Overview of TeamDynamix Project Card Wall

This introduction article will help Project Managers and Project Team Members create and work with card walls in a Project application within the Work Management interface. The user must have the appropriate permissions in the Task section of their Project application security role.

Overview

The TeamDynamix card wall can help teams that are not well served by a traditional project management tool. There may be a small team that just needs something simple and doesn’t require the know-how of a formally trained project manager. Or the team may want to take an iterative approach that a traditional project scheduling tool can’t really accommodate. The card wall can be used in waterfall, standard, and agile projects.

The card wall may look familiar if you’ve ever used an application like Trello. Users can create columns (lists) that represent stages in a process, and cards that represent the tasks that need to move through those stages. The lists can be ordered so that cards start in the leftmost list and then travel through the stages toward completion on the right.

Card walls are sometimes called boards because the original card walls were index cards pinned to a bulletin board.

Where to Find This

This feature is accessed via the Work Management interface, in a Project application. Card walls are created, configured, and used within projects that are managed in this application.

Access the Card Wall by following this path:

• In Work Management > View Applications > your Project application > Projects > your Project Name > Plans 

Features

• Multiple card walls can exist within a single project.
• Use the drag-and-drop interface to move cards up and down in a list or from one column to another.
• Collaborate in real time; changes made by users are immediately visible to all other users working on the same card wall, and on-screen notifications about those changes can also be displayed.
• The Start and End date fields indicate the task's timeline, and time can be entered directly on the board for specific cards.
• Configure lists to automatically update a card's percent complete when the card is dropped into the list.
• Each card can have one responsible person whose profile picture appears on the card.
• Updates to the cards appear in both the individual card’s feed and the card wall’s overall feed.
• Add Attachments to a card.
• Cards show up as tasks in reports and desktop modules that currently display task information.
• Card walls can be added to a project at any time.
• Cards can be archived to remove them from the screen without permanently deleting them.
• Default lists on boards are set by the organization in Admin under Projects > Default Task Statuses.
• The Burndown Chart, a graphical representation of work left to do versus time available, can be accessed directly from the card wall's right-side flyout menu in the Plan Details section.
• The Backlog Manager is an off-wall repository that allows for the conversion of tickets to cards and allows for cards to be moved between boards. To learn more, see this article about the Backlog Manager.

Limitations

• A project card wall cannot be viewed in the plan manager or Client Portal; it can only be viewed and managed in its own separate web application.
• Card walls do not support dependencies between cards. This feature is only available in waterfall plans.

Adding a New Card Wall to a Project

The Plans component must be enabled in the project settings to add a card wall plan.

To add a card wall to a project:

1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the appropriate Project application.
2. Click the project name to add the card wall to.
3. Click Plans in the left navigation.
4. Click the +New button.
5. Name the new plan and select the Type: Card Wall.
6. Select a Do you want to create this plan from anything? option:
   • To use a card wall that has already been created as part of a template, select Use a plan from an existing Project Template (also see Adding a Card Wall to a Project Template below).
   • To start with a blank card wall, select No (Create an empty plan).
7. Click the Save button.
8. If you chose to use a template:
   1. On the New Card Wall from Project Template page, select a Project Template from the dropdown
   2. Click the Create button next to the plan you want to use.

Working with Card Wall Lists

Lists are a key component of the card wall; this is where all active cards are organized. Each list represents a stage or step in a process, workflow, or area of the particular initiative, and cards move from one stage to the next by being dragged to the next list. There is no limit to the number of lists that can be added to a card wall.

When a new card wall is created, it will be pre-populated with placeholder lists: Archive, New, In Process, Completed, and On Hold. These can be modified (e.g., renamed), and additional lists can be added as required.

To create a new list:

• Scroll all the way to the right of all the lists, then click the +Add a List button.

