When we say continuous improvements, we REALLY mean it. We are back yet again with few more exciting set of features in 1.1.6 release that’ll make working with SwiftKanban, a breeze! This post lists some of the key enhancements made:-
‘Search’ any card, in One click
You can now search any card on the board or in backlog by typing the card Id in the new ‘Search’ box available on the top-right corner of the application. If you don’t know the id, you can even search based on any other attribute like Title, Priority, etc. by typing the attribute followed by a colon and search string. You’ll get the search results right there and you can click on any row to view more details about the card.
If you are on the board, the card you selected from the search results will flash on the board. Thus, you can locate the card you are looking for amidst the crowd quickly.
Filter Kanban Board For ‘Exceptions’
When you are working with a large team, the focus of executives/managers is typically on any exceptions/blockers that might impact any deliverable and require their intervention. Even though we highlight ‘Blocked’ cards very prominently, there are many other exceptions that need focus. With this in mind, we have introduced a new ‘Exception’ filter on the board that’ll help you view only those cards that are:-
- Blocked: – Cards that are blocked on the board and restrict the flow.
- Unassigned: – Cards that are still waiting to be pulled or yet to be assigned to any team member.
- Overdue: – Cards that have already crossed the ‘Due date’ set for the card.
- Off-Estimates: – Cards that have already taken longer than the estimates defined.
Selecting all the above exceptions on the board will let you focus on the work that requires immediate attention and can help in improving the overall flow. We would like to hear more from the SwiftKanban users on what other exceptions you will like to see and can help you improve your flow.
‘Read-only’ view of the Kanban board
We have introduced a new ‘Reader’ role that can be given to any team member who is not directly contributing to the work but needs to see the progress. This could also be used for logging on to SwiftKanban and projecting the board as an information radiator on large screens, that is commonly accessible to the whole team. They can come and see the board, but not make any changes to it. The board will get refreshed automatically when it is in the read-only mode.
Easily ‘Replace’ Team Members
If you wanted to delete a team member in SwiftKanban, so far you had to reassign the cards to another the team member one by one. This was really painful and was highlighted to us by many users. We have now introduced a ‘Replace’ functionality which allows the cards to be reassigned to any other team member or tag as ‘Unassigned’, whenever a team member is being deleted from the project. This will help in easier project administration where team members need to be removed when they leave and cards need to be reassigned to another member.
All new ‘Profile’ view
You can now view your profile or change your password quickly by just hovering on your name on the top-right corner of the application. This view also shows the profile picture that you have set for yourself.
Miscellaneous Other Changes
Besides the above changes, there are few other minor tweaks also done in the application, which are listed below:-
- The ‘Quick Llinks’ view is no longer opened by default when you log on to the application.
- A new column ‘Smart Lane’ has been introduced in the ‘Status by Team Member’ and ‘Status by Card’ reports to show the Smart-Lane for the rows.
Once again, we like to sincerely thank all SwiftKanban users, especially those who have taken the time to regularly provide us their invaluable inputs and help us improve the product and prioritize the changes we would like to bring in.
We look forward to even greater participation from the SwiftKanban community to build the ‘right’ features in the ‘right’ way. If you have any feedback or suggestions for us, do drop us a line at [email protected] or let us know on the SwiftKanban Community page.