Mastering MS Project Agile: Task Board without Sprint Associated Tasks – How To Do It?

I frequently interact with Agile and Hybrid-Agile practitioners who use my Mastering MS Project Agile course and/or Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP) certification course. For interactions, I mostly use direct video calls because that way one can quickly learn the problems faced by them and whenever possible, I can provide a quick solution then and there. Both these courses are of high quality, go from beginner mode to an expert level and put you in a path of solid skills on Agile and Hybrid-Agile management, respectively.

One of the recent questions I faced is the below one:

“There are a number of Sprints in my Agile plan. But when I open the task board, all these tasks are shown in the Task Board view. I don’t want to see them there! What should I do?”

The above question is by a keen learner, Ravi O'Reilly. You can read her review and experience.

This article will demonstrate how to achieve this result and get the solution to the problem.

The Fundamentals

First, a few lines on the basics or the fundamentals. MS Project Agile has many board and sheet views for working with Scrum (Sprint), Kanban and Waterfall. Specifically, irrespective of the methodology or framework used, Task Board is available under View tab > Task Views > Task Board view. 

By default, this board view will show all the tasks that entered in another view, say the Gantt Chart view. In the below case, I’ve added five tasks to the project plan and they are represented below. 

As you can see, we have five tasks – Task 1 to Task 5, and they are not associated with any Sprints. 

Now, when I go to the Task Board view, we get all the tasks in that view.  

But the requirement is not to show any “No Sprint” task or “Sprint 1, Sprint 2, … Sprint N-1” task in the Task Boards. Simply put:

• Tasks which have “No Sprint” should not be shown in the Task Board view. 
• In addition, any task is associated with Sprints, they should also not be shown at all in the Task Board view!

So, what to do?

Let’s see the solution!

Create A Custom Filter

The Task Board does NOT have a filter applied. However, one can create a custom filter and apply it to the task board.

There are two scenarios.

First Scenario: You don’t want to show the “No Sprint” items. This is actually the question that we started with. Hence, I’ll try to address that first. 

In our custom filter, we will have the following conditions:

• Show on Board field equals Yes
• Summary equals No
• % Work Complete does not equal 100%
• Active equals Yes
• Sprint does not contain No Sprint

The last field condition informs the “Sprint” field (available in MS Project Agile) will not contain “No Sprint”. This is depicted in the below figure.

As shown above:

• The filter name is Custom Task Board Filter. To create a filter, you have to go to the View tab > Data group > No Filter drop down and choose 'New...' filter command. 
• This filter has all the needed conditions, including the condition which will not show the Sprint containing the “No Sprint”.
• Again, do note the last condition. This will filter out all the tasks, which are not associated with any Sprints.

Apply Custom Filter To the Task Board View

Now, you have to apply this filter to the Task Board view in MS Project Agile and the result is shown below.

If you want you can create a Custom Task Board view and apply the recently created Custom Task Board Filter into the custom view. This is also an accepted practice and indeed, a good one. However, to keep it simple, I'll use the existing Task Board view.

As you can see, all the tasks which are having “No Sprint” in the Sprint field are no longer visible.

Another Scenario

There can be another scenario as well, which can come-up.

Second Scenario: You don’t want to show not only the “No Sprint” items, but also tasks associated with any Sprint. In other words, you don’t want to show any Sprint related items (No Sprint, Sprint 1, Sprint 2, … Sprint N-1) in the view.

This is also asked by my course users. Because they want to see the Scrum/Sprint related items only in the Sprint related board views such as Sprint Planning Board view, Current Sprint Board view etc. However, they want to show the Kanban related items in the Task Board view.

This also can be done and you just have to change the filter conditions, which will exclude any string containing “Sprint” word. 

For example, in our list of tasks items, we have the following tasks associated with various Sprints.

As shown above:

• Task 1 and Task 2 are associated with Sprint 1
• Task 3 and Task 4 are associated with Sprint 2 and Sprint 3, respectively.
• Task 5 is not associated with any Sprint.

When you switch to the Task Board view, we get the following.

The Custom Task Board filter has been applied, but we have still 4 tasks visible! 

How is that possible?

