Placker provides several template views as a starting point to showcase some of the best management practices for teams. These templates serve as guides to help teams understand and implement effective agile methods, ensuring a smooth and efficient workflow, while allowing their customization based on the user needs.
There are three key template views in the Agile Category: the Kanban process view, the Sprint planning report view, and the Story points estimation view. Each of these views offers a unique perspective on your project, and understanding how to use them effectively helps improving your Agile workflow.
How to create a view from a template
When adding a new view, you can either start from scratch or select an existing template, which is what this article is all about. For details on how to do this, check this article.
Kanban Process Report View
The Kanban process report view that allows you to see the workflow of your project at a glance. It is based on the board view that arranges tasks into columns according to their stage of completion, and includes widgets for easy monitoring of project progress. Best practices for using the Kanban process view include:
Checking cards by list and status: Knowing how many cards are in each list (i.e. parts of the process) and if they are started or completed is essential to keep the board lean and spotting where cards get stuck.
Limiting Work-In-Progress: Avoid having too many tasks in progress at the same time. The card table filtering only the ones that have started helps to prevent bottlenecks and ensures that tasks are completed before new ones are started.
Analyzing lead times: the time taken from start to end helps providing a clear overview of what type of cards take longest to complete based on their actual dates, as a reflection of moving cards in the board.
These principles are exemplified by the widgets in the image below. It contains the widgets suggested in the Kanban Process Report View. Keep in mind that they can be edited to fit the structure you currently have on your boards.
Sprint Planning Report View
The Sprint planning report view facilitates effective sprint planning by seeing all tasks that should be completed in the next sprint. This helps to ensure that the team does not overcommit. Best practices for using the Sprint planning report view include:
Assigning members and story points to tasks: all activities that are planned to be done soon must have someone responsible for it, as well as a measure of
Estimating story points accurately: the number of story points added to the iteration has to be realistic so that it minimizes the risk of not being able to handle all the work planned for the iteration.
Balancing the Workload: Make sure that the workload is evenly distributed among team members to prevent burnout.
The following widgets in the Sprint planning report view are proposed to address the topics above:
Story Points Estimation Board View
As described in the previous section, story points estimation view allows for the estimation of tasks in terms of complexity rather than effort. This can be particularly useful in Agile projects, where flexibility and adaptability are key.
The Story Points Estimation Board View brings the famous board view but with its layout grouped as story points instead of lists. This makes it easier to drag and drop cards into their respective value instead of opening each card and adding it manually and adjust them if necessary. It also highlights the cards that don’t have any story points added.
By using these views effectively and following these best practices, you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your Agile project management in Placker.
Let us know what you think of these ideas and if they work for your team, so that our features are always improved.