Who can use this feature

Available on monday dev

If you’re developing software, there’s a good chance you’re assigning tasks in iterations or sprints. With monday dev's Tasks board, you can streamline your workflow and plan out your sprints quickly and efficiently. Let's check out how you can seamlessly track your active sprints, assign tasks with ease, oversee your sprint backlog, and keep everything connected to your epics along the way!

How to add the Tasks board

This board is added automatically to your account when you first install the monday dev product. If you've accidentally deleted it or want to add a second tasks board, you can always add it manually to your product. 

Click "+" in your left pane, select Dev templates and then Scrum Team to add the entire Scrum Team folder, which includes the Tasks board.

Basics of the board

The monday dev Tasks board is specially designed with agile software development in mind. The board's groups are designed to represent the tasks that make up your sprints, including a sprint name, timeline, goals, and even an active indication.

Let's take a look at how the board is set up:

Groups

The groups on this board are categorized according to each sprint, with one group representing the backlog of unassigned tasks and one group representing the current active sprint.

Items

The items on our board represent all tasks that comprise each sprint.

Columns 

Columns allow you to record specific details of your sprints' data.  Within the columns we've added for you, you can fill in the information necessary to decide when you need to tackle each task and who you should assign them to.

Check out which key columns are included in the Tasks template

• Owner - This People Column allows the team to assign the team member responsible for each task. The People Column is a really helpful way to create accountability and to help our team visualize workload distribution and avoid over-allocating tasks. 

• Estimated SP - We can use this Numbers Column to mark how long each task is expected to take in story points so that we can properly allot tasks to each sprint. The column settings can be customized to show different units, such as days or hours, and we can add a summary to calculate total time or effort within a group. 

• Status - This Status Column helps us track where everything in our board stands at all times! We've also added several other Status Columns and have customized the labels to indicate priority, type of task, and role.

• Actual SP - This Numbers Column can be filled in as we work to reflect how many story points it has actually taken to complete this task. We can compare this data with the Estimated SP column to help us plan in the future. 
• GitHub link - We can use this Link Column to connect your GitHub source code to your sprint. 
• Unplanned - We can tick off all of the tasks that were "unplanned" here, so we can keep track of all of the bumps in the road. 
• Item ID - This Item ID Column assigns a unique ID number to each of our tasks. 
• Epic - Here, we can connect our tasks to the corresponding epic on our Roadmap board to help us zoom out and see the big picture. 

Note: The following columns are critical to the workflow and therefore cannot be deleted: Owner, Status, Priority, Type, Estimated SP, Actual SP, Sprints, Epic, Bugs Queue. In addition, the active indication bar cannot be changed. 

Start a new sprint 

Once all your upcoming tasks are inputted into your board, you can really see the big picture. You can take a look at your backlog and begin assigning tasks to team members and organizing them into sprints based on parameters such as developer assigned or priority.

When you're ready to create a new sprint, click the drop-down arrow beside the New Task button, and then select New Sprint:

A window will pop up prompting you to define the sprint. Give it a name, select start and end dates, and record all of your goals for this sprint. When you're finished, click Create Sprint and you'll see your new sprint appear as the top group on your board.

Now your team can take a look at your backlog and grab tasks to tackle in this sprint by dragging and dropping them into the new sprint group.

Note: When you create a new sprint following the steps above, it will also be added as a new group in your Tasks board including all of the information you outlined! Your relevant tasks are automatically linked using the Connect Boards Column. 

Click on the three-dot menu at the top-right corner of your group's header and then click on Open sprint. This will take you to a pop-up card with all critical information pertaining to your sprint.  

Automated sprint actions

Enabling automatic Sprint start and complete

With automated Sprint actions, there's no need to manually start and stop your Sprint. All you have to do to get started is click on the three dot menu at the top of the group and click on Sprint setup.

From there, toggle the Enable automatic Sprint start and complete option to on.

Sprint setup

Now you can set up when the current Sprint Complete time will be, as well as setting up when the next Sprint's Start time will be.

The current Sprint must be complete before the next Sprint can begin. This will be done automatically according to your settings.

You can also choose what to do with tasks left over from the completed Sprint: keep them in the completed Sprint, move to the next Sprint, or move to backlog.

You will also automatically receive a generated Sprint summary once the Sprint is complete. You can toggle this option off in this menu as well.

Manually start and end Sprint 

You have the option to manually start and end a Sprint.

Please note that if you do choose to start and complete your Sprint manually, you will not have access to any automated features like the auto-generated Sprint summary, burndown chart, agile insights, and more.

Start sprint

To manually start a Sprint, simply click on the Start button at the top of the Sprint group:

Complete sprint

When you've finally come to the end of a sprint, you can click on the Complete button to mark it as a completed sprint and remove the active indication.

Delete a sprint

To delete a sprint from your board, click the three dot menu in the sprint's header and then click Delete sprint.

Note: You can only delete a sprint that has not yet been started. Sprints that are in progress or completed cannot be deleted.

If you have any items that are not marked as complete when you try to delete a sprint, you'll be asked what you want to do about these items. Choose where you want to move the tasks and then click on Move tasks and delete.

Monitor progress with a burndown chart

A great way to monitor all aspects of your sprint's progression is by using a burndown chart. With the burndown chart, you can track the progress of your sprints as compared to what was planned based on the sum of work days, hours, and story points.

