Kanban Board

The Kanban board displays work items as cards arranged in vertical columns. Each column represents a value of the grouping property (such as a workflow state or priority level), and you move cards between columns by dragging and dropping. This layout is ideal for teams that manage work as a continuous flow and want immediate visual feedback on where every item stands.

When to use the Kanban board

• Your team follows a flow-based process (Kanban, Scrumban, or lightweight agile).
• You want to see bottlenecks at a glance by observing column heights.
• You need to update work item states or priorities with a single drag action.
• You want to enforce work-in-progress limits to prevent overload.

For text-dense scanning, use the List layout. For date-oriented planning, try Calendar or Gantt.

Column grouping options

Columns are determined by the Group by setting in Display Options. Each unique value of the selected property becomes a column.

Group by	Columns created	Typical use case
State	One column per workflow state (Backlog, Todo, In Progress, Done, Cancelled)	Standard development workflow
Priority	One column per priority level (Urgent, High, Medium, Low, None)	Priority-based triage
Label	One column per label, plus an Unlabeled column	Category-based workflows
Assignee	One column per assigned member, plus an Unassigned column	Workload distribution
Cycle	One column per cycle, plus a No Cycle column	Sprint planning
Module	One column per module, plus a No Module column	Feature-area tracking

Change column grouping

1. Click the Display Options button in the toolbar.
2. Select a new value for Group by.
3. The board re-renders immediately with the new columns.

Drag and drop

Drag a card from one column and drop it into another to change the property that defines the column grouping.

How it works

1. Click and hold a card.
2. Drag it horizontally to the target column.
3. Release the card at the desired vertical position within the column.

The underlying property is updated instantly. For example, if columns are grouped by State and you drag a card from Todo to In Progress, the work item's state changes to In Progress.

Reorder within a column

Drag a card vertically within the same column to change its manual sort order. This order is preserved and reflected when the sort is set to Manual.

Cross-column ordering

When you drop a card into a new column at a specific position, the item adopts both the new group property value and the position within that column.

TIP

Hold Shift while dragging to constrain movement to horizontal only, making it easier to target the correct column on boards with many columns.

Work-in-progress (WIP) limits

WIP limits help your team avoid overcommitting by capping the number of items allowed in a column.

Set a WIP limit

1. Click the three-dot menu on a column header.
2. Select Set WIP Limit.
3. Enter the maximum number of items for this column.
4. Click Save.

WIP limit behavior

Condition	Visual indicator
Column count is below the limit	Normal column header
Column count equals the limit	Column header shows the count in a warning color
Column count exceeds the limit	Column header turns red; the excess count is highlighted

WARNING

WIP limits are advisory. SetGet does not prevent you from dragging an item into a column that has reached its limit. The visual warning is meant to prompt a conversation about capacity, not to block work.

Collapse columns

Collapse columns you do not need to see to free up horizontal space:

1. Click the collapse icon on the column header (or right-click and select Collapse Column).
2. The column shrinks to a narrow strip showing only the column name and item count.
3. Click the strip to expand it again.

This is useful when you have many columns but only care about a few active states (for example, collapse Backlog and Cancelled to focus on Todo, In Progress, and Done).

Cards and inline editing

Each card on the board displays a compact summary of the work item:

Card element	Description
Identifier	Project-prefixed ID (e.g., PROJ-42)
Title	Work item title, truncated if long
State icon	Small colored icon indicating the current state
Priority icon	Small icon indicating priority level
Assignee avatars	Up to three member avatars; overflow shown as +N
Labels	Colored label chips (configurable)
Due date	Shown if set and enabled in display properties

Inline editing on cards

Click on a property element on the card to edit it without opening the detail view:

• Click the priority icon to change priority.
• Click the assignee avatars to add or remove assignees.
• Click the state icon to change state (useful when columns are not grouped by state).
• Click the labels to add or remove labels.

To edit the title or description, click the card title to open the detail pane.

