How to monitor the cards status in FlowFast
How can you improve your board so that it's clear at a glance where the work is moving and where there are potential problems?
FlowFast has three visual tools (signals) for this purpose:
The amount of time the card is not moving
Blocking
The progress of the plan implementation
The time the card is not moving (1)
For each stage (column on your board) you can define a reasonable amount of time for the card to go through that stage.
Let's say if we're talking about the sales process, one of the stages might be called "Prepare offer", and you know that on average it takes no more than 2 days for the task to move to the next stage.
In the "Prepare offer" column settings, you set the "Enable warning of stale cards" setting to 2 days. Each card that will be stale for more than 2 days at a given stage will receive a visual red override signal on the front of the card in the lower right corner.
Having this setting in all columns will allow you to quickly run your eyes around the board and find "anomalies".
Some tasks do drag on and have a reason to be seen, we recommend using blocking.
Blocking (2)
Agree with your colleagues that if no action is expected on a task due to a problem or external dependency, then this status will be recorded by text blocking.
For example:
"Client on vacation, asked to call back in 2 weeks"
"Can't proceed without information Y from department Z"
The blocking goes on the front of the card at the very top and clearly distinguishes the card from the rest. A manager will only need to glance at the board to see the problematic tasks and take some action, or to advise the performer on how the problem can be solved.
If you want to start analyzing the quality parameters of your workflow, we recommend that you do not hesitate to use the blocking function. All blockages are recorded and you will then be able to:
see what are the main reasons for "freezing" the cards in your workflow;
group these reasons;
try to prevent blockages in the future.
There are situations when a task turns out to be too complicated or long, so there may not be a blockage, but the time in the column is well outside the limits you have set for the column.
In this case, progress information, which can be recorded with checklists, can help you.
The progress of the plan implementation (3)
If a task is taking quite a long time and it's not blocked, does it mean it's being worked on? In this case, record the work plan with a checklist.
A checklist is a great practice for the doer himself/herself to describe the steps that in his/her view need to be followed in order to complete a step of the task or the task as a whole. Until we have written out a plan for the task, it often seems to us that the work will take a lot less time.
In Flowfast, when a user marks a checklist item, the time of that action is signed next to it. So by examining the checklist inside the card, you will be able to see how long it has been since you have made progress on it.
And on the front, you'll see quantitative information about the amount of the plan completed.
👉 By the way, if the checklists are always the same for your columns, you can use the "template checklists" feature, and set up your boards so that the checklists are create themselves. You can read more about template checklists here.
To summarise
In order a board gives you the right information on tasks, you need to use all the three features described.
You may find the articles in which we explain them in more detail useful: