Todo lists and Kanban boards
Todo lists and Kanban boards live in the task list like ordinary tasks, with their own icon, and open in their own tab. Their color is worked out from their items or cards, and counts for the parent like any task's.
Which one to use
| You need | Use |
|---|---|
| A step with its own notes, files, history or children | A child task (chapter 6) |
| A short, flat checklist, such as a release checklist | A todo list |
| Work that moves through stages, each with a definition of done | A Kanban board |
Todo lists
A todo list is a simple checklist that lives in your task list.
- Click + New Task and choose Todo list.
- Give it a name, choose where to add it, and click Create. It appears in the task list with a checklist icon and opens in its own Todo List tab.
- Type items in the Add item... field.
Each item has its own status dot, so items use the same four colors as tasks, and the todo list takes its color from its items by the usual rules. Reorder items with Move up and Move down, and delete those you no longer need. Click an item's name to open its notes; an icon marks items that have notes.
Use a todo list for small, flat sets of steps, such as a release checklist, where full tasks would be overkill.
Kanban boards
A Kanban board shows cards moving through stages. Its cards follow a Definition of Done (DoD): a list of steps, each tied to a stage.
Create a board. Click + New Task and choose Kanban board. Name the board, pick a starting profile from the list (the first one is preselected), and click Create. Boards are always added at the end of the project. Andon comes with these profiles:
| Profile | Stages | Suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Dev | Backlog, Ready, In Progress, Review, Done | Software delivery |
| Ops | Detected, Investigating, Mitigating, Resolved, Post-mortem | Incidents and operations |
| Content | Idea, Outline, Draft, Review, Published | Writing and publishing |
| Mgmt | Backlog, Planning, In Flight, Blocked, Closed | Project and goal tracking |
| Personal | To Do, Doing, Done | Simple personal to-dos |
| Blank | Your own | Starting from scratch |
Each profile except Blank comes with ready-made DoD steps, such as "CI pipeline green" for Dev or "Blast radius quantified" for Ops. Dev, Ops, Content and Mgmt also set starting WIP limits, for example 3 cards In Progress and 2 in Review for Dev. The board appears in the task list with a board icon and opens in its own Kanban tab.
[Screenshot: a Kanban board built from the Dev profile, showing the header figures, a WIP limit bar and a card with a blocked step]
Cards and stages. Add a card with the New card... field. A card's stage is not set by hand: it follows its DoD. The card sits at the stage of its last step completed in order, and steps marked Canceled are skipped. When you drag a card forward, a dialog lists the steps it must complete to reach that stage.
Step states. Open a card on the board, then click one of its DoD steps to change its state: To do, NTR (done), Blocked or Canceled. Kanban has its own logic here: on a step, NTR means the step is done, because a step is a piece of work that finishes. Andon's tasks keep their own meaning, where green is the flow going, never "done" (chapter 3). Steps are completed in order: a step can be set to NTR once every step before it is done or canceled, and a done step goes back to To do only while no later step is done.
Moving a card back. Drag a card to an earlier stage and the steps of every later stage return to To do.
Working on a card. Click the card's name to rename it. Add subtasks with the Add subtask… field inside the card; click a subtask to rename it, add items under it, or delete it. With the card selected on the board, the Notes tab opens the card's own notes. To remove a card, use Delete card: it cannot be undone.
Blocked steps. Set a step to Blocked when it cannot move forward. Andon asks for a reason (and an optional note), shows the reason on the card, and freezes the card at its current stage until the step is unblocked.
Card colors. A card is orange when a step is a blocker, green while its steps are flowing, and white when it has not started. Cards also show their age in days.
Board color. The board's own color in the task list comes from its cards by the usual rules (chapter 6): orange if any card is blocked, otherwise green if any card has a step done, otherwise white.
WIP limits. A stage can have a work-in-progress limit. Its column header then shows the count against the limit (for example 4/3) with a bar that flags when the limit is exceeded.
The header figures.
| Figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Throughput | Cards currently between the first and last stage, that is, in progress |
| Avg cycle | The average age of the cards, in days |
| Signal | "flowing" when nothing is blocked, otherwise how many cards are stalled on a blocked step |
Profiles. Manage profiles…, in the New Kanban board window or in a board's ⋯ menu, opens the profile window: create a profile, edit one, or delete one (boards already built from it keep their stages). From the New Kanban board window, Use this profile picks a profile for the new board. In a board's ⋯ menu, Edit profile… edits the board's own profile. The editor has two tabs: Kanban for the stages and their WIP limits (+ Add stage), and DoD for the steps, each assigned to a stage (+ Add step). Andon flags any step left without a stage. Inside a card, Edit profile steps opens the same editor.
Changes to stages or steps apply to new cards only. To bring an existing card in line with an updated profile, use Re-apply template on the card, which replaces its steps and resets its progress.