Kanban board

A Kanban Board shows the items of a data source as cards in workflow columns, such as To do, In progress and Completed. It gives your team a real-time snapshot of where every task stands.

What is a Kanban board?

A Kanban board is a visual project management tool that helps teams track work. It's divided into columns that represent the stages of a workflow. Each task is a card, placed in the column that matches its current stage. As work progresses, the card's status changes and it appears in the next column.

In Sintel BI, the columns come from a field of your data source, usually a Status choice field. The board is read-only: viewers move a card by changing the item's status, for example in its form.

Add a Kanban board

1. Create a data source on your tasks list.
2. Open the dashboard in edit mode.
3. In the Widgets pane, open the General tab and drag Kanban Board onto the dashboard. Resize it.
4. Select the board. On the Properties tab, give it a Title and, if you like, a Subtitle, Description and Icon (see the Common settings).
5. Open the Assign Data tab, click Choose data source and pick the data source.
6. Assign the fields, see below.
7. Optionally, set the column order and styles under More settings.
8. Click Save & Exit.

Assign the fields

Field	What it does
Column (required)	One board column per value of this field, for example per Status. Text, choice, person or Yes/No fields.
Title (required)	The card title.
Summary	Text shown on the card under the title.
Swimlane	Splits the board into horizontal lanes, one per value of this field.

Choosing another data source resets the sort and column styles.

Swimlanes

A swimlane is a horizontal row across the board that groups related cards. It adds structure, especially when a board is shared between teams or departments. Common uses:

1. Team members: one lane per person or group, to see the workload of each.
2. Work types: bug fixes, new features, maintenance or customer support.
3. Priority: High, Medium and Low, so the most critical work is handled first.
4. Project phases: planning, development, testing and deployment.
5. Dependencies: for example Predecessor tasks and Successor tasks.
6. Client or customer: one lane per client, to manage work for different stakeholders.

Column order and styles

Under More settings on the Assign Data tab:

• Sort: sets the order of the columns. Add the column values in the order you want them to appear, for example Not started, In progress, Done. Without a custom order, the default order is used.
• Column styles: gives a column an icon and colours. Click Add, choose the Value, then set Show Background Color / Background Color, Icon Color and Icon. If the list is used by a Sintel Apps form, Import from Sintel Apps imports the form's status values and colours.

Settings

Settings

Setting	What it does
Enable Details Button	Shows a View details link icon on each card.
Empty Columns	Shows columns that have no cards.
Items Count	Shows the number of cards in each column header.
Swimlane Items Count	Shows the number of cards in each swimlane header.
Swimlane Avatar	Shows the person's picture in the swimlane header (person fields).
Card Title Avatar	Shows the person's picture next to the card title (person fields).
Card Summary Avatar	Shows the person's picture next to the card summary (person fields).

Item Form

Available once a SharePoint list or library is the data source.

Setting	What it does
Open Item In	What happens when a card is clicked: Don't Open, Current Tab, Dialog, New Tab, Panel or Custom Form Dialog.
Width / Height	Size of the dialog or panel.

Related

• Scheduler: items as events on a calendar.
• Grid: items as rows of a table.