This is the article to keep open during your first sessions on the board. It shows you how the board is laid out, how to group and search it, and where each menu takes you.
Layout of the board
Capability list (left): every capability with status, iteration chips, board chips and child counters. Expand a card to see its children.
Iteration header: the solution iterations with their dates.
SM and M rows: SM is the Solution Milestones band above all lanes (click it to expand; its + offers Create Milestone / Phase and Add Existing). Each lane has an M row with that PI board's milestones, read-only here. Show or hide them in Board Settings (Show Solution Level Milestones, Show PI Level Milestones).
Swimlanes: one per linked PI board, coloured with the board colour, with that board's own iterations as columns. – minimises a lane and the layers icon opens the PI board in a new tab. Inside each cell the features are grouped by capability; the Features without Capability card comes first and collects features that have no parent yet.
Cards: capability key, status, type icon and counters. The › on a card opens its features.
The board with three swimlanes and six iterations.
Capability swimlanes: planned area and backlog
The board has two areas for capabilities:
Area | What it holds |
Capability List (left, the backlog) | Every capability on the solution board, planned or not, with its status, iteration chips (I1, I2…), the short names of the PI boards that carry its features and child counters. Collapse it to the Backlog tab to give the board more room. The + at the bottom creates or adds capabilities (and, when PI boards are synced with Jira or Azure DevOps, Add Existing from Jira / Add Existing from ADO). |
Planned area (the swimlanes) | Capability cards placed in the iteration cells of each ART's lane. |
You don't drag capabilities onto the planned area. A capability becomes planned by its features: as soon as one of its features is planned into an iteration on a PI board, the capability card appears in that lane and iteration. A capability whose features sit in several ARTs and iterations therefore shows up in several cells, and one with no planned features appears only in the Capability List. The card's counters and the › show the features in that cell.
Group the board by Planned/Unplanned (top bar) to split each lane into what is planned and what is not; the same option in the Capability List shows which capabilities have no planned features yet.
The board grouped by Planned/Unplanned: each ART lane gets a Planned band with its capabilities per iteration.
When the board has a capability parent type (Board Settings › Additional Settings › Capability Parent), the extra option By Capability Parent draws one band per parent and, inside it, one swimlane per capability with that capability's features in the iteration columns.
Item-type icons follow the tool
Every capability and feature card shows where it comes from by its key and icon:
Source | What the card shows |
Jira | The Jira key with the issue type's own icon (Epic, Feature, Story…), taken from Jira. If Jira sends no type icon, a generic Jira mark is shown. |
Azure DevOps | The work item ID with the ADO work item type icon. Without an icon, a coloured initial: Epic orange, Feature purple, User Story / PBI / Requirement blue, Bug red, Task yellow. |
Kendis only | The Kendis key (K-1, K-2…) without a tool icon. |
Kendis no longer stamps a Jira or Azure logo on top; the type icon alone tells you the tool. A +N on a feature card means the same Jira or Azure DevOps feature is also on N other linked PI boards; hover it to see which.
Grouping and search
The Group selector above the capability list groups the list by Status, Status Category, PI, Planned/Unplanned, By Capability Parent (when configured) and the capability's custom fields such as Priority. Each group shows its count and can be collapsed. The capability list has its own search icon, which matches title, key, status and responsible, and its own expand / collapse all.
The search box on the top bar works on the whole board: start typing, pick an item from the suggestions, and it is added as a tag that filters the board. Remove the tag to see everything again.
The Group selector.
Capability list grouped by Status; the In Progress group is expanded.
Filter the board
Click the filter icon in front of the search box on the top bar. A filter bar opens below it with Quick Filters, My Filters, Feature Sprint, Feature Team and Select More. Choose what you want to see and click Apply Filter. Hide closes the bar again.
The filter bar. The fields you enabled from Jira or Azure DevOps are listed under Select More.
Filter capabilities by Jira / Azure DevOps fields
When your capabilities come from Jira or Azure DevOps, you can filter the board by fields of the tool itself, for example a priority, an area or a target date. You decide which fields are available, separately for each connected Jira and Azure DevOps account.
Enable the fields once under Board Settings › Edit Board Settings › Create New Settings, as described in Board settings and administration.
Open the filter bar and click Select More. The enabled fields are listed in the group Capability Fields (Jira / Azure DevOps). The group uses your board's own word for capability.
Tick the fields you want to filter by. Each one gets its own box in the filter bar.
Set the values and click Apply Filter.
Kind of field | What you get in the filter bar |
Fields with a set of values, such as a priority, a person or a yes / no field | A list of the values found on this board's capabilities. Tick one or several. |
Date fields | A from / to range. Both days are included, and you can fill in only one of them. |
Free text fields | A text box. Capabilities whose field contains your text are shown. |
Several values in one field: a capability is shown when it matches any of them.