To create one, click the Burndown button beside the status bar of your active or completed sprint.

Agile insights

Agile Insights is a board view with built in charts available in the Widget Center of the dev Tasks boards that provide critical visibility into action sprint performance. The charts include:

• Velocity chart - with this chart you can track your completed work per sprint over time to identify trends and forecast future performance.
   
• Planned vs. unplanned chart -  with this chart you can analyze the distribution of work between planned and unplanned tasks to assess planning accuracy and identify areas for improvement.

Prioritize your sprints with Kanban cards

With monday dev's Kanban View you can see tasks in the active sprint categorized by status. Kanban cards make it easy to see an overview of all your work at every stage. This view shows items in cards categorized by status — Ready to start, In Progress, Waiting for review, Pending Deploy, and Done.

Click on a card for a more detailed view of each item. You can customize the cards to suit your needs by dragging and dropping cards to easily rearrange them from one column to another. 

You can also filter your Kanban view by sprint, so you can keep track of tasks from previous and current sprints all in one convenient place.

Unify communication with GitHub

You can use the GitHub Integration to unify communication and deploys in one place. When committing changes based on a task on our board, you can add '#' to the item ID in the commit message. 

Additionally, use the integration to have the commit appear as an update on that item. Check out all of the GitHub integration templates available at the Automation center.

Sprint automations

As you incorporate automations into your workflow, you can also implement specific automations created for your sprint management. With Sprint automations, you'll be able to transform sprint data into valuable insights.

As of now, there is one template that you can already use, but we are always working on adding more in order to help you automate and simplify your workflow. To access Sprint automations, click on the three dot menu at the top right of the board as below.

Click on Sprint automations, which will take you to the Board Automations page. Here you will see the available template and be able to implement it in your workflow.

Note: Sprint automation templates are only available on monday dev templates and will not be supported in any other boards. 

Item Creation Form

When items are more substantial and contain many attributes, you might want to fill in items using a form rather than through column by column. You can use the item creation form, which will allow you to add a new item in an efficient way.

To use the item creation form, click on the three dot menu on the right side of your screen. Click on Settings, then click on Enable item creation form.

Once it's enabled, you can add items to your board with the form. To use it, create a new task and fill out the form as you need.

You can also add the form to your views. Click on the plus sign icon at the top of your screen and select Explore more views. Search for "form" and then click on Open in board. 

To disable the form, go back to Settings and then click on Disable item creation form.

Tip: 

Learn more about WorkForms and all the amazing ways you can incorporate them into your workflow.

View your data differently

With various different views already set up for you, your team will be able to pull data, check progress, and tackle your backlog as efficiently as possible. You can view all of the different views options by clicking on the plus sign icon on the top left of your screen as below.

Browse Board view options in the dropdown menu and click on Explore more views to see even more options. We're always adding more, so make sure to keep an eye out for new view options.

Take a look at all the different views that are available

• All Sprints - this Main Table View is the default view, and displays all of your data in table form, grouped by sprints
• Main Table - another table view showing the full list of tasks in one group.
• Kanban - as explored in a previous section, the Kanban View shows all tasks laid out in cards according to working status
• Roadmap Tracker - The Roadmap Tracker allows you to communicate your quarterly and yearly plans to stakeholders
• Agile Insights - Agile Insights include Velocity charts, which track the amount of work completed across sprints, as well as Planned vs. unplanned charts, which allow you to track both planned and unplanned work across sprints
• Blank View - the Blank View allows you to visualize your board data by adding different widgets on a fresh layout

monday dev solution

The monday dev solution is a pre-configured set of boards designed to work together as an integrated agile project management system. These boards live inside a solution folder and are tightly connected to each other.

The boards

The solution folder contains four boards, one of which is hidden:

1. Tasks board

Your day-to-day task management board. Each task can be assigned to a sprint and an epic.

2. Sprints board

3. Epics board

For planning and tracking larger initiatives that span multiple sprints.

4. Capacity board (hidden)

This board is hidden from the sidebar and lives inside the solution folder. It powers the Capacity feature that appears on each sprint.

How the boards are connected

Each Connected Board column stores the specific board ID it points to. This is not a generic reference — it is a direct link to one specific board. The connections work as follows:

• Tasks board Sprint column connects to the Sprints board
• Tasks board Epic column connects to the Epics board
• Sprints board Connected tasks column connects to the Tasks board
• Sprints board Link to Capacity column connects to the Capacity board (hidden)
• Epics board Connected tasks column connects to the Tasks board
• Capacity board Sprint column connects to the Sprints board

How to create a template that contains the monday dev solution

When saving a workspace that contains a monday dev solution as a template, follow these guidelines to avoid breaking the solution:

• Keep the solution folder intact. Do not move boards out of it or delete it. The hidden Capacity board lives inside this folder. Deleting the folder will permanently destroy the Capacity board, and it cannot be recovered from the trash.
• Do not delete the Tasks board or the Sprints board. The connection between them is what makes sprint management work. If either board is missing from the template, the solution will break.
• The Epics board can be deleted without breaking the solution. The Epic connected board column on the Tasks board will remain but will simply be empty.
• The Bugs board and the Retrospective board are independent and can be safely deleted from the template.