This is because the filter condition tells not to display the task associated with "No Sprint". But, all other tasks will be shown. Hence, we have to change our custom filter - more precisely the last condition! The modified filter will be the following. 

Next, when you apply this modified Custom Task Board filter to the Task Board view, you can fully filter out the tasks associated with any Sprint (Sprint 1, 2, 3 … N-1) or No Sprint. 

Is is not simple and very effective? 

You can customize the view anyway you want.

MS Project Agile and Customization

MS Project Agile provides high flexibility with custom boards, custom views, custom filter, custom group and of course, you also have many programming options with various custom fields and functions.

You can effectively use them to apply in your job in a leadership role and/or as a management professional.

The Mastering MS Project Agile course has a dedicated lesson for this purpose. It’s part of the Lesson – 7: Custom Agile with MS Project Agile. 

To see the complete index of this course, including the customizations possible in MS Project Agile software, you can refer to this link. 

References:

[1] Master Course: Mastering MS Project Agile, by Satya Narayan Dash.

[2] Certification Course: Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP), by Satya Narayan Dash.

[3] Video Course: Microsoft Project Live Lessons, by Satya Narayan Dash.

Mastering MS Project Agile Course Review–An Absolutely Delightful, High-Quality Course At A Very Low Cost!

By Ravi O’Reilly

Why this Course?

I decided to purchase this course after a lot of extensive research for a specific purpose after being tasked with building and managing a programme plan with Agile methodologies. I could not find any examples, templates, or learning anywhere and I was absolutely delighted when I came across ManagementYogi’s Mastering MS Project Agile course. 

My task was to create an MS project plan template for my team which shows all aspects of agile and traditional waterfall and then from that provide a rolled-up view of a programme plan. When I contacted Satya, he advised me to start with this course. I am so pleased I made the decision to take this course, it has met over and above my basic requirements.

Unique Selling Point (USP)

This entire course is so unique. It starts from the beginner steps right the way through to where you become comfortable with how MS Project agile tools actually works and gets you into advanced concepts practically and theoretically.

The course covers in detail all the different boards and views available, how to get in and out, how to input the data, how to remove data, where it appears, how to sort the tasks, how to move them, how to create the custom views, all the reporting views, the terminology, there are many, many aspects to it. 

Basically, the course takes from a beginner level to an advanced level and to the level of an expert.

What I Learned and How It Helped?

I’ll highlight the following things that I learned so far from the course:

• I really now understand what agile projects are and what my team is working on. Nothing is missed out which means you really get to know the MS Project agile tool inside out.
• I got a good grip on the various board and sheet related views of Scrum and Kanban, which view is used for what and how to get to them, various Agile/Sprint/Kanban fields and associated functionalities. 
• I learned how to build burn-down charts, burn-up charts. I learned how to create charts and how to make them presentable using all the extra tools and tips. It is very detailed which means you can very quickly become proficient and an expert in this.
• It is definitely practically-led, nothing is left out. In my opinion, if someone is learning this for the first time or even if they know how to use the MS project software with Agile functionalities, it is still worth doing.
• It has really empowered me. I can confidently speak about how the Agile plan(s) should be put together. I know when project managers themselves are not understanding how to plan their own deliverables with MS Project (Agile). I can definitely help guide them and apply best practice and industry standards after doing this course.
• Providing all the exercise files were so helpful for me. You can easily follow along with the video and see how it should look in the actual file. And then can create your own files. This course’s solution files will give you the foundations to build your learning.
• Agile in a hands-on manner with MS Project is a niche skill. I am in a Planning Manager role and MS Project Agile is a highly sought-after skill. This course definitely fast-tracked my skill set. It will make you stand out in whatever project management field you are in.
• The explanations are simple, clear and understandable and one can grasp all the technical terms as well. The videos are well presented, everything is organised, neatly structured. You get all the materials, a course structure guide, which helps to know where you are and how many lessons and videos you have left. I really absorb Satya’s teaching style and format.
• I received helpful answers to my queries when I had questions and I continue to get support for my learning. ManagementYogi’s work is such a useful resource for me and he has got me out of what was thought as an impossible task and I have definitely impressed upon my team.
• I’m revisiting all I learned. Now I am finishing the last part of the course, i.e., Advanced Scrum and Advanced Kanban.
• It is such a great investment in many aspects, in terms of your own time, your own learning, your own career path, nothing is rushed, you can pace yourself, and you can go over things. If you don’t get it in the first few videos, you soon start to pick it up as the steps and learning are repeated.

