Project board colors

Project list colors

We have been working on Breeze all the summer and here's a list of some of the bigger improvements.

Subscribe to task list

As you know you can subscribe yourself and other users to tasks to get email notifications only about the tasks that you are interested in. This is a good way to focus on certain tasks and minimize email notifications. Here's the guide for subscribing to tasks https://www.breeze.pm/blog/189-subscribe-users-to-tasks.

Now you can also subscribe to task lists. That way you don't have to subscribe to individual tasks and you are always notified when new tasks are added to the list. You can find the option under the task list settings.

You can subscribe yourself and other users on the project.

Sort task list by due date

We also added a new sorting option to task lists in projects. It allows you to sort all the tasks in one task list by due date. The oldest are sorted to the top and tasks without due date are to the bottom. The sorting works by actually reordering the tasks in the list. Please keep that in mind when sorting because there isn't an option to revert after sorting by due date.

You can find the sorting link under the task list settings.

Tags are not case sensitive

We made small but a very important change in the tags that will increase the usability. The tags are now case insensitive. This means that you can still create tags with uppercase and lower case letters but they are not considered when searching or creating new tags. Example, MyTag and mytag are the same and the system will allow only one of those.

You can manage all your tags from the tags management page https://app.breeze.pm/tags, where you can also edit the tags to change the tag name case. This change will help you manage your tags better because now users can't accidentally create tags with the same name but different case.

Project groups on calendar page

Project groups are a good way to organize your projects and get a good overview of all your work. If you haven't used project groups before then here's a small guide how to get started https://www.breeze.pm/blog/123-a-better-way-to-organize-your-projects.

Project groups are now also visible on the calendar page. You can see them on the left side and have the option to minimize the groups. The settings are also carried over from the projects page - this means that if you have minimized a project group then it's already hidden on the calendar page.

Highlight tasks that are over estimate

Tasks that are over estimate are now visible on the project board. The estimate and tracked time are highlighted on every task card. This will help you better manage estimates and instantly see if tasks go over the budget.

Breeze mobile apps for iPhone and Android are also getting updated soon. We'll update you on this with a separate post in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to this blog, or follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/breezeteam to get the latest news.

We just released another update to the project analytics, now it's even more awesome. The analytics is now renamed to progress and has a lot more insights about your project progress.

The new progress charts are a good way to track and forecast projects. They let you visualize your effort and overall progress. You can quickly check the project status, see how much work has been done, whats in progress and how much needs to be still done. To make it possible we take a snapshot of all your projects every day and count the number of tasks in every list and the different statuses.

These charts are also often used in lean and agile project management to measure different kinds of progress and efficiency in projects and are known as cumulative flow diagrams.

You can find the link to the progress charts in every project board under the task quick input box.

You can check the progress by task status and task list. Progress by task status shows you the number of tasks with all the statuses over time.

Progress by task list shows you the number of tasks in each list over time.

How to use the charts?

The charts are very simple but can tell you a lot about your project progress. On the vertical axis you have a number of tasks and on the horizontal you have the timeline. The areas in the chart show you the cumulative task statuses or the number of tasks in a list over time. Cumulative means that the values are accumulated over time.

How should it look?

The chart should look smooth from left to right. The areas should stay more or less even over time. Bubbles or gaps in the areas are an indication of shortages or bottlenecks. Blocking tasks can create large backups in some parts of the project and starvation in others. Unchecked backlog of tasks can grow over time. These are the places look for ways improve your progress.

Task completion analytics

Task completion analytics is also available from here. You can instantly see tasks that are taking too long to complete. Move your mouse over the small dot in the graph and you'll see how long the task has stayed in each list.

Please check out our previous post on the task completion analytics feature and how to use the lead and cycle times.

You can subscribe to tasks and have an email sent to you every time something changes on a task. Now it's even better because you can subscribe other people to tasks. It's a handy way to keep everyone in the loop without having to get too many emails.

The subscribe link is still on the right side of the task action menu, but now it allows you to select multiple users:

Click on "Subscribe" and select the users you wish to add to the task. If you’re getting notifications for a task that you’re not interested in, you can unsubscribe from the task.

You can see a small eye icon on the tasks that you have subscribed to.

To quickly subscribe yourself to a task use the keyboard shortcut. Hover your mouse over the task and press the "s" key.

Another way to get users attention is to @mention them using their name. Here's a short guide how to use it https://www.breeze.pm/blog/51-get-your-team-members-attention-by-mentioning-them

We have been busy updating Breeze and here are some of the updates that you might have missed.

Set due dates for projects

In Breeze, you can set start dates and due dates to tasks. Now you can also set due dates for projects - it's a good way to keep track of your project completion. You can set the dates from the project settings:

Once the dates are set then they are visible in the calendar and the iCal calendar feeds. You also have the option to hide task and project dates in the calendar. That way you can choose to focus only on the individual tasks or get an overview by only viewing the projects.

Setting and tracking due dates is an important part of managing projects. It helps you meet your deadlines and schedule new projects.

Get everybody's attention by mentioning all users

A good way to get someone's attention is to mention them in a comment or task. Use the @ symbol followed by their name (no spaces). Breeze will suggest names to choose from:

Sometimes you may need to get the attention of everybody in the project. Now it's possible without typing everyone's name - just type @all and everybody gets notified.

All the users in the projects will be notified by email and they'll also see the message in the notification bar at the top.

Multiple accounts

We made a small change the way you work with multiple accounts in Breeze. Now you can clearly separate each team or account and have different roles in different teams.

When a person from another team invites you to one of their projects then you’ll get an invite as usual. You'll have separate entities with the same login in different teams. This makes it clear and safe to work with multiple teams. You'll log in as usual and have the option to switch to another team. That way you don’t have to have multiple accounts to work with multiple teams.

You can quickly switch between different teams from the main menu. Click on your name in the top right corner and you'll see a list of teams:

This change affects only new users. If you would like to switch over then please get in touch.

Invoice based billing

Another feature we like to introduce is invoice based billing for annual subscription. This allows you to pay for Breeze using an invoice. You can choose to pay via wire transfer or even by cheque. This makes it easier to handle the payment in larger organizations.

Please contact us at support@breeze.pm with your company details and the subscription plan details. We'll get back to you and work out the technicalities.

We are happy to announce another integration to the growing list. Breeze now integrates with Zendesk Support - a beautifully simple system for tracking, prioritizing, and solving customer support tickets

Now it's easier to share tasks between Breeze and Zendesk. Once the Breeze App is enabled through the Zendesk App Marketplace, simply open a ticket and the Breeze widget will appear to the right. From there, you can add the ticket to an existing task, or create a new one. You can choose the project, list and the task where the ticket will be added. All the information is right there, available for you support people.

How to install?

Installation of the Breeze App is simple. Go to the Zendesk Apps Marketplace under the Admin panel in Zendesk. Find the Breeze App and click the Install button.

Once you’ve installed the App, navigate to a ticket, click Apps on the top-right, and you should see the Breeze App. If you are not logged in to the Breeze web app, you are asked to log in.

Zendesk agents must be logged in to Breeze with their own accounts to use the App.

Here's the direct link to the Breeze App in the Zendesk App Marketplace https://www.zendesk.com/apps/breeze/

Tags are a good way to give additional context, categorize or group your tasks. We made them even better by adding the option to assign a color to tags. You can use the colors to make tags and tasks more visually distinct.

You can set color after you have added the tag to a task. Click on the tag and you'll see a small popover.

The tag delete action is also a little bit changed. Now you have to click on the small "x" at the end of the tag to delete it.

Another place to manage the tag colors is from the global tag management page.

Tags are very versatile and can make your workflow more flexible. The primary use case is that it makes easier to find tasks. You tag a task and it's very easy to find it later.

You can also use the tags to extend the task statuses. It's a way to make custom statuses and with colors, they'll stand out even more.

Tags can be used to substitute task lists. Instead of creating a list for every small stage, you can assign a tag to it that denotes the meaning.

Now you can share your work, progress, roadmaps and ideas with public projects. This lets you easily gather feedback from clients and from anybody who's interested in the progress of your projects.

Public projects are a great place to engage with your community, share your product’s development, get feedback from users and keep everybody up to date on releases or any issues.

You'll find a new option under the project settings that lets you set a project to public or private. By default, all projects are private and are visible only to your team and the people you have invited to it.

When you set your project to public then it is visible to anyone with the URL, but it's still secure because the URL contains a random and cryptographically secure token.

There are a couple of permissions you can set on the public project. You can hide and show time tracking and task estimates. Let public users add comments to tasks.

You can share your projects as a board and as a list. We use the layout that you have set at the moment when you make the project public.

Public project board view.

Public project list view.

Another great thing about this new feature is that anyone can join the discussion, just like the public tasks feature. They don't need an account in Breeze. Just enter your email address and we'll send them a unique link that they can use to add comments to the project.

You can mention users in comments, just like in private projects, and the public users will receive email notifications. To generate a new secure URL for the public project make the project private and then public again.

