Kanban

Reserved for the Premium tier

The “Kanban” button only shows for an organisation on the Premium tier. If your organisation leaves that tier, the board stays readable and says so: “Kanban is part of the Premium tier. The cards already here can still be opened, abandoned or taken out of the queue.” No ticket or card can be added any more, no card can be added to the queue, and the queue stops. It resumes if the organisation returns to the Premium tier.

Two kinds of columns

The dashed columns are your team's: you name them, place them and fill them with tickets. The tinted columns, marked with a robot and a padlock, are the assistant's: they cannot be renamed, moved or deleted. Under each one's name, a line says whose turn it is.

The assistant's columns

• In discussion: “Your turn: clarify the request with the assistant, then approve its plan”.
• Queued: “The assistant's turn: it takes it as soon as it is free”.
• Being built: “The assistant's turn: it applies the plan and checks it”.
• To approve: “Your turn: try the test version, then publish or ask for a change”.
• Live: “Done: the changes are in the live app”.

The number beside the name counts the column's cards.

Tickets

A ticket is an idea noted in a few words, without starting anything. Click “Add a ticket” at the top of one of your team's columns, then type its title. Enter adds it and keeps the field open for the next one; Shift+Enter adds it and opens it straight away; Escape or the cross close the field. A new ticket lands at the top of its column.

A click on the ticket opens its window: its title, and its description, “What to change, and why (optional)”. “Save” keeps your edits, “Delete” removes the ticket after a confirmation. A ticket with a description shows a small icon. To change the order, drag a ticket to the place you want, in its column or in another of your team's.

Your team's columns

The first one is called “Backlog”. “Add a column”, at the end of the board, creates another. Click a column's name to change it, and drag the column by its header to place it wherever you like, even between two of the assistant's columns. Its bin deletes it: its tickets go back to “Backlog”, its cards to their assistant column. “Backlog” cannot be deleted.

A card can also be kept in one of your team's columns, to set it aside for instance. It takes a place among the tickets there: drag it above or below one of them, as you would a ticket, and a ticket passes it the same way. It keeps its buttons there and recalls, under its title, the assistant column it stands in. It leaves when you drag it back to that column, or when the assistant gets back to work on it. A card that is queued or being built cannot be set aside.

From a ticket to a card

A card is a request in progress. It has its own test version, with its address and its test data (see Test versions), and its conversation with the assistant, shared by the whole team. A card is born in four ways:

• “Discuss with the assistant”, in a ticket's window;
• a ticket dragged into “In discussion”;
• “Add a card”, at the top of “In discussion”: a title, “What should change?”;
• “Create a test version”, on the Applications page: on the Premium tier, the test version asked for there becomes a card of the board.

The card arrives at the top of “In discussion” and first says “Preparing” while its test version is prepared. One that comes from a ticket quotes its text and adds: “The assistant will read this ticket as soon as the test version is ready.” A click on the card opens its conversation; the “Kanban” button, at the top of the page beside the application's name, returns to the board.

Clarify, then approve the plan

In the card's conversation, answer the assistant's questions, then click “Request the plan” (see Asking well). Meanwhile the card says “Writing the plan”, then “Plan ready”. As long as there is no plan, the card stays in “In discussion” and says so: “Ask for the plan in its conversation first.” A person always reads the plan before the assistant applies it.

The queue

Once the plan is read, click “Add to the queue” or drag the card into “Queued”. The assistant takes the cards in order, as soon as it is free. Each card shows its place, for instance “No. 2 in the queue”, counted among all your organisation's queued cards, every application included. Then “Starts in a moment”, or “Waiting:” followed by the reason, when the assistant's usage is used up for a while.

“Take out of the queue” brings it back to the column it came from. An interrupted build sends the card back to “In discussion” with “Interrupted”: “Continue” puts it back in the queue.

Being built, then to approve

While building, the assistant applies the plan, checks it and updates the test version by itself. The card says “Being checked” while the checks run, then moves to “To approve”. There it offers “Open the test version”; you get in with your Kedalia account, or with the “Sign-in details” button at the top of its conversation.

Try it. If something is wrong, drag the card into “Queued”: the “What should change?” window opens. Describe the change, then “Add to the queue”. The card goes back to “Queued” with “Change requested”, and the assistant applies your words to what it delivered. If the checks failed, the card says “Checks failed” and does not offer to publish: ask for a change.

For a change worth talking over first, drag the card into “In discussion”: its conversation opens. A question does not move the card; “Request the plan” brings it back to “In discussion” with “Plan ready”, and you put it back in the queue once you have read the new plan.

Publish

When the test version suits you, click “Publish”. The “Publish this card?” window recalls that the changes join the live app, then that the test version is removed; it stays open on “Publishing…” until the end. The card moves to “Live”, and the app's state, next to its name at the top of the board, follows its update. The card's conversation can still be read, but takes no more messages. The “Remove” bin takes it off the board. For what happens when going live, see Going live.

To take a published card up again, click “Reopen”, or drag it into “In discussion”. Its test version is recreated from the live app, and its conversation carries on, with the assistant, once the card is ready. If the live app changed the same files meanwhile, the assistant first combines the two versions: see Test versions.

Abandoning a card

A card's bin, which shows on hover, abandons it. The “Remove this card?” window asks you to type its title: the test version, its data and its conversation are deleted for good. A card being built or being prepared cannot be abandoned.

Undoing a start

A card in “In discussion” started by mistake becomes a ticket again: its back arrow, which shows on hover, opens the “Undo the start?” window. Its test version and its conversation are deleted, and the ticket goes back to the top of “Backlog” with the card's title and description. “Discuss with the assistant” will open a new conversation. The arrow shows once the test version is ready, not while the card says “Preparing”.

On a phone

A finger drags neither cards nor tickets: the cards' buttons do the work (“Add to the queue”, “Publish”…). To ask for a change, write it in the card's conversation, then click “Apply as a correction”. A “Move to…” list puts a ticket in another of your team's columns, moves it up or down (“Move up”, “Move down”), and puts a card in one of your team's columns, where it moves up and down the same way. The line under the board's title then speaks of “Add to the queue”, not of dragging. The bins stay visible.