This article contains a quick introduction into the Set-Up of your Personal Task Manager and how to navigate within your Personal Task Manager.
We recommend to open Your LYNX Personal Task Manager Space first. You have been invited for this space by A-dato.
Navigation and Filtering Basics
Streams and Boards
After you have opened LYNX TameFlow and you have checked "Your Personal Task Manager" space is selected, go to the "Backlog" Board within the Dashboard Stream, via the Drop-Down in the top left of the window.
This will populate the "Activity Cards" that we already have added as examples:
Kanban Layouts: By lane, Flat and List
Lane Layout
You will see the following three "Lanes" in the "By lane" layout (default layout when you open LYNX TameFlow):
- Marketing Tasks (sample) - Marketing Project - Event
- My Personal Tasks - Personal
- Sales Tasks (sample) - New Business
Note: a Lane in LYNX TameFlow is the equivalent of a "Workpackage", which we will explain later
Flat Layout
You can also toggle between the Lane and Flat Layout. The Flat Layout aggregates all Cards, also considering sequencing based based on Buffer Status:
List Layout
The list layout can be selected via the ... menu in the upper right corner of the window:
The List Layout groups and sequences all cards, regardless the position of a card in the "Workflow". As you can see in the cards column, the list is sequenced by Card Buffer Priority.
Filter by Lane (Workpackage) or collection of Lanes
You can easily filter the lanes (Workpackages) you would like to focus on and work with. Or just enter any search. See picture below, in which the Lane (Workpackage) "Personal" has been selected.
After pressing enter, you will see the Lane containing all your personal cards only:
Default Sort and General Sort
The Default Sorting is always using the services or buffer window (Card Buffer Management / Dynamic Sequencing) You can also use the General Sort button to sort on any Card field or attribute:
Understanding Workflows, Streams and Boards
A Workflow in LYNX exist of a combination and sequence of Status Values. A card receives a new status value, when it is moved horizontally on the board to a next or previous status value (or column) in the workflow.
A Stream is always linked to just one (overall) Workflow. A Stream itself has one or multiple Boards.
A board may span the complete workflow or a subset of the of the status values available, like a "Sub-Workflow" within the overall Workflow of a Stream.
As mentioned above, the set-up of "Your Personal Task Manager" contains the following streams and boards:
Dashboard Stream Workflow
The overall workflow for this stream spans the following columns or status values:
The Backlog Board shows all cards by status column. The other boards you can select (This month, This week, etc.) filters the cards by selected status column and hides cards in other columns. For example, the Board "This week" shows only the cards in the following columns:
The following table shows all boards and status values (which can be customized):
The Done (wait) status value is introduced to represent that an Activity Card may be completed, but it needs a follow-up or confirmation before it is really done. You can put the card in the Done(wait) column, so you know you need to do a final check. Note: Waiting statuses on a board are often used in TameFlow implementations, to represent a handover between teams (like and handover of a card between development team and test team). Also the waiting time of a card is tracked, which allows to measure "flow" efficiency (amount of waiting time in relation to touch time and total lead time). For configuration of "Waiting" columns, see also this article: Try some TameFlow Kanban Features |
My Activities Stream Workflow
The workflow for this stream spans the following columns or status values:
Sales Stream Workflows
The Sales Stream Workflow has two connected boards and sub-workflows:
The "Opportunities actions" board has two sections and is configured as follows:
Through the activity section activity cards can be a member of multiple workflows. See also this paragraph: Workflow membership(s) of a Card
Tune Streams and Boards with filtering logic
The Cards that you want to displayed can be filtered with simple filtering logic, at Stream and also at Board Level. The "Next Action Board" shows for example only cards in the column "Doing":
You can use any field and values as part of a filter, for example: Contains(FIELD_0010, Private'), shows only the cards with a "Label (=FIELD_0010) value" of "Private".
Card Types and Behavior
Your initial Card types
Your Personal Task Manager has the following initial set of Card Types pre-defined:
You can customize or create any new Card type per your preference. This will be explained in the following article: How to customize Your Personal Task Manager?
The Sales Cards we have added to illustrate the possibility to create Parent Cards (e.g. an Opportunity) and Child Cards (Activities): To move a sales opportunity forward, multiple actions are required.
Other Card Type examples (unlimited)
Card Types are fully configurable and any Card Type can be defined and configured. In the picture below several other Card Type examples are shown:
Note: In other articles it is described how you can create your own Card types or make changes the initial configuration in "Your Personal Task Manager".
Parent and Child Cards (Nesting)
You have the possibility to nest cards and create a parent with multiple child cards. You can add a card as a child card to another (parent) card:
- by creating a new card (child) from a current card (parent)
- by dragging a card (child) on top of another card (parent)
This process of creating child and parent cards is described in this article: Add your first Card. You will recognize parent or child cards as follows:
Workflow membership(s) of a Card
You may want to show up cards on multiple boards, but also as a combination of a parent card (opportunity) with multiple child cards (activities required to move the opportunity forward). You can achieve this by making the same card member of multiple workflows!
In the example below the card C49 is member of the Sales, Activity and the Dashboard Workflow:
As a result card C49 will also be displayed within the Sales Stream and on the Opportunity Action board:
Auto close Card Condition
When an Activity Card type is moved to the "Done" status, it will be automatically marked as closed, as the following "Auto close Card Condition" is pre defined:
FIELD_0008 refers to the Dashboard Workflow: when the card reaches the status value "Done" close Card automatically.
See the video below which shows how a card is closed automatically (and also how to "unclose" a card again):
Card Buffer Management / Dynamic Sequencing
Dynamic Sequencing of Task lists by Buffer Status and Priority is an important tool in TOC and CCPM as it creates focus and makes it easier to decide what to do next at any point in time.
By default Cards are sequenced as follows:
- Cards with a services or buffer window are put on top, and are sequenced by buffer status
- Cards without a services or buffer window are positioned below Cards with such a window
Card Types with a services or buffer window
In your Personal Task Manager we have therefore added Card Types with a Default Services or Buffer Window:
- Card Type "Activity Short" has a services or buffer) window of 3 days
- Card Type "Activity Long" has a services (or buffer) window of 10 days
When you add a Card of Type of "Activity Short" we have added the rule that the Card initial "Due-date" is set at the entry date (T0) + 3 days window. The same procedure is applied for Card Type "Activity Long":
It is important to underline that you can always choose any other Due-date, sooner or later.
If you choose a later Due Date for an Activity Short Card of for example + 5 days, the sequencing of cards will consider first a Time Buffer of 2 Days before the Buffer Window of 3 days starts:
Which (Activity) Card type to select?
Activities with a (strict) Deadline - choose Buffer Management
Typically Buffer Management is applied when deadlines are more important. In this case you can choose to select either "Activity Short" or "Activity Long". For these Card types a deadline is protected by a Services/Buffer Window as explained above.
Activities without a (strict) Deadline
You may have Activities for which a Due Date is less important. In this case you can select an "Activity" card, leaving the deadline field open. But you may also just enter a "Target" date in the deadline field, for your reference to also to allow the card is included when you use the general sorting button, and sort on due date, rather then buffer status.
When a deadline becomes important, you always change the Card Type from "Activity" to one of the Activity Cards with a buffer window (Short or Long). |
Parent / Child Cards with Buffer Management
For cards for which you are also using a Parent / Child(s) Card structure, you could choose "Activity Long" for the parent and "Activity Short" for the Childs, as is shown in the picture below:
Other Card Types with Buffer Management
All Card Type with Buffer Management are marked in blue in the table below:
Card Buffer Management Configuration
Fixed Buffer Management Window
The Card Types included in the initial set-up Your Personal Task Manager have a fixed buffer window, as is explained in the paragraph above.
When entering a Card with a fixed buffer window, you have the following choices:
- Continue with the Due-date calculated by LYNX (either + 3 or + 10) offset against the entry date
- Choose your own Due-date and add you own Due date to the card
Dynamic Buffer Management
It is also possible to add "Dynamic Buffer Management" behavior to a card. A buffer window and due date is then calculated dynamically based on any services or buffer window determined by yourself. This scenario we have not included in the scope of the initial set-up.
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