Category Archives: Agile & Scrum

Posts related to Agile/Scrum methodology

Digital Workplace: Essential Tools to Optimize Workflows

May 29, 2023Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Team Collaboration, TechnologyCommunication, Task Management, Teams, WorkflowKerika

The transition to remote work has been swift, and digital tools have become the backbone of modern workplaces. However, the landscape of remote work is still fairly new and many teams are still far from their greatest potential. Still, if they polish their processes, remote teams can be as productive as they would on-site, and even more. This article will present digital tools essential to optimize digital workplace workflows and productivity.

Project Management Tools

Project management tools are the backbone of any team’s workflow. Project management tools centralize your team’s tasks and projects, enabling employees to manage tasks, deadlines, and resources.

Use a project manager to track progress and identify any bottlenecks. Likewise, logging tasks and project information adds a layer of transparency and accountability to project management tools.

In any case, your workflow can only be as good as the project management software you use allows you to. Some of the most popular project management tools available include Asana, Trello, and Basecamp. However, Kerika stands out from the rest by its own merits.

Kerika: The Ultimate Management Tool for Remote Teams

Kerika is a powerful project management tool that helps teams work efficiently and collaboratively. It offers a variety of features to meet the requirements of the most demanding users. Here are some of the features that make Kerika a must-have tool for any digital workplace:

Visual Boards. Whiteboards and task boards from which users can see the big picture of a project. Visualize the workflow and identify any bottlenecks at a glance.
Integrated Chat. This feature eliminates the need for external communication tools to collaborate since team members can communicate in real-time without leaving the platform.
Task Assignments. Easily assign tasks to team members and track their progress in a complex yet intuitive tasks board. Ensure that everyone is aware of their responsibilities and deadlines, making it easier to complete projects on time.
Customizable Templates. Kerika offers customizable project board templates that can be used for different types of projects. Save time and ensure that all team members are on the same page. Plus, templates are handy for onboarding new employees into your workflow.
User-Friendly Interface. Kerika’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and use, so everyone on the team can use the tool without any training or technical expertise.

File Sharing and Collaboration Software

File-sharing software enables employees to store and work with files no matter where they are located and from multiple devices. Such flexibility reduces the time and effort needed to search for documents or to track down the latest version of a file, something methodic and disorganized employees enjoy alike.

File-sharing tools such as Google Drive also enable multiple people to collaborate on the same document simultaneously, opening the possibility of real-time feedback and faster completion of tasks. In like manner, users can easily leave comments and make suggestions.

Administrators can easily control who has access to specific files or folders, ensuring that confidential information is kept secure. Permissions can be set to allow different levels of access to different users, making it easy to share files with only those who need to see them.

Communication Platforms

Effective communication is key to a successful digital workplace. With communication platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, team members can stay connected and work together seamlessly through video and audio calls, and screen and file sharing.

On the other hand, video conferencing tools with virtual reality (VR) technology are a more cutting-edge option. VRth finds industrial applications in industries such as architecture and engineering by allowing teams to visualize and interact with 3D models Yet, VR can also work as a space for brainstorming, meetings, and events. To know more about VR meeting platforms, check Virbela and NextMeet.

Cybersecurity Tools

Cybersecurity tools such as firewalls, and intrusion detection systems help businesses to protect their data from cyber threats. On the other hand, these tools also help businesses to comply with data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Additionally, virtual private networks (VPNs) are essential for any business that values data privacy and security. VPNs create a secure and encrypted connection between a business’s network and the internet, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information. VPNs are especially important for remote workers who need to access company resources from outside the office. Here is a list of some of the cheapest VPNs.

Process Automation Software

Business process management software can help businesses streamline their operations by automating repetitive tasks and workflows, including data entry, invoice processing, and customer service.

Besides, artificial intelligence (AI) technology is increasingly being used to improve productivity in the digital workplace, taking care of complex tasks and clearing humans from them. AI-powered productivity tools can help automate tasks, provide personalized insights and recommendations, and analyze data to identify opportunities for improvement. Tools of this kind include beautiful.ai, for coming up with presentations, and Mem made to organize information.

Mind Mapping Software

Mind mapping software can help teams visualize and organize complex ideas and concepts through brainstorming, planning, and collaborating. Among popular mind-mapping tools, we find MindMeister, MindManager, and XMind.

On the other hand, digital whiteboards can help teams collaborate and brainstorm more effectively, especially in remote settings: Visualize ideas by drawing or writing them, or share them with others and receive feedback. Popular digital whiteboard tools include Miro, Google Jamboard, and Microsoft Whiteboard.

