Some teams have elected to use labels in place of using some of the built-in tools within GitHub and ZenHub. You will want to explore these and decide what work for your team.

Why would you use labels when built-in tools are available? When you always use labels there is only one mechanism to learn. Some people already think in labels (or tags).

Why not use labels? ZenHub has some organization and reporting capabilities tied into their built-in tools. If you use labels, you will have to arrange your workflows to take advantage of them.

Here are some examples comparing labels vs built-ins:

ZenHub has an Epic facility that is built into the tool. Epics can be linked into the ZenHub Roadmap and you can show your plans for those Epics. The Epics are also rendered onto the PBI cards you see on the board. There is a facility for filtering the cards on the board based on Epics.

You have to be careful with Roadmaps and Epics because early planning can unfortunately be turned into hard expectations. Even ZenHub implies that there is always an end to an Epic. The truth is usually more fluid. Epics are often NOT completed because the Product Owner realizes some PBIs just weren't needed. Communicating that fluid nature can be difficult if your Roadmap suggests that you never completed your Epic. You will either need to address this reality directly or be surgically careful about pull PBIs out of Epics altogether (or even closing them as unplanned).

Some teams will use labels instead. For instance, the DDF team uses the "Feature" label within a new PBI card. This PBI card then documents all the basics of the feature and carries within it a listing of the PBIs involved in the Feature. The upside of the label is that it is a simpler mechanism that many are already accustomed to using. There is no built in expectation around that Feature. Because it is a card like the others it can just be called done. Labels also have a filter on the board.

The downside is that you can't take advantage of reporting capabilities built into ZenHub and you'll want to communicate progress in your own way.

ZenHub has a Release capability built into the tool. Each Epic and PBI can be included within a Release. The Roadmap feature built into ZenHub can illuminate your planning around Releases within the Roadmap.

Be careful about using this feature. Adding an Epic into a Release does not necessarily mean all the PBIs within the Epic are listed as part of the Release.