Configure card display

Control which properties appear on cards:

1. Click Display Properties in the toolbar.
2. Toggle properties on or off (Labels, Due Date, Assignees, Priority, Estimate, etc.).
3. Fewer visible properties make cards more compact, allowing more cards to fit on screen.

Grouping options on the Kanban board

Beyond the primary column grouping, you can apply additional organization:

Sub-grouping (swimlanes)

Enable sub-grouping to add horizontal swimlanes within each column:

1. Open Display Options.
2. Set a Sub-group by value different from the column grouping.

For example, group columns by State and sub-group by Priority. Each column then contains horizontal lanes for Urgent, High, Medium, Low, and None.

Column group	Sub-group (swimlane)	Result
State	Priority	See priority distribution within each state
State	Assignee	See who is working on what within each state
Priority	Assignee	See workload per person at each priority level
Assignee	State	See workflow progress per team member

WARNING

Sub-grouping on high-cardinality properties (such as Label in a project with many labels) can make the board difficult to read. Use it with properties that have five or fewer distinct values for best results.

Ordering within columns

Cards within each column follow the configured sort order:

Order by	Behavior
Manual	Cards stay in the position where you drop them
Priority	Urgent items at the top, None at the bottom (or reversed)
Created date	Newest or oldest items first
Updated date	Most or least recently updated first
State	Relevant when columns are not grouped by state

Set the order from Display Options > Order by.

Kanban best practices

Limit work in progress

Set WIP limits on your active columns (especially In Progress and In Review). When a column exceeds its limit, treat it as a signal to finish existing work before starting new work. This reduces context switching and improves throughput.

Keep columns aligned with your real workflow

Define workflow states that match how your team actually works. A common mistake is creating too many states. Start with a simple flow:

State	Purpose
Backlog	Items accepted but not yet planned
Todo	Items planned for the current cycle
In Progress	Actively being worked on
Done	Completed and verified

Add states like In Review or Blocked only if your team has a distinct handoff at those points.

Use priority columns for triage meetings

Switch the column grouping to Priority before a triage meeting. Drag items between priority columns to quickly re-prioritize the backlog. Switch back to State columns for daily work.

Collapse completed columns

Collapse the Done and Cancelled columns during active work sessions. This keeps your focus on the columns that need attention.

Review board regularly

A Kanban board works best when the team reviews it frequently. Stale items in In Progress signal blocked work. Items stuck in Backlog for weeks may need reprioritization or removal.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Left / Right	Move focus between columns
Up / Down	Move focus between cards within a column
Enter	Open the focused card in the detail pane
C	Create a new work item in the focused column

Creating items on the Kanban board

Add new items directly to a specific column:

1. Click the + button at the bottom of a column.
2. Type a title and press Enter.
3. The item is created with the column's group property value. For example, clicking + in the "In Progress" column (when grouped by State) creates an item with state In Progress.

This is the fastest way to create items that should start in a specific state or priority.

Troubleshooting

Cards are not appearing in the expected column

Verify that the Group by setting matches the property you expect to see as columns. If grouped by State, a card appears in the column matching its current state. If you change the card's state via inline edit, it moves to the correct column.

The board feels slow with many items

• Apply filters to reduce the total number of visible cards.
• Collapse columns you are not actively using.
• Reduce the number of display properties on each card.
• Consider filtering to the current cycle only.

Drag and drop is not working

Ensure you are clicking and holding on the card body, not on an interactive element like a dropdown or link. If the issue persists, refresh the page.

Related pages

• Views Overview — Save Kanban board configurations as reusable views.
• List Layout — Switch to a text-dense list format.
• Spreadsheet Layout — Edit properties in a full tabular grid.
• Calendar Layout — See work items placed on a calendar.
• Gantt Chart — Plan timelines with dependency arrows.
• Display Options — Configure grouping, ordering, and display properties.
• Filters — Control which work items appear on the board.
• Work Items Overview — Understand work item properties and states.