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How to make sure someone sees your Chat

February 12, 2022Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, UsabilityChat, Kanban, Notifications, Scrum, Task Board, Task Management, Usability, WorkflowKerika

With our latest update we have made it easy for you to ensure that someone on a board team always sees your chat message, even if they are not assigned to that card.

The old rule was that everyone who is currently assigned to a card would get new chat pushed to them as emails. Now, you can make sure someone gets that email notification right away, even if they aren’t assigned to a particular card:

Screenshot showing examples of directed chat — Directed chat

Using this feature is simple: just type the letter “@” anywhere in your chat message and Kerika offers all the matching suggestions:

Screenshot showing example of sending new chat — Sending new chat

“@All” lets you push your chat to every Board Admin and Team Member — something you should do only rarely to avoid annoying people!

Try this feature and let us know if we can improve it.

Some improvements for Task Auto-Numbering

January 10, 2022Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, UsabilityKanban, Scrum, Search, Task Management, UsabilityKerika

We got feedback from some users after our last big release on how we could improve the user experience for folks who like to use the auto-numbering feature for Task Boards, and we have made these changes:

When you open a task, it’s number is shown (but can’t, of course, be edited)

Screenshot showing the Task Details dialog with numbering turned on — Editing a Numbered Task

You can now search for a numbered task simply by typing “#number” in the Search box

Screenshot showing how search by task number works — Search by Number

We made it easier to work with multiple Kerika Accounts

December 22, 2021Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, UsabilityAccount, Task Board, Task ManagementKerika

We have done a bunch of things to help folks who need to work with multiple Kerika accounts: a common situation with consulting, outsourcing, or other professional services who need to work with clients who all have their own Kerika accounts.

It starts at the Home page, where we made it easier to filter you view of Boards and Templates to a subset of all the Kerika accounts you can access:

Screenshot showing Kerika Home page — New Kerika Home

You can use the check boxes in the left navigation area to temporarily hide some accounts, if you want to narrow your view of boards and templates.

More importantly, you can now access boards from different Kerika accounts in the same session: you don’t need to log out of one account and log into another, to be able to quickly switch between boards from different accounts.

The Board Switcher, which shows all the boards you currently have open, across accounts:

Screenshot showing Board Switcher dialog — Board Switcher

It’s also easy to set your preferences on a per-account basis:

Screenshot showing Account Preferences — Account Preferences

The Dashboard (previously labeled “Views”) has new capabilities so you can get a great overview of all your projects, across all your accounts:

Screenshot showing Dashboard Settings — View Settings

This makes it as easy to filter your Views on desktop as we had previously done for mobile users.

A more space-efficient layout for Task Boards

December 19, 2021Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Team Collaboration, UsabilityKanban, Scrum, Task Board, Usability, WorkflowKerika

We have redesigned the Task/Card details dialog to provide a more space-efficient layout, so you can see more of what you need without having to scroll:

Screenshot showing the Task Details dialog — Task Details

What used to be vertical tabs for Details, Chat, etc., is now a compact horizontal tab; this frees up a lot of space to see the details of the tags.

The other big change we made is to make the Priority setting separate from other Tags:

Screenshot highlighting position of Task Priority field — Task Priority flag

Clicking on the star will bring up your task priority options:

Screenshot showing possible values for Task Priority — Task Priority

We are moving away from Scrum Boards

November 9, 2020Agile & Scrum, Kanban & LeanAgile, Scrum, Task BoardKerika

We are transitioning our Scrum Board users to Task Boards: the Scrum Boards are used only by a tiny portion of our user base, who overwhelmingly prefer using Task Boards and Whiteboards.

Background

For many years now we have offered both Task Boards and Scrum Boards, but the relative popularity (and implied usefulness) of these two are lopsidedly in favor of Task Boards.

The main difference between Task Boards and Scrum Boards has been the use of a shared Backlog: a column of cards that can be shared by several Scrum Boards at the same time.

In Scrum Boards, the Backlog appeared fixed in the leftmost column of the board, and like Done and Trash, it couldn’t be be moved, renamed or deleted.

The Backlog was “live” all the time in the sense that any change made by one attached Scrum Board to the Backlog was immediately reflected in every other Scrum Board that was attached to the same Backlog. If Scrum Board A added a card to a shared Backlog, it immediately showed up in the Backlog column when viewed by Scrum Board B and Scrum Board C.

The Problem

This wasn’t a good way to implement Scrum Boards, as we found out ourselves during our internal use of these boards. It’s principle weakness was it led to a proliferation of Scrum Boards, since each Sprint required a new Backlog. (Our own development team is currently on Sprint 180 so we experienced this proliferation early on.)

