Swimlane picker
Introduction
The swimlane picker will help you manage your tasks based on the swimlane type you are interested in. With live synchronization, all changes are reflected immediately.
Swimlane types
You can switch between five swimlane types:
Team
Team members
Status (read-only mode)
Priority
Color
Swimlanes are displayed in alphabetical order and cannot be rearranged.
Team
Select the Team swimlane to have a clear representation of each team's workload. The teams displayed on swimlanes are configured in the Teams module.
You can decide what teams are visible by selecting or deselecting them from the Swimlane value drop-down menu.
Team members
Select the Team members swimlane to show the distribution of tasks assigned to each individual, making it easy to track personal workloads and responsibilities.
Team members displayed on swimlanes come from teams configured in a box in the Teams module. If a person is not in any team, they aren’t visible as a swimlane.
Status
Select the Status swimlane to see tasks sorted by their current state. The displayed statuses depend on task statuses in a box's scope.
The Status swimlane is available in the read-only mode with limited view settings. You can’t move tasks from/to the backlog, rearrange, or add new tasks.
Priority
Select the Priority swimlane to organize tasks according to their urgency or importance, helping teams focus on high-priority items first. The priority levels displayed on swimlanes depend on task priorities in a box’s scope.
Color
Select the Color swimlane to group tasks by BigPicture colors, allowing for quick identification and differentiation based on custom criteria.
Available view settings
Available view settings depend on the selected swimlane type.
View option | Available for swimlanes: |
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View > Layout
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View > Totals Type:
Aggregate by:
When the view is set to Capacity allocation and aggregation by Story points, you can edit the capacity:
When a team member is assigned to more than one team, you can’t edit their capacity on the swimlane. To edit the capacity, click the Capacity planning button at the top menu. |
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View > Task warnings Tasks are marked in orange, and an exclamation mark icon appears next to each task that requires attention. |
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View > Show objectives If objectives are defined, they are displayed above tasks. |
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Swimlane value
You can completely hide swimlanes of a given type depending on their value, giving you full control over what information is displayed.
Swimlane values will be displayed only if a checkmark is next to them.
Use the search box to find swimlane values faster.
Select or deselect all swimlane values with one click.
Available actions
For Team, Team members, Priority, and Color swimlane types, you can:
Add new tasks (Jira issues) directly to a selected timebox.
Rearrange tasks between timeboxes and swimlanes.
Drag and drop tasks from the backlog.
Move tasks back to the backlog.
The Status swimlane is available in the read-only mode with limited view settings. You can’t move tasks from/to the backlog, rearrange, or add new tasks.
Add new tasks
You can add new tasks (Jira issues) directly to a selected swimlane:
Click on the plus icon.
Complete the details.
Click Create.
Rearrange tasks
To rearrange tasks:
Find a task you want to move.
Left-click on the task.
Drag and drop the task to a new place.
Move tasks from/to the backlog
To move tasks from/to the backlog:
Expand the Infobar panel.
Find a task.
Drag and drop the task to a new place.
Constraints
Team - "Unknown" swimlane
Most tasks are either unassigned (no team assigned) or are assigned to a particular team.
When the assignment is unclear, a task is placed in the Unknown row (below the "unassigned" row):
"Other Box team" → a task has been assigned to a team, but that team doesn't exist in the context Box (the team hasn't been added to the Box you're in). The task is in the scope of another Box - in that Box, the task is already assigned to a team.
"Unknown" → team information can't be matched to any existing Boxes that contain a task (the task has been assigned team information, such as a team code; however, no matching team has been found in any Boxes the task is in).
"Undetermined" - in the app, multiple teams have the same information (team code). The app can't determine which team the task should belong to.
Team members - "Unassigned" swimlane
If there is no assignee, a task is visible under the Unassigned swimlane.
Dependencies
When a swimlane value is hidden, dependencies between cards of the hidden swimlanes will not be displayed.
Capacity totals
For the Team members swimlane, capacity totals are calculated as a sum of team members' capacity in a given timebox. In periods when a team member is not active, their capacity equals 0 and cannot be edited on the board. If task is assigned to the member in this period, capacity calculation is displayed with overallocation (e.g 10/0 story points, when task is estimated at 10 story points).
The team member’s activity depends on the configuration in the Teams module.
Tasks assigned to an individual are auto-assigned to their team
When the Tasks assigned to an individual are auto-assigned to their team option is enabled and you change the assignee of a task by dragging and dropping a task on the swimlane, BigPicture validates if a team matches the assignee (team member).
With one-to-one assignments where the team of the team member is known (the user belongs to only one team in the box) - the team is updated.
With one-to-many assignments, where the team member belongs to more than one team in the box, the user is informed with the message “Team member assigned belongs to more than one team, team field was not updated”.