Configure board settings

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(1) You can get to board configuration screen either via action menu from My Boards screen

or clicking on setting icon in top right corner of any board

(2) Board configuration screen has 2 tabs:

  • General and

  • Columns & Swimlanes

General tab

(3) on “General” Tab you can amend

  • Order by to select the field you would like to use for ordering (Rank is default option)

If you select any other field by Rank you can select ordering direction.

 

  • Statistics by to select whether to use Issue Count, Story Points or Hours for Columns and Swimlanes statistics (Read more).

If Story Points or Hours will be selected we will show also statistic on individual issue card.

  • WiP limits to select whether include sub-tasks in WIP limits calculations or not.

Columns and Swimlanes

(4) on “Columns and Swimlanes“ tab you can change configuration of fields used respectively for Columns and Swimlanes. Swimlanes are optional. To remove them choose “-- none -- “ in popup.

Allow OR for Columns and Swimlanes with multiple values assigned.

The feature is two folds, namely

  • Visualization purposes when you want to show that issue belongs to multiple columns/swimlanes. While applying WIP limits we will consider only unique issues.

  • Columns/Swimlanes with multiple values assigned. The most interesting cases are multiple statuses, versions, components (the later 2 could be cross-project versions, components), other multi select values. Using OR configuration ones doors to a number of use cases. Please check out the functionality below when the App act very smart:)

https://releasemanagement.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ASPT/pages/875692462/Board+dynamics#Columns/Swimlanes-with-multiple-values-assigned

Keep issues with parent

Keep issues with parent allows to ignore the values mapping of the child (e.g. Stories of Epic or Sub-tasks of the Task) and always bind them with Parent inside Column and/or Swimlane.

The feature is mainly used for visualization purposes when it’s not important to map children to specific column/swimlane … and it’s more important to map the parent and show all the children of the parent on the same view.

Automatically add existing values

By default after selecting any standard or custom field as Columns/Swimlanes you would need to go and manually create respective Columns/Swimlanes specifying the values you would like to map and outline.

By clicking on Automatically add existing values toggle you will get all the Columns/Swimlanes auto populated automatically.

How we do it?

  • We run a JQL applying filter by project selected for the board and board JQL on top

  • We get a list of Jira issues as a result to outline on the board

  • We check what are the fields configured for columns/swimlanes

  • We extract distinct values of these fields values from the Jira issues shortlisted

  • We create appropriate columns/swimlanes according to the order defined

  • We map issues to appropriate columns/swimlanes

  • We do it every time to open or refresh the board

Automatically remove empty columns or swimlanes

If you use the above configuration the App will auto create columns and swimlanes for you if there are issues to show.

As you progress with your tasks issue might disappear from the board - e.g. your filter might be set to avoid completed issue with last updated > 2 weeks. This might lead to empty columns or swimlanes that will take valuable space on the screen. You can always click on such column/swimlane and remove it from the board. Or you can turn on the configuration in the setting to remove it automatically.

Hide empty swimlanes

The App will automatically hide all swimlanes by Stories/Epics w/o child items. Meaning if there’re no sub-tasks for Story we won't create a swimlane for it . Same applies for Epic w/o child Stories.

Show swimlanes tasks

The toggle will force to create addition tickets for Stories/Epics in “Other“ swimlane even if respected swimlanes for Stories/Epics exist. This is very useful for parallel processing on child & parent items through workflow.

JQL based columns and swimlanes

In addition to mapping exercise when you map columns/swimlanes to standard or custom fields and by dragging drop issues re-assign the values … you can now define columns and/or swimlanes as JQLs.

Once you define it as JQL drag and drop will obviously won’t be allowed bu could be used as great visualization technique as well as other complementary features.

You can also combine the 2 approaches. E.g. Columns mapped to properties while swimlanes defined as JQLs. Thus you can drag and drop between columns to re-assign values and gain great visibility with custom swimlanes.

To configure JQL-based columns/swimlanes go to Board Settings/Columns and Swimlanes and select JQL to either column or swimlane

Getting back to the board you would need to specify custom JQL for any Columns/Swimlanes you create

Card layout

You can change card layout in a number of ways.

What standard fields to show?

You can select what standard fields to show on the card, namely

One field requires additional explanation …

Days in column

You can configure to automatically show the age of issues in specific column. The following rules/pattern is applied:

What custom fields to add?

You can amend card layout to show extra information no top of our standard look at feel. All standard and custom fields are supported.

Color coding

You can bring a lot of colors to you board and define specific color coding to visually differentiate areas of concerns you like.

Cards

Cards color coding is JQL based. Just put a valid JQL, pick up the color from the palette and click Add.

Dependencies

Pick a dependency type you want to color and select a color from the palette to click Add.

Statuses

We use the following defaults for Statuses color coding

  • GREY for statuses matching TO-DO status category

  • YELLOW for statuses matching IN-PROGRESS status category

  • GREEN for statuses matching DONE status category

But you can also change it. Just click on any of the statuses and select a color from the palette .


Tip: Need help with optional settings for your board? 🚀

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