Kanban Board¶
The Kanban board shows a project's work as cards moving through four columns. It is not a separate plan — it is the same data as the Gantt chart, seen differently. Move a card and the Gantt chart updates; change a percentage in the Gantt chart and the card moves. There is nothing to keep in sync by hand.
Open it from Kanban Board in the sidebar.
What becomes a card¶
A card is a piece of work with nothing nested inside it:
| In the Gantt chart | On the board |
|---|---|
| A subphase with no children | A card |
| A phase with no subphases | A card |
| A phase that contains subphases | A swimlane, not a card |
| A subphase that contains other subphases | Neither — it appears in the card's breadcrumb |
Milestones are cards too, marked with a small diamond.
Parent phases have their own percentage
A phase that contains subphases is a lane on the board, so its own completion percentage is not shown there. If you set such a phase to 80% in the Gantt chart, the board will not appear to change — the cards inside it are what the board tracks.
The four columns¶
| Column | What it means | Effect on % complete |
|---|---|---|
| To Do | Not started | Sets it to 0% |
| In Progress | Under way | Keeps a percentage between 1 and 99; otherwise starts it at 50% |
| Blocked | Stalled on something | Leaves the percentage alone |
| Done | Finished | Sets it to 100% |
It works the other way too. Editing the percentage in the Gantt chart moves the card: 0% goes to To Do, 100% to Done, and anything between to In Progress.
Blocked is deliberately sticky. A percentage cannot express why work has stalled, so editing the percentage of a blocked card leaves it blocked. Move it out of Blocked yourself when the obstacle clears. Setting it to 0% or 100% is unambiguous and will move it.
Moving cards¶
Drag a card to another column, or open it and pick a status.
You can move a card if you are an admin or superuser, or if you are assigned to that card. Cards you cannot move are not draggable. This is the one place in the application where someone who is not a project manager can change project data — it lets people report progress on their own work without being able to reschedule the plan.
Choosing what to show¶
The project picker chooses the board. All projects shows everything active at the site at once, which is the natural companion to grouping by project or filtering to My Todo.
Projects appear in the same order as the Gantt chart, including any custom order you have dragged them into there.
Grouping into swimlanes¶
The grouping menu in the toolbar splits the board into rows:
- No grouping — one set of columns for everything shown.
- By project — one lane per project, in Gantt order. Most useful with All projects.
- By phase — one lane per top-level phase. When several projects are shown, lanes are labelled Project — Phase so two phases with the same name stay apart.
- By assignee — one lane per person, plus an Unassigned lane at the bottom. A card with several assignees appears in each of their lanes.
- By a custom column — one lane per option of any list-type custom column, plus (none).
Click a lane heading to collapse it.
My Todo¶
The My Todo toggle hides every card you are not assigned to. Combine it with All projects to see everything on your plate across the site at once, or with grouping by phase to see where your own work sits in one plan.
Assigning people — and booking their time¶
Open a card and add someone under Assignees. This is not just a label:
Assigning books capacity
Assigning someone creates a real staff assignment covering the card's dates, at that person's maximum capacity. It shows up immediately in the Staff workload view, and it counts towards over-allocation.
Someone assigned to five overlapping cards is booked at five times their capacity and the workload heatmap will show it. If you want lightweight ownership without booking time, say so in a comment instead.
The dropdown shows what each person will be booked at. Because the booking takes its dates from the card, rescheduling the bar in the Gantt chart moves the booking with it — you never have to adjust it separately. Removing someone from a card releases the booking.
Changing how much time is booked¶
Someone is booked at their full capacity to begin with, which is rarely what you want for a card they are only partly on. Each assignee has a slider beside their name: drag it and the booking changes as soon as you let go, in the Gantt chart and the workload heatmap alike. It is the same control as the allocation slider in the Gantt chart — the same 5% steps, the same range — so a booking means the same thing whichever view you set it from.
A slider shown in red is above that person's own maximum capacity: a part-timer at 60% booked onto a card at 80%. That is allowed; it is the heatmap that tells you what someone's whole workload adds up to.
Adding, removing and changing assignees requires superuser rights, and so does changing an allocation. Being assigned to a card lets you move it between columns — it does not let you change what it books, since that is a change to the plan rather than a report of your progress.
Comments and mentions¶
Every card has a comment thread. Anyone signed in can comment. You can delete your own comments; admins and superusers can delete any.
A card with comments shows a small speech-bubble count on the board.
Mentioning someone¶
Type @ and the list opens: people already assigned to this card first, then everyone else who works at the card's site — any role, administrators included. Keep typing to filter, then pick with the arrow keys and Enter, or click.
Only names you pick from the list notify anyone
A picked mention is highlighted in the comment box. A name you simply type out is ordinary text and notifies nobody, however correctly it is spelled — the highlight is what tells you the difference.
Editing a highlighted mention removes the highlight, and with it the notification. That is deliberate: what you see is always what will happen when you post. Note that undoing the edit brings the text back but not the highlight — retype the @ to pick the person again.
Who you can reach:
- Everyone at the card's site, whatever their role — administrators and project managers included, not just the people booked on the card.
- Administrators from any site. They have access to every site, so they can always be mentioned.
- Not people from other sites, unless they are assigned to this card. Someone who cannot see the project would only be confused by the notification.
- Not yourself. You would never be notified anyway, so it is left out rather than showing a mention that does nothing.
- Not deactivated accounts, since they cannot sign in to read the notification.
Notifications¶
The bell in the header shows unread notifications. You are notified when someone:
- assigns you to a card,
- comments on a card you are assigned to,
- mentions you in any comment,
- moves a card you are assigned to into another column.
You are never notified about your own actions. If you are both assigned to a card and mentioned in a comment on it, you get the mention only.
Clicking a notification opens that card's board and detail.
Due and overdue reminders work differently
Reminders for cards that are due within a week, or already past their end date, are worked out in your browser from the plan you already have loaded. They need no configuration and appear alongside the other notifications.
The trade-off: they only appear while you have the application open. There is no email or push notification, and nothing arrives overnight. Dismissing one is remembered in your browser; if the card is rescheduled and becomes due again, it will remind you afresh.
What gets exported¶
The site export includes a Kanban status column on the Projects sheet and a Card comments sheet. Notifications are not exported — they are personal inbox state rather than project data.