Custom Board

The Custom Board app provides you with a way to view and edit work items. Similar to the Custom Grid app, you can add multiple copies of the app to a page and set each app to display data from multiple projects, iterations, releases, work item types, or other criteria. Is a Custom board or a Kanban board right for your team? Read more here.

• Features
• Set up the app
• Use cards
• Available actions

Features

• Use drag-and-drop controls to quickly change the state of a work item
• Add new work items to the board
• Accept a work item from the front of the card
• Block a work item and include a reason on the front of the card
• Customize the fields you see on cards
• Edit fields directly from the front of the card
• Change the color of the card
• Use advanced filtering capabilities
• Customize the columns on the board
• Add swimlanes to the board
• Use the Auto Height setting to automatically adjust the vertical space of the app based on the amount of visible data

Custom Board settings

Note: Access the settings through the gear menu. Note that settings through this app are per project. Project administrators may only change app settings in projects they administer.

You can update the following settings for the Custom Board:

• Name of the board
• Project scope of the board
• The work item type you want to display on the board
• Select whether you want to include swimlanes on the board
• Select the order of how you want cards to display
• Specific queries you want to add to the board

Global Settings

You can set the board to change its data with your global project picker, or you can choose a specific project or group of projects to work from. If you choose the Follow Global Project Setting, then the contents of the board will change according to your global project picker. Select Choose a Specific Project if you want to see another project's work, regardless of your global project setting.

If your board is installed on a shared custom page, check the Default Settings checkbox to use the settings selected in the lower section of the menu for all projects in the workspace. Changes you make to columns, fields displayed on cards, and other options will be used when viewing the board from any project.

Set up swimlanes

Swimlanes are horizontal rows that can be applied to a board for a team to easily visualize work items by category or sub-process. Admins can choose custom fields to be used as swimlanes on the Kanban Board.

When you add swimlanes that are based off a custom field, the field values will be ordered alphabetically as lanes. You may force a specific value to the top by adding a numerical prefix to the field value name, e.g. 1 - Blue or 2 - Green.

Use cards

Update states

Each card resides in a column according to its current state. To update the state of a card, drag it into the appropriate column.

View or edit details

Click an editable field on the card. For example, you can edit the name, the Estimate, To Do, and Owner fields on a task card. Changes are automatically saved when you click away from the card. To view or edit more details on the card, click the work item FormattedID or hover over a card, click the gear menu, and select Edit.

Add new work items

Click the Add New button at the top of the app to add a task, defect, defect suite, test set, or user story. If you add a task, you must also specify the parent from the drop-down menu.

Filter cards

You can filter by owner, or you can use the advanced filtering option. To use advanced filtering, click Add Filter next to the filtering tray. Default quick filters are owner and type. To add another quick filter, click Add Filter. To hide your advanced filters, click Hide Advanced. The filter icon lists all active filters numerically. You can clear your filters by clicking Clear All. Your filters will remain active when you navigate away from the page. Learn more about advanced filters here.

Select fields to show on cards

Search or scroll to select fields to display on the board. Click Apply to save your changes.

Mark cards as blocked or ready-to-pull

If you cannot work on a card, or a task associated with a card, you can mark it as blocked to notify your team of a problem. Blocked cards display on the board with a red border. Hover over a card and click the stop sign icon to set the blocked status.

After the stop sign icon is clicked, the Blocked Reason field displays. Type the reason for the blocked status, then click outside of the card to save. You can edit the Blocked Reason by clicking the field on the card. When a blocked status is removed, the Blocked Reason field is cleared out.

When a card is ready to move to the next stage of development, you can mark it as ready-to-pull to update your product owner or other team members. The card displays on the board with a green border. Hover over a card and click the checkmark icon to set ready-to-pull status.

Choose a color for cards

Use the color picker icon to change the top border of the card. This icon is located by hovering on the bottom of the card.

Copy or delete a card

You may copy or delete a work item by hovering over a card and clicking the gear icon.

Custom Board actions