Start a product board

Follow every feature from an idea to the live site on one board, with seven stages: Idea, Design, Plan, Develop, Test, Release and Live.

In short

A product board follows each feature through seven stages: Idea, Design, Plan, Develop, Test, Release and Live. A Feature card is one thing the product must do, such as "Customers can pay by card". People move it through Idea, Design and Plan. {{brand}} moves it through Develop, Test, Release and Live from facts: the code, the checks and the release check on the real site.

Before you start

• Who: anyone who can create boards starts one from the template. Turning the flow on for a board you already have, and connecting records, needs the right to manage that board.
• Plan: Boards is on every plan.
• For the design, the checks and the code, connect a design, your API Tester, SQL Tester and UI Tester records, and a repository. You can start without them and connect later.

Steps

1. Open Boards and press "New board".
2. Type a "Board name".
3. Under "What will you track?", choose "A software product", then press "Create board".
4. The new board shows a set-up card at the top. Press "Connect here", then choose the "Code repository". A design and an API Tester project with the same name are chosen for you.
5. For "Design" and "API tests", pick one you have, "Create a new one" or "Make it from the repository", and press "Connect". Or press "Not now": the board works without them, and Board settings > Connected connects them later.
6. No code host yet? Press "Connect GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps or Bitbucket" and follow the steps. You come back to the same board with what you chose. Only an organization admin can do this.

1. Open the board and press "Board settings".
2. Under "What should happen by itself?", find "Product flow" and "Turn on product flow".
3. For each stage, choose the column it is. Pick "A new column" where nothing fits.
4. Press "Turn on product flow".

Result: the board shows the seven stages, the "Product health" band on top, and "New idea" as the main button. The board also gains a Feature card type if it had none.

Connect a design and your checks

1. Open "Board settings". A product board opens on "How this board works".
2. In "Connected to the product flow", choose the "Design" the features are drawn in.
3. Under "API Tester projects", "SQL Tester projects" and "UI Tester sites", press "Connect" and pick what the board should use.
4. Press "Make {title} the owner" on one record of each kind. New checks are written there.

Result: a planned check finds its record in these projects. A check that does not exist yet is written into the owner, only as a draft that runs on the pull request.

In the boards list and next to the board's name, small icons show what the board is connected to. Point at an icon to see the repository, design or project. Press it to open its settings. A warning dot means a connection stopped.

Read the board

• "Live and working" counts live features whose checks pass. "Broken right now" counts live features that fail a check.
• "Features in progress" counts the features still on their way. "Moved without proof" counts cards a person moved past a check.
• Under each stage name the board says who moves cards in: "Moved by people" for Idea, Design and Plan, "Moved by {{brand}}" for the others.
• Live folds into one count. Press "See all live features" for the list.

Good to know

• Turning the flow on changes no card, column or rule. Turning it off keeps the columns and the cards, and turning it on again brings it back as it was.
• {{brand}} only writes into the projects you connect. Another team's checks on the same API are run when you may open them and are never changed.
• {{brand}} does not deploy your product and does not roll it back. Your own pipeline does that.
• Cards never move backward by themselves. A failed check turns the card red where it is.
• What happens next: add the first idea. See /help/boards/ideas-and-suggestions.

If something goes wrong

• "Someone who manages the board can turn it on." - ask a board manager.
• A card says "This board does not run the product flow" - the board has not turned it on. Turn it on in "Board settings".
• Turning it on is refused because the stages sit in different workflows - choose columns from one workflow.

Related

• /help/boards/feature-card
• /help/boards/ideas-and-suggestions
• /help/boards/how-a-feature-moves
• /help/boards/boards-and-work-items
• /help/boards/portfolio