SharePoint Kanban Board Enhanced In Updated Add-in

Last week I described several new features in Kanban Task Manager for SharePoint V5. Now the add-in edition of Kanban Task Manager has been enhanced in nearly the same way.

The APP file has already been released on the kalmstrom.com website, and very soon you can find version 2 in SharePoint Store too.

SharePoint kanban board
Kanban Task Manager, also available in two Outlook editions, builds on the kanban board idea, where cards with task descriptions are moved between phases as work with a project proceeds.

Having the kanban board in SharePoint will of course give a multitude of advantages over the physical board, and in the latest version we have given even more possibilities. Now you can study and manage tasks in Month and Project views, and there is a My Open Tasks web part/app part for users who only need to see and work with their own tasks.

Add an app
Microsoft has announced that the word "App for SharePoint" will be replaced by "SharePoint Add-in", so that is the term we are using in our product name. Kanban Task Manager SharePoint Add-in is installed in a site with the "add an app" command – the same as you use when creating a new list.

To find the add-in, users can either open the SharePoint Store or search among "Apps you can add". If the APP file has been downloaded from our website and added to the App Catalog, it will be available in "Apps you can add" for the whole farm or tenant.

2013 and higher
The App for SharePoint was first introduced in SharePoint 2013, and it is clear that Microsoft intends to make the app/add-in concept grow stronger.

Like other add-ins, Kanban Task Manager SharePoint Add-in does not have any custom code that runs on the SharePoint servers. This is a reassurance that the add-in cannot harm servers or reduce performance of  SharePoint Online websites.

Add-in limitations
Add-ins have two limitations that affect Kanban Task Manager. Task descriptions cannot contain attachments, videos or inline images, and add-ins don't have permission to access other sites.

We have found a workaround for the first problem, by giving a Kanban Task Manager app part that can have HTML in the task description field. The permission limitation, however, so far prevents add-in users from moving tasks to other kanban boards.

Sandboxed Solution
To encourage the development of add-ins and avoid server issues, Microsoft has deprecated the use of custom managed code in SharePoint Sandboxed Solutions.

This is however no problem for the kalmstrom.com Sandboxed Solutions, because they build on JavaScript, not on custom managed code, and they run in browsers to 99%. Therefore we can keep developing our sandboxed edition of Kanban Task Manager for subscribers who use SharePoint 2010 or who use multiple installations and want to have the possibility to move tasks between them.

Learn more about the Kanban Task Manager SharePoint editions in the slideshow!

Upgrade
I recommend current subscribers of Kanban Task Manager SharePoint Add-in to upgrade their installation. If you downloaded  the Kanban Task Manager APP file from SharePoint Store, you will get a message about the new version. When you have the file in an App Catalog, you should first download the new version from the kalmstrom.com upgrade page and then upload it to the App Catalog.

Try it
Both SharePoint editions of Kanban Task Manager may be downloaded and evaluated for 30 days, with our full support but without any obligations from your side. I am looking forward to hearing your comments!

Peter Kalmström
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions

New SharePoint Task Views In Updated Kanban Task Manager

Today I am happy to announce the release of Kanban Task Manager for SharePoint V5. This major update has several new features, among them the new Month and Project views and more graphic indicators on the task cards. You can see them in the demo below.

Month View
The Month View gives a good overview of when tasks are planned to start and end. The time slots can be dragged to change the start and due dates, and events can also be edited or created directly from this view. The Month View is displayed either as a calendar or as a timeline, where tasks can be grouped in various ways.

Project View
In the Project View each project is visualized in the form of a pie chart, so managers and team leaders can quickly see  how many tasks there are in each phase of each project. Only phases that have tasks for the specific project are shown.

Completed icon and Overdue indications
When a task on the kanban board is overdue, it is indicated with a red left border.

When users fill out the % Completed field in the task, the value will be shown with an icon on the task in the kanban view. In the image below the task is nearly finished.

If the Trip to India task above had been overdue, it should have had the red right border, but it should also have had the rest of the completed icon marked with red – a strong "Finish this now" signal!

Move task to another site
The new version of Kanban Task Manager has a new feature that has been requested by some subscribers with many installations: a possibility to move tasks to any other site within the farm/tenant where Kanban Task Manager is activated. Our developers have made this very easy. When the admin has entered the URLs to the sites users should be allowed to move tasks to in the settings, users can just right click on the task and select a URL.

Phase Columns
To allow users with few phases and big screens to use their horizontal space better, we have added a possibility to use more than one column of tasks in the same phase. This is also a subscriber request, that we are happy to be able to implement.

In the image below there are many incoming tasks that are waiting to be moved through the phases. Therefore the "Not Started" phase has been given 2 columns, which shows more tasks with less scrolling and gives a better overview.

My Open Tasks
Last week I told you about the "My Open Tasks" web part, that can be added to any editable page in sites where Kanban Task Manager has been activated. I hope it will be appreciated by users who only want to see their own tasks.

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Add-in update
There are two SharePoint editions, a sandboxed solution and an add-in, and we will very soon update the add-in with the features I have described above. It is only a matter of days, so you will not have to wait for long if you prefer the add-in edition.

Upgrade
I recommend current subscribers of Kanban Task Manager to take advantage of the free upgrade benefit that is included in all kalmstrom.com subscriptions.

Try it
If you have not yet tried Kanban Task Manager, you are welcome to evaluate the solution.

You can either try the sandboxed solution now, or wait for my next blog post about Kanban Task Manager, where I will announce the release of Kanban Task Manager SharePoint Add-in V2!

Peter Kalmström
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions

My Kanban Board SharePoint Tasks In New Web Part

We will soon release major updates of the SharePoint editions of Kanban Task Manager. Most of the new features are important to managers and team leaders, but the demo below shows something we have created to help users who only want to see their own tasks.

Project and tasks management
With Kanban Task Manager, SharePoint tasks are visualized as cards on a kanban board with project phases. This gives a good overview over how work on different projects proceed, and it is easy for managers to discover bottlenecks and make sure the processes run smoothly.

The new versions will give even more options for a quick survey of the situation, with new views as well as indications on the kanban cards. These features enhance Kanban Task Manager for all who need to understand the greater picture.

However, some users don't want or need to see more than the work they are supposed to take care of. These users can instead manage their tasks in the "My Open Tasks" web part.

My Open Tasks
The web part can be inserted into any editable page on a SharePoint site where Kanban Task Manager has been activated. It shows each user the open tasks that are assigned to him or her, sorted first by priority and then by created date. The tasks have the same color coding as on the kanban board.

"My Open Tasks" has a search box, so that users can search among their tasks, but there is no other filter options and no phases and lanes. This makes the web part very simple to manage. Here user can study their tasks, open them and change status and other parameters without being disturbed by information they don't need.

Should the "My Open Tasks" web part not be enough, you can of course still open the kanban board and manage the tasks there instead. Users don't have to choose either the web part or the kanban board. They can switch between the web part and the kanban board as often as they like.

The demo below shows how I insert the "My Open Tasks" web part to the home page of a site where Kanban Task Manager is activated. To avoid extensive scrolling, I use a two column layout and add "My Open Tasks" to one column and the default web parts Newsfeed and Documents to the other column.

I will soon come back and tell you more about the valuable manager features in the new version of Kanban Task Manager!

Peter Kalmström
CEO and Systems Designer
kalmstrom.com Business Solutions