What's on the board

The board is where you see kanman think. The chat stays a conversation; the work lives on cards. Everything kanman works on, considers or waits for is a card in your team’s columns, and it moves along as kanman gets further.

Kinds of cards

Every card shows one line with what kanman does on it right now, for example “Comparing with 4 resolved tickets from September”. The line changes in place as kanman works.

To see only your stories, open the board’s filter and choose Stories only. To see only incidents, choose Incidents.

Open a card

Select a story to open its page, and an incident’s card to open the incident page. Back takes you to the board as you left it, at the same place and with the same goal selected. Every other card, such as a ticket, a finding or a report, opens in a window over the board. You see:

• the facts: when the ticket was reported, its state in the ticket system, the people on it;
• where the card is on its way across your columns;
• what kanman does right now;
• the living document: what kanman knows, what it is checking (likely causes, with the ones it ruled out struck through) and the report;
• Moves: every time the card changed column, with the reason. Cards never move back without a reason.

Close the window with Esc, the close button or a click beside it. On a phone the card opens full screen. Ask about the card in the chat and kanman answers with the card at hand.

Tickets from your ticket system

When your team receives tickets through a connection, each new ticket becomes a card right away, and the incident it opens lives on that same card. kanman reviews it and writes its analysis and report onto the card. Follow-ups of an incident are part of its card, not loose cards of their own.

Incidents

Every incident is exactly one card, and it stays there for the whole incident. Its column follows where the incident stands, and every move says why:

The card shows the phase, the priority, what kanman does right now, a link to the ticket and a link to the incident page with all the details. When kanman’s report on the incident is ready, the card shows Report ready; select it to read the report on the incident page. The report never moves the card: only the incident does.

Set aside

When you tell kanman “not that”, for example “no change proposals for now”, it sets the matching cards aside with your words as the reason. They fold into Set aside at the top of the board, together with cards the team won’t do. Open it to see what was set aside, why and when; Bring back puts a card back in the backlog.

Columns that fit your work

kanman never changes your columns by itself. When your work no longer fits them, for example when almost everything sits in one column while the ones in the middle stay empty, or when a ticket system brings states your board has no column for, kanman proposes a layout to the team’s leads as a Board layout card. Open it to see the proposed columns next to the current ones and where every card goes.

• Use this layout applies it. Nothing is lost: columns that merge keep their cards, and kanman’s automations keep working.
• Not now declines it. kanman then stays quiet about the layout for 30 days, unless your work changes clearly or someone asks.
• Undo layout brings the old columns back with one click: right after applying, on the layout’s card and for a week at the top of the board.

You can also ask any time, for example “Set up our board for support”. A support team gets, for example: New, Ready, In analysis, Report ready, With development, Waiting for customer, Resolved.

The chat points at the board

Because the work lives on cards, the chat stays short:

• “3 new incidents analysed → TEAM-3, TEAM-4, TEAM-5”, with each card as a link;
• one card per new ticket that updates in place as kanman gets further;
• several updates in a row become one line, for example “Since 09:49: 6 updates on TEAM-3, TEAM-4, TEAM-5”, with Show to see them;
• answers to your questions stay in the chat. A long answer shows its first paragraph, and Read more opens the whole answer in a window over the board. When an answer explains something worth keeping, for example what a service is for, kanman also adds it to your team’s memory with its source;
• a report of kanman’s own work, such as an incident analysis or a review, becomes a Report card in the column for finished work. Its title names what was examined, the chat shows the report’s first lines, and Read opens the card.

Incident notices in Personal reach only the members of the incident’s team.