Reports: Creating a Task Board

Creating a task board Managing projects often require for agile teams to keep reports. These usually consist of agile charts and task boards. Task boards in agile are considered as signpost or artifacts that resemble billboards. The purpose of task boards is to signal project progress. Keeping reports using task boards shows that the team can move away from theoretical to something more practical.

When deciding to create a task board, there are many different ways this can be done. The task board normally is displayed using a large white board with marker columns. Other times the task board can be created with simple tape on a white wall. If there are space issues, the team can use glass walls or windows. Task boards are not restricted to size. While some board can take up an entire wall, some team are able to fit it on a cork board. The task board is setup like a simple swim lane diagram. They have long columns, and a name on each starting block on top of the columns.

Breaking the task board further down, the first lane has user stories. The next lanes will have to do's, doing and done. Tasks are placed on the board from top to bottom corresponding to where each belongs. The tasks will move from left to right as they are being worked by developers. The task board will show a flurry of activities. The board will be different each day. There should be a rhythm of completing tasks. The movement from left to right should be priority of highest placed tasks and completed stories from top to bottom. The top story should complete first, then the second story and so on, until the end.

It is crucial that task boards remain in a place that is visible to everyone in the agile team. Teams will often place their task board where they hold their stand ups. This provides for a simple reminder for the team as they work on the project. So it is also important that these task boards remain lightweight and easy to read. Keep in mind of developers and the work.

Overall, a team's task board will say a lot about them based on how it is organized. While task boards can be very simple only showing bare minimum, other can be very complex. The creation of a proper task board can either help the team progress much easier or blind them. Having too much on a board is not necessarily bad but it is not good either. The details is what really matters.

Work Cited

"Agile at Work: Reporting with Agile Charts an d Boards" Lynda.com - from LinkedIn, https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Agile-Work-Reporting-Agile-Charts-Boards/175962-2.html Accessed 26 Nov. 2017.

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