Several fields: a capability is shown only when it matches all of them.
A field belongs to one Jira or Azure DevOps account. While you filter by it, only capabilities synced from that account can match, so Kendis-only capabilities and capabilities from your other tool are hidden.
When fields from more than one account are enabled, every field shows its account name in brackets, so you can tell them apart.
A field with a very long list of values, or with long text values, is offered as a text box instead of a list.
ⓘ Field values come with the sync
Kendis reads the values when a capability is imported and on every resync. After you enable a new field, the values of the capabilities already on the board are filled in the background. Until a field has values, it shows a text box instead of a list. Run Board Settings › Resync Board and reload the board to get the list.
More filters under Select More
Select More groups the other filters by level and by tool, using your board's own words for capability and feature:
Group | Filters |
Capability Filter (Kendis) | Status, Card Type, Newly Added (last 24 hours, 7, 14 or 30 days) and the capability custom fields. |
Feature Filter (Kendis) | Status, Planned/Unplanned, Card Type and Feature without parent. |
Capability / Feature Filter (Jira) | Status, Issue Type, Project, Assignee and Reporter. |
Capability / Feature Filter (Azure DevOps) | Status, Area Path, Iteration Path, AzureDevOps Item Type, Responsible and Reporter. |
After you change the criteria, Save As stores the combination under My Filters or Quick Filters, and Reset filter clears everything. While a filter is active the button reads Filters Applied.
Dependency lines
Click Dependency on the top bar. Switch Dependency Lines on and tick what you want drawn: open or resolved dependencies, capability / feature / story level, cross-board or same-board, and the indicators for aligned, overdue and reverse dependencies. Hide Cards Without Dependencies and Select Boards narrow the view. Press Done.
The Dependency Lines panel.
Lines are drawn between features planned on the linked PI boards, whether the dependency was created in Kendis or synced from Jira or Azure DevOps, and run across the ART swimlanes for cross-PI dependencies. Overdue dependencies are drawn in red and reverse dependencies in dark red (the colours shown in the panel). A reverse dependency means the dependent item is scheduled before the item it needs. Dependencies between Kendis-only features are listed under Dependencies but not drawn as lines.
The More menu
More opens the other views of the solution: Dependencies, Analytics, Collab Board, Timeline, Risks Register and Objectives. Each has its own article in this guide.
The More menu.
Layout switch and other controls
By Capability View / By Feature View switches the swimlane content between capability cards and the features themselves. In feature view the top-bar grouping offers By Teams and, for synced boards, Jira (Project, Assignee, Issue Type) or Azure DevOps (Project, Area Path, Iteration Path) groupings.
The grouping selector on the top bar (No Group by default) groups the swimlane cells. In By Capability View it offers the same choices as the capability list; grouping by team is available in By Feature View.
Board Settings opens the settings panel described in Board settings and administration.
Frequently asked questions
A Jira or Azure DevOps field I enabled is missing under Select More.
A Jira or Azure DevOps field I enabled is missing under Select More.
Check that it is ticked under Board Settings › Edit Board Settings › Create New Settings for the right account, then reload the board. A field without values yet is still listed; it shows a text box until a resync has filled it.
Why did my Kendis-only capabilities disappear when I filtered by a Jira field?
Why did my Kendis-only capabilities disappear when I filtered by a Jira field?
A Jira or Azure DevOps field only exists on capabilities synced from that account, so nothing else can match. Clear the field to see every capability again.
Why does a capability appear in only some swimlanes?
Why does a capability appear in only some swimlanes?
A capability appears in a lane and iteration only where one of its features is planned on that PI board. Use the Capability List on the left to see every capability, planned or not.
How do I move a capability onto the planned area?
How do I move a capability onto the planned area?
Plan one of its features into an iteration on the PI board. The capability follows its features; it can't be dragged onto the solution board by itself.
Why don't I see dependency lines on my board?
Why don't I see dependency lines on my board?
Turn on Dependency Lines in the Dependency panel and tick a box in every group. The providing feature must be planned in a sprint, and feature lines need By Feature View. See Dependency lines.
Can I drag a feature between iterations here?
Can I drag a feature between iterations here?
Iteration changes are made on the PI board; the solution board reflects them after resync or live push. Parent changes (which capability a feature belongs to) are made from the capability popup.
The dependency lines disappeared after a reload.
The dependency lines disappeared after a reload.
Your Dependency panel choices are remembered per board in this browser. Check that the switch is still on and that a box is ticked in every group; a new browser or cleared site data starts with everything off.