Displaying a Dashboard as a Wallboard
A Wallboard is a type of information radiator that displays vital data about the progress of the development team. Similar to a scoreboard at a sporting event, Wallboards are large, highly visible and easy to understand for anyone walking by.
Traditional Wallboards are made of paper or use sticky notes on a wall. Electronic Wallboards are very effective since they update automatically with real-time data ensuring that people check back regularly.
Screenshot: Example Wallboard
What is an information radiator?
An information radiator is a large, highly visible display used by software development teams to show anyone walking by what's going on. The term was first coined by Alistair Cockburn. In his book, Alistair describes information radiators as follows: An Information radiator is a display posted in a place where people can see it as they work or walk by. It shows readers information they care about without having to ask anyone a question. This means more communication with fewer interruptions. A good information radiator
- Is large and easily visible to the casual, interested observer
- Is understood at a glance
- Changes periodically, so that it is worth visiting
- Is easily kept up to date
Setting up a Wallboard
Explore different layouts for your Wallboard to see which suits your needs best.
- Create a dashboard, as described in Customizing the Dashboard.
- Navigate to your new dashboard and click Add Gadget. The Gadget Directory will display in a dialog.
- Click the Wallboard tab on the left-hand side to show only Wallboard-capable gadgets in the list. You can use gadgets that are not listed under the 'Wallboard' tab, however, JIRA will style these gadgets in a 'best efforts' manner (fonts and colour schemes may not match) and some features will be unavailable.
- Add the desired gadgets to your dashboard and configure them.
- (optional) Make the color of the individual gadgets in one column the same. This enables cycling of gadgets within Wallboards for some cool effects.
- