Kanbanoo is an add-on that implements a Kanban Board within the M-Files client.
The main purpose of a Kanban board is to visualize work. In the M-Files context we understand work as any M-Files assignment and any M-Files object that participates in a workflow.
Kanbanoo does not show documents or objects without workflow in Kanban boards (except for assignments). This does not mean these documents and objects require no effort to make, but their creation in M-Files does not follow a defined process.
Design Principles
When designing Kanbanoo we were mindful of the Kanban practise of "Start where you are" - i.e. to re-use as many concepts and as much information from M-Files itself as possible. We wanted to create a Kanban board that requires as close to zero configuration as possible and we believe we come very close.
Following this practise we made the following design decisions:
Kanban boards will derive directly from M-Files workflows as the workflows are established processes in the organization.
The columns of Kanban boards map 1:1 to M-Files workflow states and vice versa.
Kanban cards represent M-Files objects (including documents and multi-file documents).
All operations must fully respect M-Files persmissions and workflow actions and conditions.
Since a Kanban board should help the shared understanding of the state of work it should look the same for everybody - to the extent that M-Files permissions allow it. This means that the sort order of cards and columns should be the same for everyone.
Kanban board derived from a simple invoice approval workflow
Invoice approval workflow as defined in M-Files Admin
Hosting Kanban Boards
Where to host the Kanban boards, i.e. where and when to display them in the M-Files client? We decided to host Kanban boards in M-Files views as they provide the primary navigation as well as a filtering mechanism for M-Files users.
Practically any M-Files view can host a Kanban board, i.e. its contents can be displayed in Kanbanoo as cards.
To switch a view to "Kanbanoo mode" press the button in the M-Files task area, see Accessing Kanbanoo.
Since a view can hold M-Files objects with a variety of workflows Kanbanoo can display one or more boards in its user interface - although we recommend to limit yourself to one or two boards.
Kanbanoo will save board and column settings as well as the sort order of cards in M-Files based on the view where the board is hosted, i.e. all settings are specific to the view where the Kanban board is hosted. Note that some settings are common to all users while others are also user-specific.
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Kanban board derived from a simple invoice approval workflow;)
Invoice approval workflow as defined in M-Files Admin
button in the M-Files task area, see Accessing Kanbanoo.