Grouping Tasks by Features, Stories and Tasks

Tasks are hierarchized to ease management. The top level is called a feature, in which one unit is a function to be implemented by software or is a big work item. For example, the first one could be a function such as a master database management function, while the latter one could be a project such as a system release.

Each feature contains multiple stories. Stories are used to implement features. Let's use the previous example. The master data management function must have multiple stories, for example, "add data must be possible", "change data must be possible", "deletion data must be possible", and so forth.

Furthermore, each story is comprised of tasks. Tasks are specific work items necessary to implement a story. For example, for "master registration must be possible", we can imagine specific work items such as "investigate the master database schema", "write master registration code", "write master registration test code", and "test master data registration."

During work planning, project managers or project members segment features into stories, and then stories into tasks.

Splitting a Timebox into Releases and Iterations

To make it easy to understand the work status, TRICHORD splits and manages a timebox, which is a management scope. Timeboxes are classified into releases and iterations and a project is divided into releases, which are big milestones. Further, releases are divided into iterations that are scopes in which the project is actually monitored.

figure 3 Splitting a timebox

Kanban Boards

Kanban boards are three types of views provided by TRICHORD to list timebox and task status.

Feature Kanban board

figure 4 Feature Kanban board

Story Kanban board

figure 5 Story Kanban board

Task Kanban board

figure 6 Task Kanban board

You can switch the card size on Kanban board in two different sizes from context menu. "Full size" shows all detailed information in card and "Small size" shows only the names of cards in less than two lines. The size of each card can be changed individually. (figure 7).

figure 7 Cards in Full size and Small size on Kanban board

Creating a workspace

Immediately after installation, the Welcome to TRICHORD window appears. To start operation, right-click start TRICHORD. The window shown in figure 8 appears. This window is used to specify the workspace. Each workspace is an XML document group that is used to store project information. When creating a new workspace, specify a file-sharing space where all team members can view and update data. You can specify a previously created workspace.

You can create a Workspace in the shared folder. There are two ways to access Workspace in the shared folder with TRICHORD.

1. Select the directory on file selection dialog
2. Input the workspace directory path directly into textbox e.g.) "F:commondirectoryws"

Please see "Selecting a Workspace" in the manual for details.

figure 8 Creating a Workspace in the shared folder

Creating users

In TRICHORD, you can create users immediately after installation in order to allocate an ID to individual users to differentiate between them for tasks and Niko-niko Calendar. To create users, from the menu, choose Window > Preferences to start up the setting window. Next, from the list in Preferences window, choose TRICHORD > User Management to start up User Management. You use this window to register the users who will use the workspace.

figure 9 Creating users

Setting the default user

Specify the default user to be used on TRICHORD. To switch the default user to an previously registered user, choose File > Switch user to select yourself from the list of registered users. In this way, you can allocate your own user name for the workspace.

Setting an iteration

After dividing a project into releases, you next further divide each release into iterations. By double-clicking a release on a feature Kanban board, a story Kanban board corresponding to the release opens. In this Kanban board, one iteration called a New Iteration is already created. Clicking this iteration opens the property view for the iteration. In this view, you can change items such as the iteration name.

figure 15 property about an iteration

Creating an iteration

To create a new iteration, click the iteration icon on the palette and then click the blank part of the story Kanban board. At this stage, you create the number of iterations you need.

Creating a story

You need to create stories on the previously described story Kanban board. To create a story, click the story icon on the palette and then click the iteration for which you want to create stories. Repeat this step as many times as you need.

figure 16 Story Kanban board

Setting a story

Clicking a story on the story Kanban board displays the property view of the clicked story in the lower part of the window. In this view, you can change items such as the story name. The story size of set items is the number of work points required to complete the story. You can set these points using unique units such as hours, days and so forth, according to the project management policy. Normally, you enter the number of days that will be required to complete the story.

