How can I use Wekan for feature mapping or extend my workflow with external feature mapping tools?

[tuhlmann]

I'm using Wekan as a Kanban board for software development. I have tasks / stories in a backlog that then move through the different stages until done. For this, Wekan works great!

I'm looking for existing tools (open source if possible), that I can use to do some feature planning- basically a grouping of user stories or tasks under a certain topic, assigned to a timeline. Do you have any recommendations?

Or maybe you found ways to use Wekan for these kind of activities as well- then I'd like to learn about them!

Thank you!

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

For timeline, for each card set start and end date, you see them at Calendar of Swimlanes/Lists/Calendar menu.

For grouping, you can add different colored labels to cards. Then filter by label at current board.

For searching, you can click right top your username / Search All Boards. There you can search for labels etc.

For seeing all your cards you are member or assignee at all boards, click right top your username / My Cards. Also, at same menu Due cards.

For automating moving cards, like Trello Butler, click right hamburger menu / Board Settings / Rules / Add Rule.

For automating adding cards etc, you can also use api.py at https://github.com/wekan/wekan and docs at https://wekan.github.io/api/

You can also use per-board or global Outgoing Webhooks, see right menu Webhooks topic at https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki

For showing and hiding fields at Minicard (card that is not yet opened) or Card (that is opened), click right hamburger menu / Board Settings / Card Settings.

For grouping, you can also create more swimlanes for different groups.

You can also add many checklists, and drag-drop reorder checklists, checklist items, cards, swimlanes at Board. Or drag-drop reorder board icons at All Boards page.

For grouping, you can also change color of swimlanes, lists, cards, at their hamburger menus.

Also, at right sidebar, that is right hamburger menu / Board Settings, there can be changed board color/theme or background image.

Some upcoming features are:

• Gantt Chart Gantt chart #2870
• Red Strings Feature-Request: PI Program Board with Red Strings #3392

[tuhlmann]

Thank you @xet7 , for the thorough write up, it certainly is very helpful! PI board dependencies certainly is familiar.
I would also like a way to express a parent/child relationship between one parent card and x children. That would be useful for structuring a feature, adding acceptance criteria and so on. But then, it's really stretching the Kanban metaphor- I get that.

Thanks, Torsten.

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

I would also like a way to express a parent/child relationship between one parent card and x children.

How? Any screenshot, or screenshot mockup?

Do you mean something like card inside card?

• Brython kanban demo: https://www.brython.info/gallery/kanban.html
• Like organization hierarchy, also for permissions etc purposes: Feature Request: When adding/removing user to/from Team/Org, add/remove user to/from all boards of Team/Org with edit rights etc #4178 (comment)
• Like at UCS: Feature Request: When adding/removing user to/from Team/Org, add/remove user to/from all boards of Team/Org with edit rights etc #4178 (comment)

Or, do you mean tree like subdirectories in file explorer?

[tuhlmann]

I can't provide any mockups, sorry. Mainly because I'm pretty open to how this relationship is expressed, just so that it gives me a way to plan in terms of features and not just tasks, which is a more abstract level.

A simplistic approach would be to have a dedicated board for features, where each feature is a card and I assign dates, swim lanes, and add a checklist of tasks. Then of course I'd have to jump to my actual story board / task board and recreate these bullets into actual tasks. And many actions I do in the task board I would have to replicate in the feature board. And because I know me I know I will forget eventually :)

I don't know if I like the view of having one card within another. It feels this gets pretty messy soon.
Maybe a way to filter a board by feature?
I also pondered whether having a "mini board" per feature would be a good idea. But that seems to limit all the great things you can now do with a board, and I like to keep that.

Anyway, what I wanna use in the end is some kind of planning process for when to implement what, on a higher level than a task.
If a task would be "implement login" or "send confirmation email", the feature would be "implement authentication".

Here's a description of the story mapping process: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/user-story-mapping/
Here's a software that implements this process but not in a very usable way for me: https://www.featuremap.co/en

https://www.avion.io/ does it in a better way.

Update: https://www.easyagile.com/products/teamrhythm/?r=prd-uss might be interesting in their approach. They read the Jira tasks and create their own view for product / feature planning and then link to the tasks there.

I'd be also interested to hear and learn how other people do feature planning if they design a green field application, or if they do not do that at all?

Thanks!

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

What is missing from current Filter feature? There is also Advanced Filter, at bottom of that Filter sidebar.

Or do you mean that there should be additional levels at Checklists? For example, collapsible sublevels?

• Checklist Title
• Checklist Item
• Sub Checklist Item
• Sub Sub Checklist Item
• Etc

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

Update: https://www.easyagile.com/products/teamrhythm/?r=prd-uss might be interesting in their approach. They read the Jira tasks and create their own view for product / feature planning and then link to the tasks there.

Jira Plugin developers have very hard time to keep their Plugins working. One Jira Plugin developer I know recently discontinued their Jira Plugin because of various difficulties Plugin devs have. They will concentrate to other platforms, or make their own platform.

WeKan is https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Monkey-Proof-Software . Jira is not. That's why my customers use WeKan.

There will later be a way to import more data from Jira to WeKan directly https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Sync

[tuhlmann]

@xet7 Thanks for getting back to me!

I think a workflow that would work for me is to:

• have a special column on the board just for user stories or features.
• I would then need a way to show either the same board or another one in a filtered view that would only reveal the tasks that belong to a story or feature.
• I think I could use a special custom field with a keyword for the story or task and then filter the board by that keyword.

My question: How can I set up a card on the board as easy as possible, so that it contains a button or link or something clickable, that would show the board with a filter applied?

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

You can link card to other card at other board, so both cards show same content.

At right top your username / Search All Boards, you can search by one or more labels and other search options combined.

[tuhlmann]

@xet7 The "Filter Board" feature is most likely what fits best. Is there a way to persist a filter query in the form of a link, to that I could add a filter query link to the description of a card, and then clicking it would show the current board with that filter applied?

[tuhlmann]

@xet7 I just discovered the "sub tasks" feature. It looked like I could use this one: create a user story and then create sub tasks for each task it holds.

In a test, I created a couple cards in a new board and added sub tasks to card 1, which created a new sub board with one "Queue" column. I added a few more columns there.

I then created sub tasks for the other cards in the top level board, and surprisingly to me the all showed up in the same sub board that was created for the first sub task.

I was hoping that sub tasks of one card would create a sub board of their own, so that sub tasks of one card do not get mixed with those of another. Did I do somtehing wrong?

If this is the intended way, how can I filter the sub board to only show sub tasks of one specific top level card? Is filtering by card title the best option?

Thanks,
Torsten.

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

SubTasks docs are here: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/SubTasks

Sure, SubTasks feature could be improved. You can try how it works, and comment about what does not yet work.

[xet7]

@tuhlmann

There will be some fixes to SubTasks:

https://github.com/wekan/wekan/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3AFeature%3ACards%3ASubtasks

[tuhlmann]

Awesome, thank you!