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Put a board summary on a dashboard

The steering meeting looks at a dashboard, not at a board. A tile that shows how many change requests sit in each column, and opens the board itself in one click when someone asks why In Progress is over its limit, puts the board where the conversation already happens.

Before you start

A named board in your list, and permission to edit the dashboard. The widget is a team dashboard widget: it lives on a project or team dashboard, and it reads boards of the project that dashboard belongs to.

Steps

  1. Open the dashboard, select Edit, then Add widget.
  2. Find AnyKanban board in the widget catalog and add it.
  3. In the configuration pane, open the Board dropdown. It reads Loading… until your boards arrive, then Select a board. It offers the boards in your list, the same ones the board list in the hub shows you, and keeps offering the board the widget already shows.
  4. Pick your board. The tile preview updates immediately.
  5. Save the configuration and leave edit mode.

What you should see

The tile shows the board name as a link, the total item count as Items: {n}, and one row per column: a state-colored dot, the column name and the count. A column with a WIP limit shows count/limit and turns red once the count is above it, as with the change-request board's In Progress limit of 4. Selecting the board name opens that board for everyone it is listed for. Two tile sizes are offered, one row by two columns and two by two.

Notes

Rows exist only for the board's own columns, meaning the type's states or the list the board defines over them, so items in a removed state (Rejected, on the request boards) and items of a foreign type are counted in the total but have no row of their own, and a board with no work item type configured shows no rows at all. Before a board is chosen the tile reads Configure this widget to pick an AnyKanban board., and so does a tile whose board has since been deleted, because there is again nothing to show.

If Azure DevOps does not answer while the tile reads the board, its query, its work items or its states, the tile keeps showing Loading… and tries again on its own, a few seconds apart at first and then every 30 seconds. Only after four failed attempts in a row does it show The board could not be loaded. It keeps trying after that, and shows the board again as soon as a read succeeds.

Everyone who can see the dashboard sees the tile, and its counts include only the work items each of them may read. Someone the board is not listed for, a contractor who may read only another team's area path for example, who selects the name gets This board does not exist, or you don't have permission to read the work it shows. in place of the board (see who sees which boards). Put a board on a dashboard whose audience the board is listed for.