How to create Agile task boards or roadmaps

If your team uses Agile or the Scrum method, you have to keep track of your backlog list. If you keep your backlog list in Microsoft Project, you may have difficulty separating it into different sprints and statuses.

Creating an Agile product roadmap, also known as a task board, is a good way to organize your product backlog list into sprints, and OnePager Pro can create these task boards for you, using the backlog you already have in Microsoft Project.

OnePager Pro is a Microsoft Project add-in, so you can launch it directly from Microsoft Project without having to export your data.

Here's how to build your Agile product roadmap:

1. Open your backlog list in Microsoft Project. In the example below, we have organized this list by sprint and then by backlog category:




2. Insert the Text 30 column into Microsoft Project and rename it "Status", as shown above. Enter the status of each item on your backlog (e.g. locked, funded, prioritized, etc.) into Microsoft Project. OnePager Pro will color-code based on this column after you import your backlog.
3. Insert the Text 29 column into Microsoft Project and rename it "Backlog Category". Categorize each backlog task as shown above. This category will be used to group your backlog into different categories after being imported into OnePager Pro.
4. If you only want to present a subset of your backlog, you can insert a flag column into Microsoft Project to filter your task board. In this case, we used Flag 20 and placed a "Yes" next to each task, but not next to any of the summary-level Microsoft Project items like the Sprint 1 summary task.
5. Click the OnePager Pro button, which appears on your Add-Ins tab in Microsoft Project 2010, and on your toolbar in Project 2003 or 2007. If you don't have OnePager Pro, you can download a 15-day free trial.
6. OnePager Pro will give you the opportunity to name your task board, which you can do in the Project View field shown below. Make sure the Flag 20 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 Create new project view button. OnePager Pro will import your backlog list from Microsoft Project and begin to create a task board.
8. After launching OnePager Pro, we'll want to group and color-code your backlog by the text fields you entered into Microsoft Project. To do this, go to Project View->Properties of the Project View and navigate to the Swimlanes & Colors tab:




9. Change the Swimlane Order/Titles option to "Text 29" to group and sort your backlog by the categories you gave it in Microsoft Project, as shown above.
10. Change the third option in the Number of swimlanes area to the total number of sprints you want to display (shown above), which are "3" in this example.
11. Change the Color assignment to "Text 30", as shown above, to color-code your backlog by the status you gave it in Microsoft Project.
12. Click on the Main tab and change the Task/Milestone text position value to Centered to center the task name over each bar on your task board, as shown below:
    
    
    
13. Click OK. Now, your task board should look like this:
    
    
    
14. 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:
    
    
    
15. That's it! You've now used OnePager Pro 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 Pro task board 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.