Set items

Creating a task

figure 17 Task Kanban board

Of the multiple iterations displayed on the story Kanban board, double-clicking an iteration in which you want to create tasks opens a task Kanban board. Task Kanban boards are divided into three portions, Todo (remaining work), Doing (ongoing work) and DONE (completed work). To add a task to a task Kanban board, click the task icon on the palette. After that, click the Todo section to create a task. To create multiple tasks, hold down the shift key and click once for each task you want to create.

Setting a task

Next you need to add a story name, task name and estimate associated with a task. When you select a task, the property view in the lower part of the window changes to the task you selected, in which you can change the settings. For story name, from the list select a high-order story of the task. Now estimate the number of work points. You can set these points using unique units such as hours, days and so forth, according to the project management policy. Normally, you enter the number of hours that are required to execute the task. The color can be set but since the color allocated to the high-order story is set at the left of the task card, grouping is performed by that color. If there are common value items in multiple tasks, you can set them collectively. Select the frame (Marquee) icon on the palette and use the frame to marquee around multiple tasks. Then, change the desired item in the property view to input the item collectively.

Set items

Managing Tasks

By moving task cards in a task Kanban board, you can change the status between Todo, Doing, and DONE. Project members and managers can check the Kanban board to grasp the remaining and ongoing tasks and their volumes. Also, changes in remaining tasks can be checked on the burn down chart. In the burn down chart, daily remaining tasks are plotted and displayed on a downward line graph. Project members and managers understand changes in progress by looking at the way the graph moves down.

Operating a task Kanban board

figure 18 Task Kanban board and cards

To change the task status, open the task Kanban board allocated to the work period. Immediately after setting, all task cards are placed in Todo status. When project members have started their own task, use drag and drop to move the task card from Todo to Doing. At this time, the task properties are automatically updated. As updated items, the operation date is entered for Date started and the member ID is set for Signed up.

If the work period for a task runs multiple days and you want to manage the process in more detail, enter information such as how long it takes to finish the remaining task in Remaining. If you want to add special items that occur while working on the task, you can enter comments on the back side of the card. To flip over a card, click the icon you want to flip over. By directly editing the back of the card, you can enter comments (comment can also be entered from the Comment field in the Properties view).

figure 19 flip over icon

In addition to flip over, you can perform stack alignment, grid alignment and multiple selection using icons or a mouse gesture. For details of the operation method, see the section on mouse gestures in the manual.

When a task is completed, use drag and drop to move the task card from Doing to DONE. In this stage, the Completed check mark on the task card is displayed and the Date completed field is set to the date on which the task card was moved to DONE. Also, the work remaining becomes zero. As necessary, enter an elapse point in the elapse property.

In this way, change task statuses as needed to continually make it possible to grasp task statuses based on the Kanban board and take action if there is a problem in a task being worked on for a long time or a task has not been started for a long time.

Managing Task kanban among multi users

Task Kanban boards are usually shared and modified by multiple users. So we provide this merge function to help multiple users to work on a same Kanban Board more efficiently. With this merge function, when someone adds a new Task or updates Task Information, TRICHORD detects the modification and let others to import the new or updated information for each TRICHORD. By using "Auto merge to Task Kanban", TRICHORD updates the latest TASK information at a specified time interval. For details, see "Reference -> Setting -> TRIHCORD" in the manual.

"Auto merge to Task Kanban" is not available in following two cases.

• When multiple users modified the same Task at the same time.
• When the iteration period has been changed.

