Hoylu April '22 Release Details

The latest release includes:

• New Agile Planning Module
• Weekly Work Plan Reports for Pull Planning
• Agility Integration Enhancements
• Launch of In-App Hoylu Resource Center
• Launch of In-App Training Guides
• Multiple Miscellaneous Improvements & Bug Fixes

New Agile Planning Module

Collaborative agile planning tools help organizations get things done more effectively, release more features in less time, and stay on budget. Hoylu takes it a step further by combining Agile offerings with whiteboarding.

We’re excited to announce enhancements to our Agile offerings, with the release of a new Agile Planning Module.

The Agile Planning Module is available to all users currently – so you have immediate access to use this new module via your Hoylu Dashboard.

As of right now, we’ll continue to keep our PI Planning and Kanban Modules, but this new Agile Planning Module allows you to select a preset – whether PI Planning or Kanban.

To start using this new module:

1. Log into your Hoylu Dashboard.

2. Select the Agile Planning workspace found under “Create Workspace.”

3. Name your Workspace and select your preset (Kanban or PI Planning). Indicate if you want this workspace to be private. Then select “Continue”

4. If selecting your preset as Kanban (similar settings will appear for PI Planning):

a. By default, your Kanban board will have three sections, “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done.”

b. To add additional sections, you can select the + button on the top right of your current board. By default, the new sections will keep to your previous board settings. However, you can customize each board with their own unique settings.

c. You can expand and collapse the boards by clicking on the board icon. When collapsing the boards, all the notes will be set in a row, but the associated labels (To Do, Doing, Done) will remain.

d. Using the Sticky Notes, you can easily add notes to the selected sections by dragging and dropping the Sticky Note to the section, or by double-clicking into the section once the Sticky Note icon is selected in the Hoylu Toolbox. The color of the notes will align to the color associated with the section. You can also drag notes from one section to another, and the Sticky Note will automatically adjust colors as associated with the new section.

e. When creating a new ticket outside of a section, it will automatically default as a “To Do” task. You can change this setting, by clicking on the .

f. A Column Settings box will appear where you can change the order of the sections, delete the sections, or add a new section.

g. To change the default section, click on the pen icon on the section you’d like to be the new default section and activate the “Drop content into this section by default” icon.

h. When adding a new section, click “Add Section” and a new pop-up box will appear, where the “Color” will automatically select a color not already in use. Name the section and the section identifier (the label). You can select this as your default section, or just hit “Add Section.” Note: These can be unique for each Kanban board corrected in the Workspace.

i. To change each unique Kanban board, or to delete a board, click on the .

j. From here you’ll see the Column Settings box appear where you can make the necessary changes or delete the board.

k. There are some Global Settings that will impact the entire Module and are accessible only by Admins. As an Admin, select the “Board” icon and gears found on the upper left corner of your first board.

l. The Board Settings impact all Boards within the Workspace.

i. Only Admins can change Settings – Keeps non-Admin users from changing any Board settings, such as title, colors, or sections. If you disable this setting, the Global Board Settings will still not be accessible, but other non-Admin settings can be utilized by users.   

ii. Only Admins can expand/collapse columns – This setting will lock the expanding or collapsing of columns. Only Admins will be able to expand or collapse the columns.

iii.On new column creation – By default when creating a new Board, the settings from the previous Board will be utilized. You can also select:

1. User Picks Column Style – Here you can copy the previous one or use a preset (Kanban or a template you designed).

2. Copy Previous Column – This is the current default setting.

3. Kanban

4. Predesigned Template You Create

a. To create your own template, select the Kanban specific board settings icon then select the preset add icon.

b. From here you can add the current template to your list of preset templates.

iv. Show/Start End Date on Columns – This provides you the ability to show dates for each Kanban board. This will appear when the sections are collapsed.

v. Use compact tickets in collapsed view – This will limit the details associated with tickets. Expanding tickets in larger workspaces, while in collapsed view will provide all details associated with the ticket.

vi. Color Tickets based on Section Color – This feature allows you to turn off the automatic coloring of notes associated with a section. You can then manually color each note This is turned on by default, allowing the colors to align to the respective columns.

vii. Board Height – By default this is set to two (2) pages but can be adjusted up to ten (10) pages. The maximum board height is ten (10).

m. If your Board is integrated with Agility, you now can import upstream and downstream dependencies right from a current note.

i. Select the Agility note you would like to review.


ii. Click on the dependency indicator which will show you the upstream and downstream dependencies.


iii. Select the import icon next to the upstream or downstream dependency you would like to automatically import to the Workspace. Select “Import to Workspace.”

iv. All upstream dependencies will import to the left section of the current section.

v. All downstream dependencies will import to the right of the current section.

n. Deletion of Kanban Boards is now possible. Select the gear icon on the Board you’d like to delete. Select the trash can icon and a pop-up box will appear to confirm you’d like to delete the entire board. You can do the same with the deletion of sections.

Weekly Work Plan Reporting for Pull Planning Module

The Weekly Work Plan within our Pull Planning Module provides a different way of looking at data within the Insights Panel. You can still access the “Charts”, but now we’re offering “Weekly Work Plan” as a secondary option to analyze your data and determine if the right resources and personnel are being utilized. 

To access the Weekly Work Plan:

1. Open your Pull Planning Workspace.
   
   
2. Select the Week you’d like to review, which will open the Hoylu Insights Panel.
   
   
3. In the Insights Panel, using the dropdown box, select Weekly Work Plan.
   
   
4. By default, it will jump into the current week. If the current week is not part of the plan, it will select the first available week.
   
   
5. Once your Week is selected, all the tasks associated with that Week will appear in a formatted view, based on the number of weeks you select. You can select the week duration to go from a single week, all the way to twelve (12) weeks. This image shows a four (4) week overview.
   