Using Breeze public projects means that you don't have to spend half your time in two different systems, one for staff and one for the public. You can update one and everyone can see it.

That's the gist of public projects. Please let us know what you think. If you decide to use public projects and would like to share them then please tweet us at @BreezeTeam.

We start off the new year with two new features - Google single sign on and task copy options.

Google single sign on

You can now sign up and sign in to Breeze using your Google account. Just head hover to the login page and click the link to authenticate with Google.

You can also log in with Google if you have already signed up using your email and password. For this to work you have to have the same email address in Breeze.

The Google single sign on options makes it easier to sign in to Breeze. You don't have to remember another password and worry about the security.

If you ever wish to switch back to password authentication then head over to the password reset page and fill in your email address. We'll send you a secure link where you can set a new password.

Task copy options

We made a small update to the project and task templates. Now you can choose what to copy from the templates. It makes your life easier by not having to delete old data from tasks when you copy them. By default we still copy everything, but you have the options to selected only certain task attributes.

This new feature is also available when you copy swimlanes.

Every project has some repeating tasks that you need to regularly do or maintain. It can be a hassle to remember and manually create them every time. To help you with that, we are happy to announce recurring tasks feature. No more tedious task duplication, let Breeze create them for you.

You can find the recurring settings in the task side menu.

There are so many ways automating task creation can free up your time. Set reminders about reports, end of month accounting, marketing campaigns, schedule meetings, weekly Scrum sprint tasks and more. You can set to create new copies of tasks daily, weekly or monthly.

One good way to use this feature is to create a new list for recurring tasks and then hide the list from project board to keep it from taking extra space. That way you can keep an eye on the recurring tasks.

The recurring task will copy everything from the original task except comments and time entries. The recurring settings are removed when you delete, move or copy the task to another board. Archived tasks will keep the recurring settings. This is a handy way to automatically create tasks and keep the project board clean.

We are happy to announce more updates to our mobile apps. Now you can create new projects and todo list directly in the mobile apps.

Create new projects

One of the most requested features for the mobile app was the ability to add new projects. Now you can do it. Open the projects tab and tap on the "+" button on the top right corner.

The new project window lets you name the project, invite users and assign it to a workspace.

This means that you can now also edit existing projects. Update the name, invite and remove people, and assign projects to workspaces. To delete or archive a project, just swipe left and tap on "Archive" or "Delete" option.

Create new todo lists

We also added the option to create new todo list. Previously you could only create todos under existing todo list.

To add a new todo list, open the task and tap on the "Todos" menu and the on the "+" button on the top right corner.

To delete todos or todo list just swipe left and tap on the "Delete" action.

Here's another list of small updates that we added over the past weeks.

Hide task lists on project board

You can now hide task lists on project boards. This is useful when you have big boards with many lists. After hiding the list it will be collapsed and you can see the list name vertically between the other lists. You can find the hide option under the task list settings.

Add users to all projects

Another new feature is a user permission that lets you add a user to all new projects. Sometimes you might need to add a certain user to all projects - accountants, admins etc. By default we add the account owner to all projects, this hasn't changed with the new permission. You can find the new permission on the team management page.

Project name in calendars

We also added an option to show project names in calendars.

We update our mobile apps and added a new tasks page to them.

This is the same view that you can see on the web app. Now it's also available on your mobile device. You can quickly see what tasks are assigned to you and what needs to be done. It's a good way to track your progress when you are on the go.

You can sort the tasks by due date and project. We use all the same filtering options as on the web app. This means that if you are filtering by project, lists, tags or status then they are automatically used on the mobile app also.

By default, we show tasks and todos that are assigned to you, but you can also filter by other users. You can find the filtering option under the top dots menu.

You can find the updated apps from Apple app store and Google Play. We have a lot of updates planned for the mobile apps. Stay tuned!

Here's a list of small updates, that you might have missed, we added over the past weeks.

Tag management

We added a place where you can manage all your tags. You can find it by clicking on your name and choosing the option "Add & manage tags". The link is only visible to admin users. The tag management page lists all the tags in the projects you have access to. You can also add new tags and manage existing ones from here.

You can still manage tags the old way also. All tags are also created when you first use them and deleted when they are not associated with any task.

Task filters

The tasks page filtering got a small overhaul and we added two new filtering options. You can now filter by project and task list.

Time tracking drill down

Another small update we added is the possibility to see not billable time in tasks and reports. Move your mouse over the time pill in the task windows and you'll see a breakdown of tracked billable and not billable time.

The same is also now visible on the reports chart. Move your mouse over the column and you'll see the drill down.