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Boards

Boards and milestones

In HacknPlan, a board is a scoped set of work items intended for a defined period. Boards reduce complexity, create short-term goals, and provide measurable execution windows.

Boards can be date-based or date-free, but short timeboxed boards are strongly recommended to improve predictability and inspection cadence.

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Creating a board

Create a board from:

  • New in the left menu
  • keyboard shortcut B
  • Administration -> Boards & milestones

Main fields:

  • Name: board identifier (for example, Sprint 5 or v0.9.0).
  • Description: short summary shown in lists.
  • Milestone: optional roadmap grouping.
  • Start date: baseline date used for historical metrics.
  • Due date: target completion date (informational).
  • General info: extended Markdown notes.

Working with boards

During execution, teams typically use:

  • the kanban board for day-to-day flow
  • reports and dashboards for progress tracking

When the cycle ends, admins can close the board from:

  • Administration -> Boards & milestones
  • board actions menu on the kanban header
  • board list quick actions

If open work remains, you can keep it, move it to another board, or send it to backlog.

Deleting a board can also delete its items, or move them to backlog if deletion is not selected.

Understanding board metrics

Board metrics compare planned scope and actual execution.

Work items

  • Estimated (at start date): frozen baseline at board start if a start date exists.
  • Estimated (current): current item count on board.
  • Open: items not closed.
  • Closed: items in a closed-status stage.
  • Progress: closed ratio against pending/removed scope.

Cost

  • Estimated (at start date): frozen effort baseline (time or points).
  • Estimated (current): current effort scope.
  • Logged: reported effort.
  • Open: remaining estimated effort on open items.
  • Closed: estimated effort already closed.
  • Progress: completion based on baseline versus closed/removed effort.

Freezing start-date metrics protects historical reliability even if scope changes later.