Creating Agile product roadmaps or task boards

If you work in an Agile shop, or use the Scrum method, you probably keep a backlog list. If you keep your backlog list in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you may have difficulty presenting the different sprints and status associated with each backlog task.

Creating an Agile task board, or a product roadmap, is a good way to sort your product backlog list into sprints, and OnePager Express will create these task boards quickly and easily, using the backlog you are already storing in Excel.

OnePager Express is a Microsoft Excel add-in, so you can launch it directly from Excel without having to export or convert your data.

Here's how to build your Agile task board:

1. Open your backlog list in Excel:




2. Insert a "Status" column (Column D, shown above) into Excel. Enter the status for each task (e.g. funded, prioritized, etc.) OnePager Express will color-code your tasks based on status after you import everyting from Excel.
3. Next, insert a "Backlog Category" column (Column E in this example) into the spreadsheet, as shown above. Specify the category for each item on your backlog in this column. OnePager Express will group and sort based on this column after you import your backlog.
4. If you only want to present a portion of your backlog, you can insert a column called "Task Board" (Column F) into the spreadsheet to filter your task board. Place a "Yes" next to each task you want to display.
5. Click the OnePager Express button, which appears on Excel's Add-Ins tab. If you haven't purchased OnePager Express yet, you can download a 15-day free trial.
6. OnePager Express will ask you to name your task board, which you should do in the Project View field shown below. Make sure the "Task Board" column is chosen as your Task Selection choice if you want to filter a subset of your backlog list. For Snapshot date, you can specify today's date to show that your task board is current as of today:
   
   
   
7. Click the Next button to tell OnePager Express which Excel columns you want to import for the task board:
   
   
   
8. For Task Name, select the "Task Name" column. For Color, choose the "Status" column. Finally, for Swimlane Titles, choose the "Backlog Category" column.
9. Click on Create new project view. OnePager Express will import your backlog from Excel and begin to create a product roadmap.
10. In OnePager Express, go to Project View->Properties of the Project View. On the main tab, find the Task/milestone text position section and set the value to Center as shown below:
    
    
    
11. Before exiting this menu, navigate to the Swimlanes and Colors tab and change the third option in the Number of swimlanes to the number of sprints you want to show. In this example, we have three sprints, so we will enter "3":
    
    
    
12. Press OK. Your task board should now look like this:
    
    
    
13. If you'd like to highlight each sprint, go to Insert->Curtain... for each sprint. Give each sprint a name, specify its start and finish dates, and give it a different color if you like. After doing this, your task board will look like this:
    
    
    
14. That's it! You've now used OnePager Express to create a task board or agile product roadmap using the backlog list you have in Microsoft Project.

If you'd like to customize your OnePager Express product roadmap before sharing it in a daily standup, it's very easy to do:

• Change colors, symbols, fonts and layouts
• Show original sprint dates or percent complete
• Add comment boxes, text boxes, or images to your task board

Best of all, OnePager will save you hours of time and frustration every week, and saves you the hassle of updating your roadmap presentation each time your backlog changes. Get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.