Kanban Web-Based Tools Evaluation
This page has a review of the tools that are under evaluation for use in Launchpad.
For each of the tools, I put current Launchpad team data in and recorded both how that process when as well as whether I thought the tool was adequate for the job.
Finally, there's a section on API. We'll want a web-based API to these tools so we can integrate them into Launchpad data, at the very least.
LeanKit Kanban
Here are my findings:
1. LeanKit Kanban - Company site: http://www.leankitkanban.com
- Created boards (only 1 for free)
- Created lanes for work flow
- Can't move lanes once they are defined (bug?)
- Found a horizontal "split" feature. TBD: use that for horizontal swim lanes
- Added tasks - input dialog is sufficient for this
- Called all WIP items "features"
- Put all features into Backlog (as an experiment)
- Found the only way to move items (edit) out of backlog is drag-and-drop.
- This isn't too good if your board is very wide, as this one is.
- The work-around is that you drag to first lane, which works to then drag further.
- NOTE: I could have set the initial lane in the Item input dialog.
- Edited tasks unto board - reasonable process
- Cannot make the backlog widget any smaller
- UI is too big for a single browser w/o scrolling (even on large H/R display)
- Created horizontal swim lanes for projects.
- This quickly takes up the screen real estate.
- I left the one set of swim lanes in the "Analyze" lane, for show.
- You can see that it runs off the bottom of the screen, and I've only got 3 teams so far.
- Should put developer names on cards, but that would require more users.
- API: Copied the C# API example.
- TBD: Need to spend some time reading code
Zen
1. Zen - Company site: http://www.agilezen.com/
- Created boards (only 1 project board for free)
- Created lanes for work flow
- Since there is a "Ready" attribute of a WIP card, didn't need to create a "Ready" lane.
- It is possible we will want Ready lanes, but screen real estate is an issue.
- Arranging lanes once they are define is done by drag-and-drop.
- Could not find a way to do horizontal swim lanes
- On the other hand, color-coding of WIP cards was easy, so color-per-team was my choice
- Added tasks - input dialog is sufficient for this
- Called all WIP items "features"
- Put most features into Backlog (as an experiment)
- Moving items (edit) out of backlog is done either via drag-and-drop or editing each card.
- The card edit feature is nice. Easy to go from a Board to a Full-"screen" card edit form.
- NOTE: I also could have set the initial lane in the Item input form.
- Edited tasks unto board - reasonable process
- Cannot put developer names on cards, because only 1 user is allowed.
- API:
- TBD