How to create a Kanban board

Center of Excellence
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1. Abstract

It's quite typical to incorporate a workflow for monitoring and managing various activities into Board applications. In certain situations, leveraging a Kanban board can greatly facilitate simplifying the visualization, monitoring, and control of these tasks. In Board, the card object fits perfectly for this purpose.

2. Context

Any context where it makes sense to replicate a similar view:

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3. Content

Expected result:

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The following steps are to configure the card object and create a kanban board as shown in the picture above.

3.1 Data model

On the data model side, these are the key objects to be created:

  • Entity Task: this entity stores all the tasks/activities that need to be part of the Kanban board.

In the example: Task 01, Task 02, Task 03,…, Task n.

  • Entity Task Status: this is the entity to assign which is the task status. With the parent-child relationship, we facilitate the assignment and the movement of the tasks across the different statuses.

In the example: 010 Backlog, 020 Doing, 030 Review, 040 Done.

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  • Cube Task Description: This is a text cube that stores the task description.

In the example 1D cube dimensioned by task

  • Cube Task Expiration Date: this is a date cube that stores the task expiration date.

In the example 1D cube dimensioned by task

  • Cube Task Picture: this is a picture cube that stores an icon to describe the task – it can be also a picture/icon to represent the owner of the task.

In the example 1D cube dimensioned by task

Those cubes are just examples of information that needs to be stored and displayed on the Kanban board. It’s possible to enrich or change the dimensions based on the information that needs to be presented.

3.2 Front-end and screen creation

On the front end side, these are the key steps to follow to replicate the object. Each column is a different card object. To create the kanban board we need one card for each status.

Drag and drop the card object and configure the layout as follows:

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Note that:

  • Entity Task in the axis;
  • a, b, and c are the cubes already described above;
  • d is a column alert that highlights if the task is due based on the expiration date;

Create other three card objects with the same configuration. The only difference across the 4 objects will be the layout selection that needs to reflect the status:

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This for example is the layout selection of the first card object: Task Status=Backlog

  • Add a label on top of each card object to clearly state the Task Status:
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  • All done

It makes sense to create a settings table to assign/modify the status of the different tasks. By changing the status the task will move across the statuses. This can be part of an Admin/Settings workflow screen.

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4. Conclusion

This is a basic example where the card object allows the creation of a workflow tracking graphic that is widely used across various work management apps such as Trello, Asana, and similar. The same can be enhanced with the combination of different front-end and back-end objects.

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