Over the past few months, we've been busy gathering and analyzing your feedback on our new board beta. We're now excited to share that we'll be getting rid of the old board, and we're ready to introduce you to the redesigned one!
We've already written about the lane headers that stick to the top of boards, and the new paging mode that allows you to focus on a column and swipe between different columns. In this release (version v.4.0), you will find the most wanted features that were missing in the board beta:
Drag and drop cards
Card movement is now smoother and more stable. You can also change card priority if prioritization is set to 'ON' in board settings. Please note that you cannot change prioritization settings from our mobile apps; the setting is available from the web interface only.
Quick Add cards
The '+' button now has its own reserved space at the top of card lists. Therefore, the annoying blinking of the '+' button will not bother you anymore.
Hide Empty Lanes
You no longer need to collapse empty lanes one by one—just switch on the new 'Hide Empty Lanes' options under 'View Setup'.
If you have anything you want to share with us, use the Feedback form in the app's 'Me' tab, or shoot us a message at mobile@targetprocess.com.
Click here to download the iOS app.
Capacity calculation
From now on, you can calculate capacity for each user while planning Releases, Iterations, and Team Iterations. This will allow you to see if a user is overloaded with tasks, or if they can take on more work in this iteration.
Available capacity will be summarized across one or many projects based on:
- Work days in a “work container” (Release/Iterations/Team Iteration)
- Weekly available hours by user
- User allocations, if there are any
Capacity can be calculated for User Stories, Bugs, Tasks and Test Plan Runs. It also works for Initial Estimates for Features and Epics if there are no child entities. In other cases, they will be estimated by the sum of child entities’ effort.
For more details and use cases, please check the dedicated blogpost here.
Minor improvements
- In inner lists on entity details views, completed entities are now shown at the bottom, allowing you to quickly navigate between active work items.
- When using the Test Plans/Test Cases Quick Add form from the Tests tab, the Test Case option is now placed first and selected by default.
- Added support for the Visual Studio 2017 add-on.
Fixed Bugs
- Projects Work Hierarchy tab is not displayed when Epics/Features Practice is turned off
- 'No details' at the History tab is no longer displayed if there is no info about an update
- History: Fixed the Custom Field value display
- Can't create a Bug for a frozen Test Case Run when the original Test Case has had some of its original steps removed
- "Add and open” doesn’t work when using Quick Add to create a Bug from a Test Case Run view
- Closing an image that was opened from the entity popup in an inner list will no longer close the whole entity
- User can't delete himself from a Team (with edit team permissions) and can't create a Team Allocation (with edit project permissions)
- Removed team synchronization for User Stories and Tasks when multiple Teams are assigned
- TestRunImport plugin: NUnit integration issue
- Burn down chart keeps loading instead of showing the required error message
- Requester: in the info panel it looks like, it's possible to change the source for requester, but it's not
- Can't edit inside the Text widget in Safari with the WYSIWYG text editor type
Capacity calculation: highly anticipated and finally here! From now on, you can calculate the capacity of each user while planning Releases, Iterations, and Team Iterations. Finally, you will be able to see if a user is overloaded with tasks, or if they can take on more work in this particular iteration.
This will make it so much easier to plan your resources across one or many projects. We didn't forget those who work part-time, or those who are allocated by n% of their time for a particular project and period of time.
Available capacity will be summarized across one or many projects based on:
- Work days in a “work container” (Release/Iterations/Team Iteration)
- Weekly available hours by user
- User allocations, if there are any
Capacity can be calculated for User Stories, Bugs, Tasks and Test Plan Runs. It also works for Initial Estimates for Features and Epics if there are no child entities. In other cases, they will be estimated by the sum of child entities’ effort.
Please keep in mind that effort from Tasks is not included in User Story effort for capacity calculations.
Let’s dig into a few cases and see what it looks like.
Case 1: One Project, no Allocations
This is the easiest way to plan resources if you have one project and don't use allocations.
On Boards where you see cards grouped by users and Releases/Iterations/Team Iterations, you will notice a small box in the right corner of a cell. It shows the assigned effort and capacity of a person:
When you move cards from the Backlog to a Release, the values for assigned effort and capacity are updated:
Based on weekly available hours, we know that John works full-time, 8 hours each day. In August, we have 23 work days, so John’s capacity for July’s Release is 23*8, which equals 184 hours. When we assign a card to John, the system calculates assigned effort and compares it with available capacity.
On the next screen, you can see that John is overloaded for August's Release by 4 hours. It’s already easy to notice whether there is some spare capacity or an overhead. Cells with spare capacity are highlighted green, and cells with overhead are highlighted red.
To check the details of assigned effort and capacity, just hover your mouse over the tooltip in the right corner of a cell:
If some supported cards are not being displayed on a board (perhaps there are some filters applied), and there is some hidden work assigned to you, the cell will show the aggregate sum of all assigned effort, including hidden cards.
If you use points for estimation, you will be able to see the sum of assigned effort for a user in a particular Release/Iteration/Team Iteration, but not the capacity
Case 2: One Project + Allocations
Let’s dig into a case with more than one Project and user Allocations.
John will be allocated to Project Irol System for 40% of his hours, and to Mobile Platforms for 60%.
The John’s capacity for July for Irol System Project was immediately updated, 40% from 184 hours equals 73.6 h
If at least one of the users is allocated to a Project you should allocate others as well. Otherwise their capacity will be calculated on assumption that their allocation is 0%
Case 3: More than one Project + Allocations
Let’s now plan a Cross-Project Release (the scope can include work from one or more projects).
John’s allocations mean that he can dedicate 73.6 hours to Irol System and 110.4 hours to Mobile Platforms (40% and 60% accordingly):
You can click on a few cards and see the sum of their effort. This is especially convenient when moving a few stories from the backlog!
If you have more than 500 cards in one cell, Effort will be calculated by the first 500.
If you estimate work entities in points, capacity will not be updated. Capacity is calculated in hours only.
Case 4: Team Iterations
As you know, Teams and Team Iterations can be assigned to multiple Projects. Just keep in mind that Capacity and Assigned effort will be calculated based on work that is included in a particular Team Iteration, not based on all Projects to which a Team is assigned.
When Releases/Iterations/Team Iterations begin, their capacity value will be regularly updated based on the remaining amount of work days
