Kanboard
The Velandel Staff is working with an Agile Methodology using the KanBan method, associated with Kanboard, created by F. GUILLOT. The KanBan method allows us to be more reactive, agile and increases the communication inside the team. Moreover, this method allows us to know who is working on what and follow the evolution of every new feature.
Our team contains few people so we tried to adapt the KanBan method to fit with our constraints.
It is important to use the Kanboard effectively and we have fixed some rules to make its utilisation easier.
The most important is: "For everything you are working on, you must have a task associated to it."
This rule is very important because it allows us to know what everybody is doing and what has already be done in the project. But first of all, you have to understand how a Kanboard works.
As you can see on the previous picture, a task is an element of the Kanboard that contains all information you need to develop a new feature or enhance an existing one in the game. Keep in mind that one task always take one slot in the column on the kanboard, and columns has a limited slot value. Also, you have to understand that once a task is created it must be done. You should always think twice before creating a new one.
New let's take a look at the elements that a task contains.
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This is the Task ID. Every ID are unique so you can not have two tasks with the same ID. This element is used by the Database. |
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On the right of the Task ID, you will find the name of the assigned developer. This person is currently working on this task. |
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This is the Category of the task. It is useful to understand the general scope of the future. Also, you can use that to find or sort tasks which belongs to the same category. Please note that the category automatically attributes a color to the task. |
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This flag shows that this task is very important for the project. It represents an hard goal to reach. |
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This is the complexity level of the task. The complexity level should be set between 0 for easy tasks to 5 for really hard tasks. |
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This represent the developement time (left) versus the estimated time (right). The estimated time is given by the developer who creates the task in order to have an idea of how many time we should pass on this task. The developement time is the real time that all developers have passed on the task. |
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This symbols represents the number of linked tasks to this one. If you put the mouse over that, you will see which tasks are linked to this one with the kind of link. |
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This is the Sub-tasks progressions. A task can be detailled in many sub-tasks. When all the sub-tasks of a task are finished, the value of the progression is set to 100%. Please note that if you put the moue cursor on this symbol, you will see all the sub-tasks associated to the task. |
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Here you can see the number of comments attached to this task. Comments can be informations, questions, or simply a discussion between developpers regarding to this task. |
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This element can be overed by the mouse to display on the screen the detailled description of the task. |
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This can be called the TimeLine of the task. On the left, you can see the time elapsed since the creation of the task. On the right, you have the time that has passed since the last movement of the task (from a column to another). If you substract the two values you will obtain the elpased time between the creation of the task and its current position in the board. |
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This is the priority of the task. The priority can be set from P0 (low priority) to P3(high priority). We usually set priority to 0 except if we encounter a bug or if a task is prioritized by the specifications of the sprint. |
Swimlanes are different sections (lines) for the project. When you create a new task, you have to choose is which swimlane you want to put it. They are 4 differents swimlanes with associated tasks in our project.
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Emergency Swimlane:
We must try to avoid this swimlane as much as possible. This swimlane contains tasks that requires all of the developers of the project as a task force. It is used to create a task when we have a major production bug that requires to be fixed as fast as possible. -
Project Swimlane:
This is the basic swimlane of the project. This swimlane is used by developpers. It contains all tasks that are attached directly to the game. -
Environment Project Swimlane:
This swimlane is a little bit special. It is a swimlane made by developpers and for developpers. Here, we create tasks that allows us to enhance the environment of the project which is associatated to our tools, or the server or the Kanboard itself. These tasks are very importants because they aim to help us in the project swimlane. -
Modelisation Swimlane:
This swimlane is reserved to our graphic designers. It contains all tasks directly linked to the 3D models, animation, textures etc..
When you create a task, please, be sure to put it in the correct swimlane. This is very important because some tasks will not be threated (a dev' may never take a look at the Modelisation Swimlane for example).
Columns are the different steps that a task must pass to be closed. In accordance with the KanBan method rules. Some columns have limited slots to keep control on what we are doind. You should never add a task to a column that has already reached her maximum threshold. They are 7 differents swimlanes with associated tasks in our project.
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Waiting: Unlimited Slots
This column should be the cradle of all our tasks. A task in this column was created little time ago and we should talk about it. Some "obvious" task such as bug fix or minor fixes, can be switched from Waitingto Ready immediately but should not become usual. -
Ready: 5 Slots
Tasks in this column are ready to be developped. It has enough elements in the description to be understadable easily and it is a usefull task for the project. -
In Development: 5 Slots
At this point every task must have someone assigned to it. A task in this column is in the development process. -
Tests: 3 Slots
Tasks in this column are currently in a kind of unit test. You should try to test your fresh feature with the least possible elements in order to understand why is it working so well ! -
Comments: 3 Slots
The Comments column is probably one of the most important. It allows us to have free official time to comment our code. What a wonderful idea don't you think ? Keep in mind that comments are a key in the development process. It allows us to be very effective. -
Pre-Production: 1 Slot
The Pre-production column is a little bit harder to understand. It contains tasks that are tested in the production scene. In that way, we can see how a new feature is interracting with all of the elements of the game. This column can only contains one task inside. The idea is to have a maximum of control on the test. The less feature you are testing at the same time, the less side effect you will encounter. Please, try to respect this rule and only test features one by one in this column. -
Finished: Unlimited Slots
Tasks is this column have finished theirs courses. You should close task only once they have been approved in a pull request on git. Good job ! A good practice is also to wait for the Weekly Metting before closing a task. In this way, we can all see what we did during the past week.
Keep in mind that a task must starts her life in the Waiting column and end it in the Finished one. It also must cross all the column and can not come back in one of the previous column it has already crossed. The kanboard is a oneway road, from left to right.
We also have simple rules to describe the Life Cycle of Tasks in the section below.
Keep in mind something when you create a task: Is it really useful ? Our objective is too have as many tasks as possible but theses tasks must have a real interest inside the project. Then, think about the scope of your task: Is it too large ? Is it too small ? We usually try to create tasks that are achievable in 1hour to 20 hours.
- If your task is smaller, try to think how you can include it in another task.
- If your task is bigger, try to split it into smaller tasks.
Finally, you should always keep in mind that freshly created tasks should stay in the "Waiting" column until we decide together to start them.
For more informations, please read how to Create tasks and sub-tasks page.
The life cycle of a task is really easy. Once created, it passes through every columns, from the "Waiting" one to the "Finished" one. Every time you switch a task from a column to the next one, you notice the entire team that your reached the objective of the column it was place in. These objectives can be decribes as following:
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Waiting --> Ready:
The team decided that this task is useful and ready to be developped. It has enough elements in the description to be be completed with no issues. -
Ready --> In Development:
You decided to take this task and develop it. -
In Development --> Tests:
You finished to develop the feature and now you are ready to test your feature in a closed space (personal scene) with the least possible elements. -
Tests --> Comments:
All your tests passed, your are now ready to comment your code. A good practice is to comment every Classes and every method. Try to not put comments inside code blocks. -
Comments --> Pre-Production:
You finished to comment your code. Now you are ready to test your feature with the entire game. Please remember that if you encounter an error during your tests or your pre-production tests, you can update your code without make the task go back to develop. Remember that a task should never go back on board. -
Pre-Production --> Finished:
Your task is over and you made a pull request on Git with this task inside. Do not mark the task as terminated until the pull request is approved by the team.
For more informations on the utilisation of the KanBoard, please, follow the following links 👍
- Tasks evolution over time - Warning: Broken Link: Work in progress
- Link, Promote and Comment your tasks
The Kanboard was designed to work in team. But you have to keep in mind some elements to work effectively with your co-workers.
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Be Explicit: When you create or work on a task, please, add more details as you can. If someone else is going to work on this task he must have all elements he need to be efficient.
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Work Together: If you see that a co-worker is working on something you worked on, ask if he needs help. Try to be aware of everything other people are working on by taking a look on every tasks and every comments.
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Think to other: When you are working on a task, you are taking a slot in a column. Be sure that you are in a the good column and do not begin many tasks at the same time. In this way, the board won't be blocked and everybody will have enough space to work in every columns.
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Make it Live !: If Unity and Git are like Heart and Brain of this project, we can say that the Kanboard is its lungs. We can not make this project live if the Kanboard is dead. Make it live, create tasks, make them move and communicate with comments and chat to make sure we are moving in the good direction.