Essentials Part 3: Setting Up the Main and Sprint Boards

In this guide, we’ll focus on the final aspect of managing projects in Pacei—Setting up the Main and Sprint boards. Previously, we covered onboarding employees, managing teams, and configuring workflows and task templates. Now, let's dive into how to configure and manage the boards that drive project progress.

Main Board

The Main Board is a collection of Epics, which are groups of tasks. You can organize tasks by product screens, features, or any other structure that suits your project’s needs. The Main Board offers several views for tracking and managing tasks:

• Big Picture View: Track Epics and see overall progress across the project.
• List View: View tasks as a list, showing their status, priority, sprint, release, time estimates, and assignees.
• Kanban View: Move tasks between stages by dragging and dropping based on their current status.
• Bird View: A high-level overview of all tasks for a feature, showing their status at a glance.

Creating an Epic:

1. Navigate to the Main Board from the ‘Project Side Menu.’
2. Click the +Epic button located in the top-right corner.
3. A popup will appear. Enter the epic name, a brief description, and click Create.
4. Your new epic will be added to the board and visible in the Big Picture view.

Tagging Tasks to an Epic:

1. Go to the Tasks screen via the side menu.
2. Select the task you want to tag to an Epic.
3. In the task detail screen, you’ll find an option on the right-hand side to Tag an Epic.
4. Choose the desired Epic from the dropdown list.

Once a task is tagged to an Epic, you can navigate back to the Main Board and see the Epic's progress updated in the Big Picture tab. You can also switch to other views (List, Kanban, Bird) to manage the tasks under each Epic.

Sprint Board

The Sprint Board is where tasks are organized into Sprints—short, time-boxed periods (usually two weeks) during which a set of tasks is completed. Like the Main Board, the Sprint Board also offers multiple views:

• Sprint View: Track active sprints, burn rate, estimated time, and team capacity.
• List View: View tasks in a list format, displaying key details like status, priority, and time estimates.
• Kanban View: Drag and drop tasks between stages based on their current status.
• Bird View: A high-level overview of tasks, showing their status across features at a glance.

Creating a Sprint:

1. Navigate to the Sprint Board via the side menu.
2. In the Sprints tab, use the dropdown to select the sprint type (All, Active, Upcoming, Completed). By default, “Active” will be selected.
3. Click +Sprint in the top-right corner.
4. Fill out the sprint details: sprint name, expected start date, duration (in weeks), the team to which this sprint is assigned, team capacity (in hours), and any sprint goals.
5. Click Create to finalize the sprint.

Your newly created sprint will appear in the All and Upcoming tabs. Click on the sprint to navigate to the List View or switch to Kanban and Bird views as needed.

Tagging Tasks to a Sprint:

1. Go to the Tasks screen from the side menu.
2. Select the task you want to add to a sprint.
3. In the task detail screen, you’ll find the option to Tag to a Sprint on the right-hand side.
4. Choose the appropriate sprint from the dropdown.

Once tagged, return to the Sprint Board to see the updated statistics for that sprint. You can view tasks in any of the available formats: List View, Kanban, or Bird View.

Conclusion

With the Main and Sprint Boards set up, you can effectively manage both high-level epics and detailed task workflows in Pacei. The different views in each board provide flexibility, ensuring that all tasks are tracked, updated, and completed on time, whether you’re focusing on sprints or entire project features.

Stay tuned for more quick starter guides as we dive deeper into other features and best practices for managing your projects with Pacei.