We though the general feature in Kerika that lets accounts archive old boards would help, but this just pushed the proliferation problem to another area; it didn’t really fix it.

The Solution

We are just going to have Task Boards (and Whiteboards) from now on. At some point in the future we may completely rethink, redesign, and rebuild a new kind of scrum boards, but it doesn’t make sense for us to continue offering the current version.

As a consequence, all existing Scrum Boards will be converted into Task Boards. Here’s how that would work:

Consider an existing set of boards that all use the same shared Backlog: Board A, Board B, and Board C.

Right now all three boards see the same Backlog, at the same time: if cards are added or moved away from the shared Backlog by any board, this view is immediately updated for all three boards.

When we transform Scrum Boards to Task Boards, each of Boards A, B, and C will have its own local copy of the Backlog.

From this point on, any changes made by any of these boards to their local copies of the Backlog will not affect the copies that were made for the other boards. Each board, then, becomes independent and can proceed on its own path, without affecting any other board since there is no longer a shared column of cards.

Questions?

We have already been in touch with active users of Scrum Boards and have not heard any concerns from them about this proposed change, so we are confident that we are making the right decision. If you do have any questions, please contact us at support@kerika.com.

Using Kerika for Google Design Sprints

January 1, 2020Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Technology, TutorialsAgile, Design, Google, Kanban, Scrum, SprintKerika

We have a complete set of templates for folks who want to use the Google Design Sprint methodology; you don’t have to be an expert at either Design or Sprints to get productive fast.

Here’s a quick overview:

A new tutorial video on Planning Views

December 20, 2019Agile & Scrum, Kanban & LeanAgile, Kanban, Lean, Planning, ScrumKerika

Improving the process for new users who want to join existing accounts

December 5, 2019Academic & Nonprofit, Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Kerika, Team CollaborationAccount, Nonprofit, TeamsKerika

We have made some improvements to the process that guides new users when they sign up, so they can join the accounts of coworkers they might need to work with.

The new process works like this:

When a user signs in (with a Google ID, Box ID, or their email), Kerika examines the email address associated with that user and compares it against other users who are already registered.

If it finds that other users from the same domain are already active Kerika users, it offers the new user the option of joining a colleague’s account or starting an entirely new account.

In most cases, people are better off joining accounts that have already been established by their coworkers, so they can find the most relevant Kerika boards.

Kerika tries to be smart about this in a couple of ways:

First, it rules out free domains, like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. (There’s a long list of free domains that we check against.) With free domains, there could be thousands of other users who have similar emails but no connection with you.

So if you sign up with a free email, you won’t be offered the possibility of joining an existing account. (Of course, an existing Gmail user could invite you to join their teams; it’s just that Kerika doesn’t suggest these connections.)

Having winnowed out the free domains, Kerika then considers whether the older accounts from the same domain as the new user can actually accommodate new people: do they have free subscriptions available that could be used by the new user?

If the older accounts are still in the Free Trial phase, then the answer will be Yes: trial users can have unlimited Team Members .

If the older accounts are tagged as Academic/Nonprofit, there’s a good chance they can accommodate new users.

If the older accounts are Professional Accounts, the chances are much lower — unless the older account had bought a few extra subscriptions in advance to accommodate this scenario.

Having further narrowed down the list of potential accounts, Kerika considers whether your potential coworkers are, in fact, active users of Kerika. This is important in universities, for example, that have been whitelisted so that everyone joining up from a particular university automatically gets a free Academic Account.

From University of Washington, for example, there are thousands of registered free accounts, set up over the past several years. Not all are still active because the students involved may have graduated already. So even though an account may have free/unused subscriptions, it doesn’t make sense to suggest that to a new user if that account has been dormant for more than a month.

After all this we could still end up with a large set of potential list of collaborators, particularly in large organizations.

So, as the final step, we check the “last active time” of our candidate accounts and then present the 8 most recently active accounts. Our rationale is that a new user may want to join the most recently active account, which perhaps belongs to a fellow user who had suggested the new user sign up for Kerika.

All of this takes place in a fraction of a second, of course, so users don’t experience any wait times. But it helps new users orient themselves within Kerika by trying to connect them to the most likely coworkers.

An easier way to search for cards by number

December 2, 2019Agile & Scrum, KerikaScrum, Task BoardKerika

Along with the recent improvements we made to the Auto-Number Cards feature for Task Boards and Scrum Boards, we have also made it easier for you to search for cards by their number.

It’s simple to use: just type in a number in the Search box on the top of the Kerika app and Kerika will assume you are looking for a card with that number. It will also search for anything else with that number, but will prioritize a card matching that number as the first result it shows.

Get more done, with Kerika

Task Management for Remote Teams