[Event Follow-Up] ‌🎓‌ Learn: Intro to Kanban Boards with Adobe Workfront

[CynthiaBoon]

Hello folks!  

Huge THANK YOU to all customers who took the time to participate in today's workshop, Learn: Intro to Kanban Boards with Adobe Workfront, hosted by Workfront Product Managers, Natalie Mitchell @NatalieM27 and Patrick Muir @PatrickMu1!   

We had loads of engagement and questions in the chat, so we've added some highlights as replies to this post. If you have a specific question that was not addressed, please reply to this here.  

For those of you that provided feedback on the Boards feature, thank you for sharing! We’ve bundled it up and provided it to our hosts.  

For those who missed the session, you can watch the on-demand recording here and download a copy of the slide deck here. 

Additional events are being added to the Events page each week, so keep checking regularly to ensure you don't miss out.  Here's what is coming up in May! 

• May 3 at 9am MT – Ask: Customer Panel – Using Workfront to Solve Business Challenges 
• May 5 at 10am MT – Connect: Admin Chat for Marketing & Creative 
• May 15 at 7am MT – Connect: Strategic Admin Chat 
• May 18 at 9am MT – Learn: Getting Started with Resource Management in Workfront 
• May 23 at 1pm MT – Learn: Intro to Scrum with Adobe Workfront 
• May 25 at 10:30am MT – Ask: Resource Management in Workfront Office Hours 
• Coming soon! Custom Form Field Workshop!

[CynthiaBoon]

How to access Boards

We had lots of questions on how to access Boards!  

The Boards feature is available to all licenses, but you'll need to have your system administrator make it available on the Main Menu on the user’s Layout Templates. For more info, here’s the article: 

Customize the Main Menu using a layout template 

Interested in new Boards features? Here’s the article for Early feature opt-in for Adobe Workfront Boards. 

[EstherHo1]

The on-demand video for the intro is no longer working. is there another link I can access? 

[CynthiaBoon]

Hey there!  Thanks for the heads-up!  I just updated the link to our new system, so it should work now.

[EstherHo1]

My team/I are struggling to figure out how to even think about applying agile methodology to our workflows/project management/etc. We don't even see the option to explore Boards in our instance. Is it possible to set up a quick chat and maybe someone on your team could help point us in the right direction? 

[CynthiaBoon]

Hey there!  In order to access Boards, it does need to be on your Layout Template, so if you are not a Sys Admin, you'll just need to reach out to that person and request that Boards be added to your menu item.  I did a short video on this at the end of last year, and I'm working on one for end-users that I hope to publish at the end of this month. Here's the link to that post:

[VIDEO] Top 3 Reasons to Use Boards for Adoption

If you want to crowdsource ideas and best practices live, I'd love to chat about it during our monthly Connect: Workfront Collective events.  The next one is on February 12th, just in case you're available.  Here's the registration link:
February 12th at 6:00am PT - Connect: Workfront Collective

I'll share the latest Boards video here when I get it published.

Thanks!

[CynthiaBoon]

23.2 Agile Release Features 

Interested in the individual Agile enhancements included in the latest release? Here are some links to the short demos: 

• [Article] Add tasks and issues from object details to a Workfront board or workstream 
• [Video ~2min] Iteration functionality available in Adobe Workfront Boards 
• [Article] Add tasks and issues from lists and reports to a workstream card list 
• [Article] Add custom fields to cards on a board   
  • Note - this was demo'd live during the event!
    
• [Article] Add tasks and issues from lists and reports to a Workfront board 
• [Article] Log hours on connected cards on a board 
• [Video ~2min] Customize display of fields on a card 
• [Video ~2min] Define a default status for cards moved into a board column 
• [Video ~2min] Collections now available in Adobe Workfront Boards 
• [Article] Estimation field on connected cards maps to Story Points field on Workfront objects 

Natalie Mitchell @NatalieM27 and Patrick Muir @PatrickMu1 - do you have particular favorites from this last release? What are you looking forward to most for the future of Boards?

[CynthiaBoon]

Tips for Kanban Ceremonies 

Like all Agile Methodologies, Kanban is supported by regular ceremonies to ensure that the team is working as efficiently as possible. Here are some of the great ideas that were shared. 

• For Planning:  
  • For our scrum projects we have our backlog groomed 8-10 sprints out, but we work in 2-week sprints. Anything out past the current and next sprint is easily adjusted but gives stakeholders an idea of when their projects are scheduled and allows for greater visibility for prioritization.  Thank you, Cori Zufelt! 