I really appreciate the full value and I am very much grateful to management yogi for sharing his expertise, knowledge and experience and for going into so much depth and making the user comfortably know what they are doing.

Recommendations

I am surprised at the very low cost for the high quality and amount of training one receives. You basically get more out of it than you would expect. In my opinion it seems too good to be true, but it is true. It covers the entire length and breadth of MS Project Agile. 

Whilst you are learning you get all these extra tips, when something can’t be done in MS Project Agile, the bonus is that there is a way and there is always a work around and this course gives you that as well. 

You are likely to come across in real life work and at least then you have a way to fix things and you are not left stranded. So, everything is covered in this course and again I am grateful to Satya for covering this in the course. Thank you so much ManagementYogi.

Wherever you are in your professional journey, I thoroughly recommend this course and would encourage you to just go for it. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Brief Profile:

Ravi O’Reilly: Planning Manager Role, Working in UK Government and Transport related programmes and projects and application of industry best practice planning standards.

You May Also Like:

[1] Master Course: Mastering MS Project Agile, by Satya Narayan Dash.

[2] Certification Course: Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP), by Satya Narayan Dash.

[3] Video Course: Microsoft Project Live Lessons, by Satya Narayan Dash.

Portfolio Management: Top 10 Things to Know About A Portfolio Roadmap (Part - 2)

In the earlier post, we checked the top five points (and utilities) of a portfolio roadmap. They are: 

• Graphical representation of all elements
• Internal and external dependencies
• High-level prioritization mapping
• Chronological mapping of the components
• Progress of components

You can read the content in the below link:

Portfolio Roadmap – Top Ten Things to Know (Part – 1)

In this part, we will know the next five top points (and utilities) of a portfolio roadmap. 

Key Point # 6: A portfolio roadmap can show the significant events in a portfolio, which are the milestones. 

A milestone is a significant event in the portfolio life cycle. Referencing the Standard for Portfolio Management from PMI, one can say that the milestones are the list of key deliverables and decision points for all components. These are usually consolidated to show the outcomes expected by the portfolio over time. This can also be called Portfolio Milestones or Portfolio Milestone List. 

These milestones can be shown in the portfolio roadmap. If you are using a portfolio management software, these can be created in a matter of seconds. 

Key Point # 7: The sequencing of the components can be shown with a portfolio roadmap.

The portfolio roadmap not only shows the chronological view of the components, but also the sequencing, i.e., which component will come after what. The below figure shows exactly that. This point is an offshoot of the key point # 2. 

As shown above, there is a sequencing (dependencies) between the component Project D and component Project E. 

Key Point # 8: Repeated adaptations in a portfolio can be shown dynamically in a portfolio roadmap.

Unlike project management, where we have the concept of progressive elaboration, in portfolio management, we have repeated adaptations. In a portfolio, the changes are normal occurrences. If the change is significant, then the portfolio documents are revisited to ensure continued alignment with organizational strategy and objectives. 

For example, let’s say a new component has been added into the portfolio. For this purpose, you have to (re)evaluate, prioritize and authorize the component. This new component can be dynamically reflected in the portfolio roadmap.  

In fact, the portfolio roadmap is used in governance processes to initiate new components. 

Key Point # 9: With the right software tool, you can filter, group, and highlight various components in a portfolio roadmap. 

Let’s say some of the components are not progressing as expected or some components are deactivated or even terminated. 

Their corresponding representations can be shown in the portfolio roadmap. One can group (completed components vs. incomplete components), filter (e.g., only program components) or highlight (e.g., deactivated components). 

Key Point # 10: A portfolio roadmap is and can be used as an excellent communication tool. 

In the beginning, I wrote that a portfolio is an effective communication tool because of its visual nature. 

In portfolio management, you have to filter out the data/information and bring out the reports which gives real value for the governance team, external vendors and other key stakeholders. A portfolio roadmap can be part of the blogs, dashboards, and newsletters to communicate the portfolio status. 

