. Carrying members over unintentionally would silently grant board access.