To configure/customize the settings for a card wall list:

1. Click the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right-hand corner of the list heading and select Edit List.
2. In the Edit List window, enter a Title that will appear on the list header. This should be the name of the stage/step in the process that this list will represent.
   • Suggested list title format: include a numeric value representing this list’s place in the process. You could also include the percent complete.
   • Since each list in the card wall represents a step in the process, a default percent complete can be set for each list, representing how far through the overall process the task card is. In the far-left column, the percent complete would be 0%; in the far-right column, it would be 100%. The steps in between would increment the percent complete based on the number of steps.
   • For example, if there were five total steps in a card wall, they could be configured like this:
     • List 1. Ready, 0%
     • List 2. Planning, 25%
     • List 3. In Progress, 50%
     • List 4. In Review, 75%
     • List 5. Complete 100%
3. Set the Percent Complete for this list. Whenever a card is moved into the list, the task's percent complete, as represented in the card, will be updated to match the list's percent complete.
4. Select a Status Type from the dropdown.
   • These are standard types that classify what type of step in the process the list represents. There will probably be multiple lists in your card wall that use the same status type, especially "In Process".
5. Configure the Work In Progress (WIP) Limits by setting the Minimum and Maximum number of cards that should be in the list at any one time. 
   • WIP limits are constraints on the number of work items (cards) that can be actively worked on at any given time. Each list in the card wall can have its own WIP limit. When WIP drops below the target level, the project manager will look to add additional work into the process. When WIP exceeds targets, the manager may look to remove work from the process. 
   • The WIP values will appear in the list header. If the number of cards in the list exceeds or falls below the limits, the list header will be highlighted in red.
6. Click Save.

Adding Task Cards to a Wall

To create a new card:

1. On the Card Wall page, click the plus + icon in the list header.
2. Enter a title for the task in the field that appears.
3. Click the Save button.

To enter task details:

1. Click the pencil icon in the top right corner of the card.
2. Enter the following details as needed:
   • Enter a Start and End Date.
   • Estimated hours (required, but “0” is an acceptable value).
   • Modify the Percent Complete if you want to give it a more tailored value than the default (required, but “0” is an acceptable value).
   • Set Priority by selecting a value from the dropdown.
   • If using an agile methodology, click the Is Story toggle to say this is part of my overall story, and add values for Story Points and Value Points.
     • A story point is something you can use to estimate the complexity of the task(s) that the card represents.
     • A value point is used to estimate the story's value (or worth) to the project/organization.
     • You can assess card priority based on those two types of points when managing Card Wall-based projects.
   • Assign one or more resources who are responsible for this task by clicking Responsible and selecting a user from the dropdown. 
   • Select a Color to add a visual classification to cards.
   • Click Save.
3. To add subtasks to a task, click the Subtasks tab and enter the details.
4. To add issues to the task, click the Issues tab and enter the details. Learn more about creating issues.
5. Click Save and close the card.

Converting Tickets to Cards

Tickets that have been converted to task cards still appear in the ticketing application, so customers and customer service providers never lose visibility of those requests.

To convert existing tickets to a project card:

1. Navigate to the desired card wall.
2. On the list you want to import tickets into, click the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right-hand corner of the list.
3. Click Convert Tickets.
4. In the Import Tickets window, select the ticketing application to import the tickets from.
5. Select the tickets to convert by clicking the checkbox in each ticket row.
6. Click the Convert to Task button.

The tickets will now appear as task cards in the card wall list.

Adding a Card Wall to a Project Template

If a card wall plan has been added to a project template, whenever a new project is created using that template, the card wall plan and all its settings and tasks will be added to the project.

When setting up a new project, if this project template is applied, the pre-configured plan (or plans, depending on how many you added to the template) would also be applied to the project.

To add a card wall to a template, the Plans component must be enabled in the template settings, and the user must have access to the Project application in Work Management, with the appropriate permission checked in their project application security role.

To add a card wall to a project template:

1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the appropriate Project application.
2. Click the gear icon in the top right corner and select Project Templates.
3. On the Project Templates page, locate the desired template in the left navigation.
4. Click Plans in the subnavigation.
5. On the Plans page, click the +New Plan button.
6. In the New Plan popup, name the template and select the Type: Card Wall.
7. Click the Save button.

The card wall template can then be configured as described above for new card walls.

Moving Cards Between Projects

A card wall must already exist in the destination project in order to move a card there.

To move a card between projects: 

1. Navigate to Work Management > View Applications > [Project application] > [Project Name] > Plans > [Card Wall Name].
2. Click the pencil icon in the top right corner of the card you would like to move.
3. Click on the Move button in the bottom right-hand corner of the edit card window.
4. Click the Project dropdown and select the project to move it to.
5. Click the Card Wall dropdown and select the card wall to move it to.
   • If there are no card wall plans in the selected project, the Card Wall dropdown will be replaced with a message: “No plans found.”
6. Click the List dropdown to indicate which list in the new card wall this card should be moved to.
7. Click the Save button.

Archiving Cards

When a card on a project card wall is archived, it is moved to the hidden Archived Cards list to get it out of the way.

To view the archived cards list:

1. From an open card wall plan, click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner of the page
2. Click the Show Archived Cards checkbox. The Archive list will now appear on the card wall.

There are two ways to move a card into the Archive list:

1. Click the archive icon on the card
2. Select the card and drag and drop it on the visible Archive list

To entirely remove a card from a card wall plan, find the card in the Archive list and click the trash can icon at the bottom of the card.

To delete all archived cards at once, click the trash can icon in the top-right corner of the Archive list.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Can the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall be viewed in the Client Portal?
A. Card Wall is not supported in Plan Manager and in the Client Portal. Rather, it will be viewed and managed in its own separate web application.

Q. Can I use the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall with a Waterfall model plan?
A. Yes, the Card Wall can be used in both Standard and Agile-mode projects.

Q. Is it true I can change the percent complete dependent on the list a card is in? How do I do that?
A. The answer is yes, you can surely configure the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall to change the percent complete. This setting can be configured on each list in any of your card wall plans. To set the percent complete for a list, click the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the list. This will display all settings about this list that can be modified, one of which is the percent complete.

Q. So where (and what) do I configure the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall within Admin?
A. The only item of the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall that is configured within Admin is the default Task Statuses. To configure these, go to the Project application admin interface > Statuses > Task Statuses.

Q. I've set a default percent complete within Default Task Status in Admin. Can I change these defaults within the project Card Wall?
A. Yes, absolutely. The defaults set in Admin are the initial settings applied to all new TeamDynamix Project Card Walls. However, if the settings need to be changed for a particular TeamDynamix Project Card Wall, click the pencil icon on the list to apply the change. These changes will be in place for the remainder of the project or until changed again.

Q.Can I have multiple boards per project?
A. Yes, multiple boards can exist within a single project, and each board is comprised of lists containing tasks (cards).

Q. How do I add more than one responsible party to a card?
A. When editing a card, select all users who should be responsible. You can use the dropdown list or type-ahead to add all users responsible for the card. The responsibility is represented by the user's profile picture when viewing the cards on the board. 

Q. How will the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall impact reports?
A. Each card in a project Card Wall represents an individual task. Therefore, cards will show up as tasks in reports. These cards will also appear in desktop modules that currently display task information. That said, cards are a specialized type of task, and the differentiation from other types of tasks will be identified.

Q. Is there a product backlog feature in Card Wall?
A. The Card Wall does contain a backlog feature. This functionality allows for the conversion of tickets to cards and also allows for cards to be able to be moved between boards.

Q. Does the Card Wall feature a burn-down report?
A. Yes, a Burn Down chart is a graphical representation of work left to do versus time. There is a link to it from the "Reports" menu in Card Wall.

Q. Can Cards be set as dependent upon one another?
A. The Card Wall does not support dependencies between cards. This feature is available in Waterfall plans.

Q. Does the Card Wall use a check-in / check-out model for editing?
A. No, the Card Wall allows for live collaboration. Changes made by a user are immediately visible to all other users working on the same Card Wall. This removes the need for a check-in/check-out model.

Q. Are there date fields on the cards?
A. Yes, there are Start and End date fields to indicate the time period of the task.

Q. Can a Card Wall be created for an existing project?
A. Yes, the Card Wall is a type of project plan, and plans can be added to projects at any time.

Q. Can I work with Issues from the Card Wall?
A. Yes, Issues can be created and managed on individual tasks (cards). Click the pencil icon on a card, then click the Issues tab to create/manage an Issue.