TFS 2012 Kanban board

Microsoft released CTP of Quarterly Update for Team Foundation Server 2012 last month. That brings in an important update - Support for kanban including a board for the backlog, Work In Progress limits, and Continuous Flow Diagrams.

Navigate to “View Backlog” via the web ui

You will see differences in the Product Backlog screen..

As indicated below, “board” tab will take you to the Kanban board

Also , on top right corner .. there is another graph showing “Cumulative flow”…

Click on the “Board” tab to access Kanban boards

This will help Kanban practitioners to achieve several key core guiding principles..

1. Visualize – this matrix view of Workflow and Work in queue offers the team to visualize the current state of various work items and make appropriate decisions to step ahead
2. Limit WIP - Work-in-process at each state in the workflow is limited and that new work is “pulled” in only when there is available capacity within the local WIP limit

Manage flow – This board offers drag and drop of PBIs/User stories..and the state transition is can be customized and controlled. i.e. we can restrict the workflow in such a way that a PBI can’t be brought back to “Approved” state once its moved into “Committed” state…

Also, when WIP Limit has been exceeded, the user & team will see instantaneous feedback.. State of the workflow will become "RED"..which is very cool…

It would be nice to see some improvements like

1.Color coded work items, like

PBIs/User Stories/Req – Blue tile

Bugs/Defects – Yellow tile

Issues – Purple tile

2.Visualize the priority of the work item, like

* - low priority

** - medium priority

*** - high priority

3.Custom team policies or quick references at the bottom of the board…

Though this board might require additional features to meet real physical board & sticky notes – it’s good fit for use and a right step forward for the teams..

Enjoy Kanban with TFS 2012