A common way to get a visual overview of the status of a project (or parts of it) is to use a task board. A task board is often described as a very simple kanban or scrum board consisting of status columns with tasks. This is traditionally often made up by columns physically on a wall with post-it notes, and an electronic counterpart is implemented in ftrack.

Task boards can be fully customized to suit your studio better. It is possible to change the number of columns, their names and what task statuses a column represent.

There are currently two different task boards in ftrack. One in My Tasks and one in Projects as a separate dashboard.

The board is a widget and part of the My Tasks dashboard meaning that all tasks except those in the Available tasks column are assigned to that specific user. The first column (Available tasks) is, however, not a status column in that sense. All tasks in that column are in the Not started status and not assigned to anyone until you drag and drop them to one of the other columns. For the tasks to be visible in the column Available tasks, they also need to have an associated calendar event. This is done on the Overview tab. Click Users, add an event where you set a name and choose a project. Add the task type and the users that should see the available tasks.

Each task board column can be sorted by common attributes independently, and all tasks in the columns can also be shown in a spreadsheet layout via the layout buttons to the right in the bottom toolbar.

The task board under Projects is a separate dashboard and can be found under the dashboards menu. This task board can be used to get a visual overview of any part of your project including a list, the whole project or a single shot.

In addition to changing a task’s status traditionally in a spreadsheet, you can also change a status by dragging the task from a column to another in the task board. If a column is represented by more than one status, the user is prompted to select a status.

The cards in the task boards can be displayed in large or small sizes. To change which mode is used, click the icon in the upper left of the task board.

When using the small task card layout, some of the information is initially hidden. That information can be shown by moving the mouse cursor over the task card. The task card can be double clicked to bring in the sidebar for the task.