Video: Top Ten Points – Portfolio Roadmap

For a quick and clear understanding, I've prepared a video [Duration - 6m: 44s] in support of these two-part article series for Portfolio Roadmap. You can watch the videos to learn a few more key points!

[This series: Part – 1]

To know more on portfolio roadmap, you can refer to the recent article, published by MPUG.com:

Building A Practical Portfolio Roadmap

References:

[1] PfMP Exam Prep Book – I Want To Be A PfMP, the plain and simple way, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Article: Work Breakdown Structure in Traditional and Agile Life Cycles with MS Project , by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Article: Building A Practical Portfolio Roadmap, by Satya Narayan Dash, published by MPUG, US

[4] Article: Portfolio Management - One Figure That Says it All, by Satya Narayan Dash

Portfolio Management: Top 10 Things to Know About A Portfolio Roadmap (Part - 1)

A portfolio roadmap is visual in nature. Because it’s visual, you can understand quickly and it can be used as an effective communication tool with your portfolio stakeholders.

In this article, I’ll outline the top ten things to know about a portfolio roadmap. It’s one of the key deliverables in portfolio management, other being the portfolio strategic plan, portfolio charter, portfolio management plan and of course, the portfolio itself. There are also many other deliverables in portfolio management.

Key Point # 1: A portfolio roadmap graphically shows all the portfolio components. 

In my view, this is the most important one. Did you notice the emphasis on “all”? Yes, the portfolio roadmap shows the portfolio elements graphically (visually). The portfolio elements are the components of a portfolio such as projects, programs, operations, subportfolios or other work.

Key Point # 2: A portfolio roadmap shows the dependencies.

This is the only artifact in portfolio management, which shows the dependencies – both internal and external. 

By internal dependencies I mean the dependencies among the portfolio components. By external dependencies, I mean dependencies outside the portfolio. It’s usually between organizational areas.

Key Point # 3: A portfolio roadmap shows a high-level prioritization mapping. 

Like risk management, where you don’t consider all the risks, in portfolio management, too, we don’t consider all the components for execution. In fact, the portfolio components are prioritized, and the components which give the most value to the organization within the organization’s risk profile are taken up. 

A portfolio roadmap shows a high-level prioritization mapping. The prioritization model or approach comes from the portfolio strategic plan (PfSP). The model establishes the guidelines to prioritize the portfolio components, which in turn is displayed visually in the portfolio roadmap. 

Key Point # 4: It’s the only artifact which shows a chronological mapping.

Remember the first point of 'graphical' representation? 

The roadmap not only shows the elements graphically, but it’s also a chronological view. Chronological means that the components are arranged in order of time of occurrence, i.e., from the earliest to the latest.

A visual representation is shown below. The image is drawn with the MS Project software tool.  

As shown above, in the portfolio roadmap, there are many component projects, programs and operations. The timeline of the components with chronological mapping is shown for all the components. 

Each component is represented as a horizontal bar in the portfolio roadmap.

Key Point # 5: With a roadmap, you can show the progress of components. Again, visually! 

As one proceeds with the portfolio execution and moves across the portfolio life cycle, you can check the progress of the portfolio components. As a component is authorized and executed, there will be progress reported for the component. This can be shown in the portfolio roadmap.

As shown in the above figure:

• Project A and Project B are 100% complete. Another thin line/bar is going inside the bigger bar is the representation of % completion.
• Project C is around 50% complete, whereas Program A is around 25% complete.

Video: Top Ten Points – Portfolio Roadmap

For a quick and clear understanding, I've prepared a video [Duration - 6m: 44s] in support of these two-part article series for Portfolio Roadmap. You can watch the videos to learn a few more key points!

To know more on portfolio roadmap, you can refer to the recent article, published by MPUG.com:

Building A Practical Portfolio Roadmap

[This series: Part – 2]

References:

[1] PfMP Exam Prep Book – I Want To Be A PfMP, the plain and simple way, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Article: Building A Practical Portfolio Roadmap, by Satya Narayan Dash, published by MPUG, US

[3] Article: Life Cycles and Component States in Portfolio Management, by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Article: Portfolio Management - One Figure That Says it All: , by Satya Narayan Dash