In above cases, TRICHORD cannot merge it automatically so it shows a dialog message to tell you that there is a conflict. (figure 20) By pressing [OK], you can import modifications that another made over your changes. If you press [Cancel] button, an icon appears on the card to indicate that there is a conflict in Task. (figure 21)

figure 20 Conflicting dialog

figure 21 Icon of conflicting card

Displaying a task list

Tasks displayed in card format on a Kanban board can be displayed in list format, as shown in figure 22. The list can be displayed by clicking the list tab in the task Kanban board. This view is used primarily when you want to edit remaining tasks retroactively. In this view, you can change a task name or remaining task but cannot create a new task.

figure 22 Task List view

Searching for tasks

You can use the search function to search for a specific task (you can also search for a particular story or feature). To search for a task, select Search from the menu to start the search function and then set search conditions and execute a search. The search result is displayed in the lower part of a Kanban board. The default display format is hierarchical format (figure 23) but you can display the results in list format as well (figure 24). To display the results in list format, click the list icon inside the red frame in figure 24. In list format, you can select data from the list and then copy and paste it into Excel to use as calculation data. For details, see "Pasting a card into an Excel table" in the manual.

figure 23 Hierarchical format

figure 24 List format

Using a task tree to understand the relationship between features, stories, and tasks

In TRICHORD, because they are divided, it can be difficult to use a Kanban board to understand the relationship between features, stories, and tasks. This view helps you to understand the relationship between them.

Normally, an outline is displayed in the left pane. Double-clicking here displays a tree. A task tree displays the hierarchical relationship between features, stories, and tasks. When you double-click a feature, story or task on the tree, the corresponding Kanban board opens and is the focus.

If the Task tab is not displayed, right-click the Kanban board icon (in the upper right hand corner of the Kanban board) and select reset from the displayed list to reset the view. This operation displays the Task tab.

figure 25 Task view

Using the Daily Burn Down Chart to understand the remaining tasks in an iteration

Changes in remaining tasks are displayed in a burn down chart. As shown in figure 26, a burn down chart that graphs the daily remaining tasks is displayed in the Daily Burn Down Chart on the left side of the tool. In the chart, the vertical axis is the total remaining tasks and the horizontal axis is the plotted remaining man hours by date. Team members and managers can use this chart to grasp work tendencies. Also, you can press Ctrl+M to maximize the size of the burn down chart.

figure 26 Daily Burn Down Chart

Managing Stories

Using stories, you can manage the progress of work in a release based on a story Kanban board and Iteration Burn Down Chart.

Managing a story in a story Kanban board

You can open a story Kanban board by selecting it from the tree or double-clicking the desired release in the feature Kanban board. As shown in figiure 27, when the tasks under control are all completed, a check mark on the story cards inside a story Kanban board indicates that the tasks are completed. Also, ongoing stories are indicated by circulating arrows (ongoing means that even though only a small number of tasks are under control, one task is still in Doing status).

figure 27 Story Kanban board

Using an Iteration Burn Down Chart to confirm the progress of a story

The remaining stories in a release are displayed in the Iteration Burn Down Chart. An Iteration Burn Down Chart is a graph of the remaining stories in each iteration. In the chart, the vertical axis is the remaining stories (the total of the size set when creating stories), and the horizontal axis is the iteration where completed stories in the iteration are plotted. When all tasks in a story are completed, the remaining stories are reduced by this size and the chart is updated. As shown in figure 28, an Iteration Burn Down Chart is displayed on the right side of the tool. Managers can use this chart to grasp work tendencies from a wide aspect. Also, you can press Ctrl+M to maximize the size of the Iteration Burn Down Chart.

figure 28 Iteration Burn Down Chart

Managing Features

Using the feature Kanban board to manage the progress of a feature

In order to grasp the status of tasks under control, as shown below, in feature cards status is represented by colors so that the progress of stories under control can be understood at a glance. Also, a graph is provided to make it easier to grasp the progress level. This view is the top view primarily used by project owners and project managers who manage multiple projects.

About numbers x and y displayed on a feature card, x is the total size of the completed stories and y is the total size of stories under control. The bar graph on the card changes according to the ratio between story size and completed story size.

Image	Background color	Description
	White	Todo feature
	Blue	Doing feature
	Green	DONE feature
	Red	Uncompleted feature for which the deadline is expired

figure 29 A parking lot chart view about feature