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. Creating boards is reserved for workspace admins. Copying also brings labels and, if the box is ticked, task templates; tasks, sprints, versions and the GitLab connection are not copied.
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. By default the Viewer role carries no permissions and is genuinely read-only. A workspace admin also works with their board role on boards they are a member of.
6Write the work in the Backlog tab, prioritize it and add estimates. If you split work into subtasks, choose at which level Story Points are counted under Board Settings > Task Screen > Subtask rules; a new board defaults to "Parent task only". Define task templates for the kinds of work that recur.
7Create a sprint (goal, start and end dates) and pull work from the backlog into it. Moving work into or out of a sprint needs the "Manage sprints" permission; among the built-in roles only Admin has it, so grant it in the role matrix if someone else plans. A board can have only one active sprint at a time.
8Enter the capacity plan under Sprint > Capacity: who works in the sprint, the default daily capacity, a per-person capacity for anyone working at a different pace, and days off. Then open the Planning view from the "More" menu: the cards show capacity lost and remaining work, and a red value means more work is planned than the team can carry. Drag the excess to someone else or to later days.
9Start the sprint. Burndown and remaining work update themselves as you go; no extra data entry.
10Build a dashboard: My Issues, Status Distribution, Burndown and Workload Distribution by Story Points are enough for the first week. A dashboard sources a board or a saved filter.
11Complete 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.