Using task boards

You can use task boards for a more visual, interactive view of folder contents. You can perform many of the same actions on items as you can in the Folders list. You can also drag cards between columns to change item status.

The information you can view and actions you can perform depend on the task board configuration, your security and folder permissions, and whether the folder is locked. See Managing access to folders.

Before you start using task boards, see Task boards.

1. Click Folders to open the Folders list.

2. Select the folder to view the task board for.

3. Click the Task Board tab to open the task board.

Depending on your permissions, you can change the task board configured for the folder. See Setting the task board for a folder.

4. Click the Expand View button open the task board full screen. This maximizes the space for the task board on the screen. To close full screen, click the Close Expanded View button.

5. Select display options to change what the task board shows. To open the Display Options pane, click the Display Options button. See Changing display options.

You can display items recursively or not recursively, select the item types to display, and apply a filter if only one item type is selected. Other display options are not available for task boards. The summary at the top of the page shows the display options applied. Keep the following in mind:

  • The item counts only include items in the task board represented as cards or swimlanes.
  • Items in the folder that are not in the task board are not included in the item counts.
  • If an item is displayed multiple times on the task board, it is included in the item counts multiple times.
  • If items are grouped by document in the task board and requirements that are not in the folder are displayed as cards, they are included in the item counts.
Task boards can display up to 300 items.

Working with swimlanes

Swimlanes group items horizontally in task boards by folder, user, relationship, or requirement document. See Changing task board swimlane groupings for information about each grouping.

You can perform the following actions on swimlanes.

  • To change the swimlanes used to group items, select a Group by option.
  • To expand a swimlane to display all cards, click in the swimlane header. Click to collapse the swimlane. Click the Expand All Swimlanes button to expand all swimlanes or click the Collapse All Swimlanes button to collapse all swimlanes.
  • To perform actions on the item or folder used as the swimlane, click the gear icon in the swimlane header and choose an action. For example, on item swimlanes, you can view or edit the item used as the swimlane, add related items, or enter workflow events. On folder swimlanes, you can add new or existing items to the folder. You cannot perform actions on user swimlanes.
  • To open the item used as the swimlane, click the item tag in the header. Only available if swimlanes are grouped by relationship or document.

Changing item status

You can easily change the status of items in task boards. Moving a card to another column changes the status and adds a workflow event to the item. See Adding workflow events to items.

  • To change an item's status, drag the card to a different column. If you drag a card to an invalid column based on the workflow, the column is red and you cannot add the card to it. You cannot drag cards to other swimlanes.
    • If more than one resulting state is available, the Select Event dialog box opens. Select an event and click OK.
    • Depending on the workflow, you may be prompted to enter information for the event. Enter the information and click OK.
  • To change the status of multiple items, Ctrl+click the cards, and click an event in the Workflow bar.
  • To change the status of the item used as a swimlane, click the gear icon in the swimlane header, choose Workflow, and choose an event. Only available if swimlanes are grouped by relationship or document.

Entering hours on items

You can enter hours on items in task boards if time tracking is enabled in the project.

The remaining hours to complete the item and a percent done bar are displayed on the card. Mouse over the bar to view the percent done.

  • If no time has already been entered on the item, click Enter Hours, enter the information, and click OK.
  • If time was already entered on the item, click the remaining time, enter the information, and click OK.
If more than one event with time tracking fields is available, a list of events is displayed. Choose the correct event and then enter the information.

Performing actions on items

You can perform a variety of actions on one item or multiple items at the same time in task boards. To perform actions on multiple items, Ctrl+click the items.

  • To view or edit an item, click the tag on the card or swimlane header. You can also click the gear icon on the card or swimlane header and choose View or Edit.
  • To add an item to a folder, move it to another folder, or remove it from the folder, click the gear icon on the card and choose an action. You can also click the Add or Remove buttons above the task board to add items to or remove items from the folder.

Working with the selected folder

You can add folders or items to the selected folder or rank items in the folder from task boards.

  • To add a folder or items to the selected folder, click Add above the task board and then choose the item type. You can also click the gear icon on the swimlane header. See Adding items to folders.
  • To rank items in the selected folder, click Rank Items. See Ranking items in folders.
If you select a manual test run suite folder, you can see an overview of the progress on completing the manual test runs in the suite. A progress bar provides a quick visual of the current status of the test suite. See Viewing the completion status of manual test run suites.

taskboard, taskboards, Kanban, Scrum