Box types

Box types allow you to set up any number of default Boxes - flexible, high-level containers that come preconfigured, partially customized, or fully personalized. In practice, this means unprecedented flexibility in the way you can shape a portfolio hierarchy to best suit your business needs.

A Box type is akin to a template, which, once configured, can be used each time you or your team want to start working on a new thing (i.e. a Project, Portfolio, etc.), launch a new SAFe Agile Release Train, or do anything else. Each of your teams can have a different Box template to accommodate different types of projects and individual team preferences.

Additionally, if you want to reorganize your work or a team needs to take over Boxes already configured in a way they dislike, you can easily make adjustments and meet their preferences. How? When you move Boxes in the hierarchy, they can be set to inherit settings from higher-level Boxes. This can save you a lot of time and let you focus on your work.

You can configure a variety of settings for each Box type. These include:

• Parent types that determine the possible nesting (hierarchy) of Boxes.
• Default Box configuration, including the Inheritance mode (for selected features) of:
  • Available modules and naming 
  • Column views (Scope and Gantt type modules) 
  • Card views (Board and Risks type modules)

  • Task templates

  • Quick filters
  • Period scheduling rules (overlapping and auto-scheduling adjustments) 
  • Security settings

Adjust the settings of a section and confirm by clicking "Save". If you were editing a Box type in a separate tab, refresh the page to make sure changes are reflected in the App. 

Security and access

Only the App admin can access and change the Box type configuration.

Click the "wrench" icon and select "Box types" from the drop-down list.

Click the Box type name to open its settings. 

Which Box type to choose?

Do you carry out many business projects independent of each other? If so, choose the Portfolio Box structure and individual Box project types, e.g., Agile project, Classic project, or Hybrid project. Or maybe you want to manage a specific project and understand what is going on in it? Choose a project type and divide it into Stages or Iterations.

Decide which project type would be the best option for your business goals:

• Agile project - A built-in type that is recommended for projects run in Agile methodology
• Classic project - A built-in type that is recommended for classic (waterfall) projects
• Hybrid project - A built-in type suitable for hybrid projects involving Agile and classic approaches
• Hybrid stage - A built-in type that helps to organize a hybrid project schedule into stages
• Iteration - A built-in type that helps to schedule work iteratively
• LeSS Requirement Area - A built-in type designed for multiple teams working together on one product.
• Portfolio - A built-in type that stores Agile, classic, and hybrid types of projects
• Program - Basic Box type that lets you divide the work into lower levels such as Iterations, Stages or Program Increments
• Program Increment - A built-in type that allows for grouping iterations into increments (recommended for SAFe® adopters)
• SAFe Art - A built-in type to represent an Agile Release Train (recommended for SAFe® adopters)
• Sprint - A built-in type that helps to schedule work iteratively
• Stage - A built-in type that helps to organize classic project scope into stages

The diagram below shows the default, out-of-the-box configuration.

Box type attributes

Each Box type has a set of attributes such as:

• Prefix
• Name
• Status
• Parent Types
• Description

More attributes can be found in the Administration > Box type > edit > General > Basics section. 

Add new Box types

To add a new Box type, click "Add new Box type". Specify a Box type name and Box prefix. Then, select a default icon and adjust its color. 

You can configure more attributes for a newly created Box type in the General (Box types) section. 

Duplicate Box types

To make setup easier, you can duplicate an existing Box type (all settings are copied) and make needed adjustments. Click the "Duplicate" button as shown in the image below. 

A Box type duplicate is automatically created with a "-copy" suffix added to the name (no creation pop-up appears). 

Delete Box types

You can delete a Box type only when no Boxes use it and the Box type status is set to "DRAFT". Deletion is irreversible. 

To delete a Box type, click the "Bin" button. 

Archive Box types

Archiving a Box type doesn't affect existing Boxes that use the configuration - an archived Box type can still be in use but won't be available when creating a new Box. Only the Box types in the "IN USE" status can be archived.

You can restore archived Box types at any time. 

Restore Box types

You can restore Box types that are archived. Toggle the "Show archived Box types" switch to hide/show archived types. To restore a Box type click the "curved arrow" button. 

Update rules

The table below presents policies applicable to changes made to Box type attributes.