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Monitor work in a kanban project

The Kanban board is a board that was created using the Kanban preset.

Kanban is based on the continuous delivery of work. Rather than plan iterations, the flow of work is constantly monitored to ensure that there are always tasks being worked on. This means that when tasks are completed, new tasks are pulled into work-in-progress.

Use the Kanban board if your team focuses on managing and constraining work-in-progress.

If your team is using the Kanban backlog in your Kanban project, see Using your Kanban backlog instead.

Before you begin

You need to configure the columns for your board. When configuring the columns, make sure to:

  • Assign a distinct function to each state (column) in your development process, like in progress, testing, awaiting merge.

  • Configure appropriate constraints for the columns.

Also, different functionalities on the Kanban board require different permissions. For example, to create a version, you need to be a project administrator for the project that the version belongs to. See Permissions overview for more information. 

About the Kanban board

A work item will only be visible on the Kanban board if: 

  • it isn't a subtask,

  • it matches the board's saved filter,

  • it’s status maps to one of the board's columns (but not the Done column), and

  • there's at least a status being mapped to the right-most column. For example, if you have the columns Selected for Development, In Progress, and Done, ensure that you have a status mapped to In Progress at least. If you map all the statuses to the first (Selected for Development) column, you won't be able to see any work items in the Kanban board.

Access the Kanban board

  1. Go to your Kanban project.

  2. In the project menu, select Kanban board.

What can I do on a Kanban board?

 

 

Task

Instructions

Add work items to the Kanban board

Click Create in the navigation bar. Fill in the work item details in the Create work item dialog, then click Create. The work item will be added to the bottom of the Kanban board.

 

Check the Create another checkbox in the Create work item dialog to keep it open if you're creating multiple work items.

Prioritize the Kanban board

Drag and drop a work item to rank it. You can also right-click the work item to open a menu that allows you to send it to the top or the bottom of the column.

View and edit a work item’s fields

Select a work item to open the work item and edit work item fields.

To open the work item in a separate tab or window, right-click on the work item key.

To view the fields of an epic work item, click the epic lozenge on the work item itself.

To edit multiple work items from the board:

  1. Select multiple work items from the board. You can either:

    1. hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items

    2. hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items

  2. Right-click or select More actions (•••) on one of the selected work items, then select Bulk change.

  3. Select Edit work items and select Next.

  4. Select a value for any required fields and, if available, decide whether you'd like to send email notifications before selecting Next.

  5. Review your bulk edits and select Confirm, then Acknowledge.

Filter work items

Select a filter from the Quick filters dropdown to apply it to the board.

To display quick filters as buttons, switch on Show quick filters in the dropdown menu.

Learn more about quick filters

Prioritize a work item

Drag and drop a work item within a column to rank it.

Transition a work item

Drag and drop a work item between columns.

To transition multiple work items from the board:

  1. Select multiple work items from the board. You can either:

    1. hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items

    2. hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items

  2. Drag the work items into the column corresponding to the new status. If you are unable to move the work items using this method, complete the following steps.

  3. Right-click or select More actions (•••) on one of the selected work items, then select Bulk change.

  4. Select Transition work items and then Next.

  5. Select the available workflow action. The actions available are dependent on the work items (and their associated workflows) that you have selected. Select Next.

  6. Select a value for any required fields for this transition, and if available, decide whether you'd like to send email notifications. Select Next.

  7. Review your changes and select Confirm, then Acknowledge.

Create subtasks

Select a work item and click .

Subtasks are useful for breaking a story (work item) down into implementable chunks.

Flag a work item

Select a work item and click  > Add flag.

Delete a work item

Select a work item and click  > Delete.

Bulk change work items

  1. Select multiple work items from the board. You can either:

    1. hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while selecting work items

    2. hold the Shift key to select a group of adjacent work items

  2. Right-click or select More actions (•••) on one of the selected work items, then select Bulk change.

More about bulk changing work items

Release work items

Click Release to release completed work items. When you release work items, these work items no longer appear in the Done column, and a release version is created, which you can view in the Releases tab of the project.

Need help? If you can't find the answer you need in our documentation, we have other resources available to help you. See Getting help.

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