   
6. Note that the 8 and 12 week durations will not display all of the criteria such as the number of people assigned to task, or the overall sum of people utilized for a swimlane.
   
   
7. To apply additional filters, similar to the Chart view, you can select the “Status” drop down and selected the appropriate filter.
   
   
8. You can also apply filters to Swimlane, Trade and Labels. Additionally, you can set your filters to “Show People” (default, but can be removed), or if you’d prefer, you can “Show Description” of the tasks.
   
   
9. Once filtered to your preferred view, you can export the Weekly Work Plan into a PDF format. Best practice is to create PDFs using the 2 or 4 week durations for easy reading of the summary.

Agility Integration Enhancements

Like current functionality with JIRA notes, you can now duplicate Agility notes and a duplication indicator will appear on the note.

1. Import your Agility notes following the import process.

2. Select the Agility note you’d like to duplicate.

3. Click on the Hoylu icon box.         

4. Then select the duplicate icon.                   

5. The note will duplicate, and a duplication indicator will appear on the lower right corner of the note.

Additional Agility note enhancements include the ability to import upstream and downstream dependencies right from a current note.

To access this feature:

1. Select the Agility note you would like to review.

2. Click on the dependency indicator which will show you the upstream and downstream dependencies.

3. Select the import icon next to the upstream or downstream dependency you would like to automatically import to the Workspace.

4. All upstream dependencies will import to the left of the current Agility note.

5. All downstream dependencies will import to the right of the current Agility note.

Launch of In-App Hoylu Resource Center

As part of our commitment to ensure client success, Hoylu has launched an in-app Resource Center – giving your teams access to important announcements, guides to utilize current and new features, easier access to provide product feedback or access our online Knowledgebase and open support cases. The Hoylu Resource Center will continue to be developed over the next few weeks. Upon initial log-in a pop-up guide will appear for all users announcing the release of the new Resource Center.

Launch of In-App Training Guides

As part of our new Hoylu Resource Center, we’re introducing new in-app training guides! These guides will help you onboard new team members and provide current employees with continued professional development on the use of Hoylu. Currently, we have in-app trainings guides built for:

• Hoylu’s Dashboard Guide – accessible when a user is on the Dashboard.
• Hoylu’s Basic Workspace Guide – accessible when in any workspace.

We’re going to continue pushing out new guides and trainings over the next several months. Upcoming training guides include:

• Pull Planning Module 101
• Agile Planning Module 101

Multiple Miscellaneous Improvements & Bug Fixes

Simpler Cursor Sharing

In hearing feedback from our clients, we’ve simplified the cursor sharing functionality in the Workspaces. In doing so, we removed the second checkbox, and a new pop-up box will appear. To do this:

1. Click on the Cursor Sharing icon on the lower right corner of your workspace.

2. A one-time pop-up box will appear confirming you’d like to share your cursor and be able to see other team members cursors if they have the setting activated.

3. Once you select “Ok” you will now be in cursor sharing mode. You can turn this off and on by selecting the Cursor Sharing icon on the lower right corner of your workspace.

Minimizing Insert Windows

When importing JIRA or Agility tickets, or any type of csv imports, currently, once inserting the tasks, the integration window closes. Moving forward you can now continue filtering the tasks or tickets in the import window, but when importing them, the window will no longer close. Instead, the window will minimize once the tasks/tickets are imported to the Workspace; ultimately, allowing you to go back to the integration window without losing your selected filters.

Additionally, when importing the tasks, you will no longer need to close the window to refresh imported tasks. Previously, you had to open and close the integration windows for the tickets/tasks to refresh.

Basic Label Search

In enhancing the search capabilities of labels, new functionality will allow you to label Sticky Notes and easily search for the labels within the Workspace.

1. Label your Sticky Notes according to your business needs.

2. To search for the label, you can launch the search box withing the Workspace:

a. On a PC select “CTRL” & “F”
b. On a Mac select “Command” & “F”

3. A Search Workspace box will appear on the upper right corner of your workspace. Within the search box, type the name of your label you’re searching.

4. The labels will be highlighted within the Workspace and can easily be navigated using the up and down arrows located next to the Search Workspace box.

GIF Support

You can now drag and drop GIFs right into your Workspace. You no longer need to change the GIF into a jpeg and then drag it into the Workspace. You can also easily resize the GIF making this a great feature to utilize in training your team members.

Navigate Workspaces by Dragging Elements to Edges

You can now drag elements around the Workspace by moving the item from one location to another. The Workspace will automatically navigate the direction you’re moving the element. This will also work for dependencies within our Pull Planning Module.

New Text and Sticky Note Interactions

Keeping our core functionality of dragging a Sticky Note from the Hoylu Toolbox, you can now also double-click in the Workspace to create a new note.

1. Using the Hoylu Toolbox, click on the Sticky Note icon and drag to your Workspace.

2. Double-Click anywhere in the Workspace to create a new Sticky Note. The same settings (colors, shape, etc.) you had with your last note, will now remain with the new Sticky Note.

3. Additionally, to make this new feature more visible, you can also click once, and an indicator box will appear. Click the indicator box again and the Sticky Note will appear.

We’ve also made enhancements with text interactions.

1. Select “ABC” on the Hoylu Toolbox to activate the text feature.

2. Double-Click anywhere in the Workspace and a text indicator box will appear.

3. You can now type your text and easily move the text box using the Text Tool.

4. . Additionally, if you’re using other features of the Hoylu Toolbox, such as the drawing tool, you can now just drag and drop a textbox by clicking on the “ABC” and dragging it into your Workspace. You no longer will need to navigate between toolbar features.