2.3.7. Visual Task Boards (VTBs)

💡 First Principle: Visualizing work items in an agile, drag-and-drop format enhances collaboration, improves task tracking, and provides a clear overview of progress, increasing team productivity and responsiveness.

Scenario: Your IT support team wants a more visual way to manage their incident queue, similar to a Kanban board, where they can easily see incidents by status and drag them between "New," "In Progress," and "Resolved" columns.

Visual Task Boards (VTBs) in ServiceNow provide a highly intuitive and collaborative way to manage and track tasks, often reflecting agile methodologies like Scrum or Kanban. The fundamental 'why' of VTBs is to transform static, list-based task views into dynamic, visual representations of work that facilitate team collaboration, simplify progress tracking, and enable quick re-prioritization. They make work status immediately apparent, reducing the need for constant status updates.

Key features and uses of Visual Task Boards:

• Visual Representation: Tasks are represented as "cards" that can be dragged and dropped between "lanes."
• Lanes: Cards are grouped into lanes based on a chosen field, most commonly State (e.g., "New," "In Progress," "Resolved," "Closed"), but can also be by Assigned To, Priority, or any other field.
• Card Customization: Each card displays key information from the task record (e.g., Short Description, Assigned To, Priority), which can be customized.
• Collaboration: Team members can interact directly on the VTB.
  • Comments: Add comments to cards.
  • Checklists: Create sub-tasks or checklists within a card.
  • Assign/Update: Update task fields (like Assigned To or State) by dragging cards or editing directly on the card.
• Types of VTBs:
  • Freeform: Personal scratchpad for any task.
  • Guided: Based on a specific table and filtered query, providing a structured way to manage a subset of tasks.
  • Flexible: A hybrid that allows adding any task to the board, irrespective of filters, offering more versatility.
• Integration with Records: Changes made on the VTB are immediately reflected on the underlying task record in ServiceNow, ensuring consistency of data.
• Filtering & Searching: VTBs support filtering and searching for specific tasks or users.

VTBs are particularly useful for:

• Daily Stand-ups: Teams can quickly review progress and identify blockers.
• Workload Management: Visually see who is assigned what and the overall task distribution.
• Prioritization: Easily reorder tasks within lanes or move them between lanes to adjust priority.
• Sprint Management: While not a full Scrum tool, they can support basic sprint planning and tracking.

As an administrator, you might configure default VTBs for specific groups or encourage their use to improve team efficiency and transparency. They bridge the gap between traditional list views and agile workflow methodologies, fostering better communication and faster work completion.

💡 Tip: For teams managing a high volume of similar tasks (e.g., a desktop support team), setting up a Guided VTB based on "State" can be incredibly effective for their daily work. Practice creating different types of VTBs in your PDI to understand their strengths.

⚠️ Common Pitfall: Using a Freeform VTB for structured team work. Freeform VTBs are personal scratchpads; Guided VTBs are designed for managing a specific set of records for a team.

Key Trade-Offs:

• Visual Simplicity vs. Data Detail: VTBs offer a simplified visual overview, which is great for quick understanding, but may require drilling into the record for full detail.

Reflection Question: How do Visual Task Boards enhance team collaboration and task management beyond what traditional lists and forms can provide?