How DevStride manages the When: Cadences, Statuses, and Boards

Perpetual boards are great for managing lists of to do's and backlogs of items. Due dates can be applied to these items. They just aren't managed to a particular cycle of time (sprints, monthly assiged work, etc.) for the team.

Time Cycle Boards, on the other hand, can be used when a team wants to manage their work in specific time-boxed periods. You can use any time-box series you wish — 2-week sprints, monthly, quarterly, annual planning, etc.

From perpetual to time-boxed: Many organizations choose to start by managing objectives and work items as a perpetual list. Then they move items they wish to commit to a particular cycle from the perpetual board to a particular cycle board.

There is an easy way to determine which type of board to use.

Ask this question:

Does your working group manage a set of ongoing work items (not date-based)?
If so, use perpetual boards.

If your working group uses cadences, such as sprints or monthly/quarterly planning, use cycle-based boards.

If you have teams that use both approaches, take advantage of both types of boards.

The main takeaway is this: It's important to understand how to set up cadences (time-periods), as this set up has downstream effects for other features of DevStride as work gets committed to cycles based on how you set them up.

Whatever way you choose to use boards, DevStride provides unmatched flexibility when it comes to your approach to managing committed work.