• For Stand-ups 
  • Only core members can speak at stand-ups. Everyone else, including Execs are strictly silent observers. 
  • Daily stand-ups are a requirement; they should be just long enough for quick updates. Keep it short (15-minutes). For long talkers, one team member talked for as long as he could hold a heavy kettle bell! 
  • One of our team leads was having issues with long talkers. So, she started using this timer app for each discussion  https://standuptimer.app/ 
    • Thank you, Natalie Mitchell & John Burbank!

• For Retrospectives:  
  • My boilerplate for retrospectives: "In my retrospective meetings, speak freely. There should be no worry of repercussions as this is an opportunity for honest discussion. That said, try to refrain from strong language (F-bombs can be so tempting!). Be deferential, respectful of others' perspectives, and when possible, facilitate productive conversations with topical, productive questions. This is a safe space - please be mindful that we all strive to build solutions with the best of intentions in mind."  Thank you, Neal Gardner @nealgardner_mattel! 

[CynthiaBoon]

WIP Limits and Release Dates 

One of the coolest features of Boards is the Work in Progress Limit (or WIP Limit) and inspired some questions around the feature and release dates.  

• Q: How do you manage different WIP that are in different states and have different release dates? For example, how do you include the desired date the business wants to have a feature delivered and the team is working on multiple stories that have different desired release date? 
• Q: Do you have to have certain, specific release dates?  We used to do 1 or 2 times per month, but now we release to Prod every Friday.  Release to test goes as needed all week. We track these dates by using a custom field - Prod Install date 

Here are the ideas that were shared: 

• A: You can organize your work in sprints to coincide with planned completion. 
• A: here are a few different ways you can approach this. First, I would say that delivery dates should influence (not dictate) your priority. Second, I would say that "done" does not equal delivered/released. What i have seen work is essentially using a "done" column as a holding pen, even calling it "Ready to Release" or something like that. That way you know what's ready to go. You can also divide up your "ready to release" items into the appropriate dates to keep track of what is going when. It's really up to you to decide what works best for staying organized, but I think the biggest point is to make a distinction between done/ready to release and actually released. 

Thank you Herve Antoine @herveant and Meghan Kaminski for the questions, and Neal Gardner and Natalie Mitchell for the ideas!

For more information on WIP Limits and Using Connected Cards, check out these articles: 

• Manage the Work in Progress (WIP) limit on a board 
• Use connected cards on boards 

[CynthiaBoon]

Some “How To” Questions 

We had tons of engagement in the chat, so sharing a few highlighted questions and answers! 

Q: Can assignments on Boards show up in Workload Balancer if you are using boards for some teams and not others? 

A: Yes, as long as the Boards information is connected back to Workfront projects. 

Q: Can one do Kanban if some tasks are assigned to a Team and some to a specific person? 

A: Yep, absolutely. Just make sure that when an individual as tasks assigned to them and tasks they can take from a team assignment, they have clear understanding of what the top priorities are. 

Q: Where do I create custom team statuses vs custom group statuses? 

A: Here's some info on creating statuses! https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/administration-and-setup/customize/statuses-... 

• Pro-tip: You set the custom statuses at the group level.  If you want them associated with a team you could create a team that maps directly to a group.    

Q: Can assignments on Boards show up in Workload Balancer if you are using boards for some teams and not others? 

A: Yes, as long as the Boards information is connected back to Workfront projects. 

Q: Can we create a card from within the project/task that is auto-added to our Kanban board?  Our studio works out of a Kanban in Smartsheet separate from our Workfront instance, and I'm looking for an easy way to pull it into Workfront.  

A: By setting up your intake column correctly, it will automatically pull in the appropriate tasks from a project. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/workfront/using/agile/agile-planning-boards/add-intake-colum... 

[J_Mas]

I've created a Kanban board and have my intake sources setup correctly, which populates my backlog column with specific tasks from existing projects.

When I re-assign a card (or drag/drop it to the appropriate assignee) that person sees the task on their home screen.

If that person then starts the task (so it changes from New to In-Progress), the status of the task in the project and on the card (in the Kanban board) changes to In Progress however the card itself never moves to the In Progress column.

Is this expected behavior? Do cards need to be manually dragged to the appropriate column, or should they automatically move to the appropriate column when the status has changed?

[ewanh]

Hi @J_Mas ,

Sorry for the delayed response here from us.   Try using a Dynamic Board for this purpose and see if the connectivity works.  If still not, please submit a support case and we'll help you out.  It should move to the appropriate column if your column policy is set up properly for the appropriate column.

Thanks!