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Do you have a lot of tasks and feel like you are losing control over them? It is not clear which activities need urgent attention, what is in progress or what has already been done?
Board view or kanban is one of the most popular methods that helps to clearly structure and track tasks. Kanban was originally developed in the Japanese automotive industry to manage inventory and production orders, but today it is widely used in various fields – from manufacturing to software development, logistics and construction.
Kanban is a visual task management method where tasks are presented as cards and divided into columns that represent their status or other characteristics. The method can be used both on a physical board with notepads and using software suitable for project management.
PlanPro offers a powerful and user-friendly digital whiteboard that does not require complex pre-setting or extensive training – the same activities and projects that we are used to seeing in the list view are automatically arranged in a structured way on the board.
The board view creates a clear understanding of who is currently working on what, which tasks are next and which have already been completed. This increases transparency and helps prevent duplication or forgetting.
In summary, the advantages of the board view:
✔ Clear overview – all tasks are visually visible and structured in one place.
✔ Efficient work allocation – tasks can be conveniently divided between team members.
✔ Real-time monitoring – work progress can be monitored and changes can be reacted to promptly.
✔ Staying focused – helps to focus on unfinished, high-priority or problematic activities.
One of the main reasons to use the board view is the visual aspect – activities are clearly divided into columns according to different characteristics, such as status, owner or priority.
Another key feature of the board is drag-and-drop, which allows you to quickly move tasks from one column to another, changing their status or other related information with a few clicks.
The board can be used to manage the entire team’s common workflow as well as to create a personal task view for each team member. This makes the board view a good tool for both collaboration and individual planning, and for visualizing work progress during team meetings.
In the PlanPro board view, activities can be displayed not only by status, but also by priority, assesment, activity type or owner. Columns are automatically created according to the classifiers in use.
The total number of activities is also displayed in the column title, and if necessary, the content of the columns can be temporarily hidden by clicking on the arrow. The Undefined column is always visible – activities without a corresponding label are placed here.
The most classic and important way to get an overview of the status of activities is grouping by status. Tasks move through the workflow stages, e.g. not started, in progress, pending, completed. This helps you quickly understand how far along an activity is and what needs attention.
Grouping by responsible person allows you to see the distribution of tasks among employees, assess the workload and avoid overplanning, and simplify task coordination.
Grouping activities by priority (e.g. high, medium, low) helps you focus on what is most important. Activities that do not have a priority are automatically displayed in the “Undefined” column.
If activities are divided on the board based on assesments (e.g. on track, off track, at risk), you can quickly get an overview of which tasks are progressing as expected and which require attention. Activities without an assessment are displayed in the “Undefined” column and can be easily dragged to the desired assessment column.
A view based on types (e.g. project, procurement, incident, or other client-specific type) helps visualize the nature and volume of work. This allows you to quickly assess which types of activities are more pending or in progress, and if necessary, redistribute tasks or re-prioritize.
The card displays important metadata and the person responsible (initials or picture) in the respective grouping. For example, when grouping by status, the activity type is also visible, and in other cases the status.
By hovering over the “i” icon, you can see the activity metadata, including parent activity, ID, deadline, etc.
If an activity has stages, they are also displayed on the activity cards in the board view. A stage can be marked as completed by checking the box in front of the stage name.
In PlanPro’s board view, you can conveniently drag activity cards from one column to another. Thanks to the drag-and-drop functionality, activity data is automatically updated according to the new status. In addition, automatic notifications are triggered upon change, keeping team members informed of what is happening.
Each user can customize the PlanPro board view to their own working style or team’s needs. Thanks to the versatile filtering options, you can choose which activities you want to see – for example, based on a deadline or some connection (strategic goal, action plan, risk).
You can save filters and create your own desired views of your and your department’s tasks or, for example, activities related to a specific strategic goal. This way, you can quickly and conveniently access the following views: “High priority activities under my responsibility”, “All my ongoing activities this month”, “Department activities over the deadline”, etc.
The PlanPro board view also allows you to turn on horizontal divisions – swimlanes – that help visualize activities according to multiple characteristics at once.
For example, the responsible person in rows and the status in columns provide a quick overview of who is responsible for what and what status the task has.
Why use swimlanes:
✔ More clarity and organization
Swimlanes help you clearly categorize tasks – for example, by team, person responsible, or activity type. This makes the workload more understandable and manageable.
✔ Faster overview of work progress
Visual division allows you to see at a glance what is being worked on in each category. Less confusion, more focus.
✔ Clearer priorities
By grouping activities, for example, by rating or priority, it is easier to identify which tasks need immediate action and which can wait.
✔ Supports teamwork and responsibility
With the help of lanes, different roles or teams can immediately see which tasks are on their “lane”. This increases involvement, a sense of responsibility, and supports more effective collaboration.
✔ Also suitable for more complex projects
If projects have many parties or a multi-level workflow, using swimlanes helps to keep the process visually logical and trackable.
When lanes are activated, dragging activities from one status, priority, etc. to another works, but as an alternative, you can move activities between columns and lanes by right-clicking on the activity.
PlanPro is more than just a standard project management software – it’s a flexible and powerful tool for getting insights into activities, managing workflow, and enhancing collaboration.
PlanPro’s functionality goes beyond typical project and task management software. It supports activity-based budgeting, risk management and assessment, strategy excecution, and conducting various performance reviews and feedback surveys.
Written by Kalev Truusalu
If you’re looking for a project management solution or considering replacing your current one, be sure to request a demo of PlanPro software today!
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