This introduction article will help Project Managers and Project Team Members to create and work with card walls using the Projects application in the TDNext interface. The user must have the appropriate permissions in the Task section of their assigned security role in TDAdmin.
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 referred to as boards because the original card walls were index cards pinned on a bulletin board.
Where to Find This
This feature is accessed via the TDNext interface, in the Projects application. Card walls are created, configured and used within projects that are managed in this application.
Navigate to following these paths:
- TDNext > Projects > your Project Name > Plans > +New (for a new card wall, or select an existing card wall from the plan list)
Features
- It’s a drag and drop interface, so cards can be dragged up and down in a list or dragged from one column to another.
- The card wall allows for live collaboration; changes made by users are immediately visible to all other users working on the same card wall, and on-screen notifications about the changes can also be displayed.
- There are Start and End date fields to indicate the timeline of the task, and time can be entered directly from the board for specific cards.
- Lists can be configured 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.
- Attachments can be added to a card.
- Cards will show up as tasks in reports and desktop modules that currently display task information.
- Multiple card walls can exist within a single project.
- Card walls can be added to a project at any time.
- Cards can be archived to remove them from the screen without permanent deletion.
- Default lists on boards are set by the organization in Admin under Projects > Default Task Statuses.
- The Burndown Chart, which is a graphical representation of work left to do versus time available, can be accessed directly from the card wall right-side flyout menu in the Plan Details section.
- The Backlog Manager is an off-wall repository that allows for 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 turned on in the project settings to be able to add a card wall plan.
To add a card wall to a project:
- Navigate to TDNext > Applications > Projects.
- Click the name of the project to add the card wall to.
- Click Plans in the left navigation.
- Click the +New button.
- Name the new plan and select the Type, Card Wall.
- Under Do you want to create this plan from anything, select Use a plan from an existing Project Template if you want to use a card wall that has already been created as part of a template (see also below Adding a Card Wall to a Project Template). To start with a blank card wall, select No (Create an empty plan).
- Click the Save button.
- If you chose to use a template, on the New Card Wall from Project Template page, select a Project Template from the dropdown and click the Create button next to the title of the plan you want to use.
- On the Template Created Successfully page, click View the template you just created.
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 a set of placeholder lists: Archive, New, In Process, Completed, On Hold. These can be modified (e.g. renamed), and additional lists can be added as required.
To modify a placeholder list, click the menu icon (three vertical dots) in the upper right-hand corner of the list heading.
A new list can be created by clicking the +Add a List button.
Configure/customize the following settings for each card wall list:
- 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 this list will represent.
- Optionally, enter a numeric value representing this list’s place in the process in the Percent Complete field.
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 how many steps there are.
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%
- Whenever a card is moved into a list the percent complete of that task represented in the card will be updated with the percent complete value.</p>
- Select a Status Type from the drop down.
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.
- Configure Work In Progress (WIP) Limits.
WIP limits are constraints on how many work items (cards) are actively being 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. TeamDynamix supports the setting of WIP limits for each card wall list.
To set WIP limits on a list:
- In the Work In Progress (WIP) Limits field, set the minimum and maximum number of cards which should be in the list at any one time.
The WIP values will appear in the list header. If the number of cards in the list is greater or less than the limits the list header will highlight red.
Adding Task Cards to a Wall
To create a new card:
- Click the + icon in the list header.
- Enter a title for the task in the field that appears.
- Click the green Save button.
To enter task details:
- Click the pencil icon in the top right corner of the card. The following optional details (unless otherwise noted) can be entered.
- 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 those two types of points when managing Card Wall-based projects.
- Assign a resource who is responsible for this task by clicking Responsible and selecting a user from the dropdown.
It is possible to assign more than one responsible person to a card by returning to the dropdown and selecting more users.
- Select a Color to add a visual classification to cards.
- To add sub-tasks to a task, click on the Subtasks tab and fill in the details.
- To add issues to the task, click on the Issues tab and fill in the details. Learn more about creating issues.
- 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:
- Navigate to the desired card wall.
- 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.
- Click Convert Tickets.
- In the Import Tickets window, select the ticketing application to import the tickets from.
- Select the tickets to convert by clicking the checkboxes in each ticket row.
- 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 a project, if this project template is applied to it, that pre-configured plan (or plans, depending on how many you added to the template) would also be applied to the project.
To be able to add a card wall to a template, the Plans component must be turned on in the template settings, and the user must have access to the Project Templates application in TDNext, as well as the appropriate permission checked in their security role.
To add a card wall to a project template:
- Navigate to TDNext > Applications > Project Templates.
- Click the name of the desired template.
- Click Plans in the left navigation.
- Click the +New button.
- Name the template and select the Type, Card Wall.
- Click the Save button.
- On the Template Created Successfully page, click View the template you just created. The card wall template can then be configured in the ways 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 wall card between projects:
- Navigate to TDNext > Projects > [Project Name] > Plans > [Card Wall Name].
- Click the pencil icon in the top right corner of the card you would like to move.
- Click on the Move button in the bottom right-hand corner of the edit card window.
- Click the Project dropdown and select the project to move it to.
- 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.”
- Click the List dropdown to indicate which list in the new card wall this card should be moved to.
- Click the Save button.
Archiving Cards
When a card on a project card wall is archived, it is moved to a normally hidden Archived Cards list to get the card out of the way.
Any archived cards and their sub-tasks are still included into the calculations for percent complete of the entire plan, so be sure to check your Archived Cards list if you suspect any discrepancies in percent complete calculations.
To view the Archived Cards list:
- From an open card wall plan, click the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top right corner of the page
- Click the Show Archived Cards checkbox. The Archive list will now appear on the card wall.
To move a card into the Archive list, drag and drop it.
To entirely remove a card from a card wall plan, find the card in the Archive list and click the trash can icon on the bottom of the card.
To delete all the archived cards at once, click the trash can icon in the top right corner of the Archive list.
Version 9.1 introduces an interactive card wall for managing project tasks in the Project application. The TeamDynamix Project Card Wall is based upon a physical card wall. Just like its real-life inspiration, users can create columns and cards. Teams can also drag and drop cards as they complete their work. There is more information about the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall in the 9.1 release notes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The introduction of the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall brings up some interesting topics/questions that are worth mentioning:
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. Since the nature of every project is not the same, this setting is on a list-by-list and wall-by-wall basis. To set the percent complete within a list, click on the pencil in the top right corner of the list you'd like to set. This will display all settings about this list that can be modified, one of which is 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 Admin > Projects > Task Statuses.
Q. I've set a default percent complete within Default Task Status in Admin, can I change these defaults within the TeamDynamix Project Card Wall?
A. Yes, absolutely. The defaults set within Admin are the initial settings that will be applied to all new TeamDynamix Project Card Walls. However if the settings need to be changed for a particular TeamDynamix Project Card Wall, click on the pencil of 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 responsibility to a card?
A. When editing a card, select all users that should be responsible. It is possible to use the dropdown list or type-ahead functionality to add all the users responsible to 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 TeamDynamix 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. This being said, cards are a specialized type of task and the differentiation from other forms 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 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 users are immediately broadcast 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 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 on the Edit Card pencil within a card, and then the Issues tab to create/manage an Issue.