Can Ideas Span Columns in the Plan View

[Mark Cargin]

Hello JPD users.

We have ideas that that may run for 12 months.

Does JPD have the ability for an idea to span multiple columns.

For example, if a column is Quater, or Block or Sprint, can the idea be stretched across Q1, Q2 and Q3?

Thanks in advance.

MArk

[Krystal O_Connor]

I was wondering this as well. We have initiatives that I know will span 2-3 quarters, but I couldn't select multiple quarters with the default field.

[Tanguy Crusson]

Hi @Mark Cargin and @Krystal O_Connor , this is what we built the timeline view for:

Views > create a view > timeline. 

Have you tried it?

[Krystal O_Connor]

I've glanced at it, though we use advanced roadmaps for when we are more date specific. In this case, I don't have dates (usually, frankly, I don't use start and stop, I roll up from sprints based on estimates and projections). But I know Objective A is going to take through Q1 and Q2, for example. So I want to include it in both columns, or even see a single card spread across both columns so when I'm talking to stakeholders, it's painfully obvious the effort and duration that thing is going to take, and what we are trading off for it.

Right now, it just looks like that initiative is in one quarter or another and doesn't really represent the duration we're dealing with, which hinders trade off conversations IMO.

[Tanguy Crusson]

Hi @Krystal O_Connor , believe it or not this is PRECISELY what we built the timeline for. It's NOT a Gantt chart, and it's to support discussions like this. 

I tried to clarify in this video:

https://www.loom.com/share/da2c233ae8484f41a1ae68efcaa26e2a

Note: we tried to design a solution that works for boards (cards that span multiple columns) - we gave up, way too hard to design, there's too many things you can do on a board that would break (like re-ordering board columns... Time only flows in one direction). That's why we took this approach instead.

[Krystal O_Connor]

Ahhhh I get it. You are 100% correct, your Loom makes tons of sense. Thanks for taking the time! (and everything else you're obviously doing!)

[Tanguy Crusson]

Awesome! It's really hard to make these things self-explanatory in the product

[Mark Cargin]

Hello @Tanguy Crusson that is exactly what I need.  Unfortunately, I am trying to figure out how to create this view.  It's not very intuitive.

[Mark Cargin]

@Tanguy Crusson I have created a Timeline view, grouped by teams, however I don't see anu of the ideas, sadly.

[Mark Cargin]

@Tanguy Crusson I think I found the problem. 

I created a new JPD project and proceeded to create the Timeline view.  I noted the project had the "Project Start" and "Project Target" fields.

However, the JPD project I have been using does not contain these fields.

I create "Initiative Start" and "Initiative End".

The ideas didn't automatically appear in the view, so I navigated to "All Ideas" view, accessed an Idea and added the Start and End dates.

Unfortunately I incorrectly assigned End to Start and vice versa in the Timeline view, which appeared to be the cause of not displaying the idea in the Timeline view.  Once I corrected that, the idea appeared.  Great!

The only problem is I need to add a start and end to each idea, unlike the Plan view which lists all ideas that have no value assigned to the field.

[Tanguy Crusson]

@Mark Cargin There should be a blue "+" button, bottom-right of the view, which opens a drawer where you can find all ideas and drop them in the view. Do you see it?

[Mark Cargin]

Very clever.  Found it.

Thank you for your help.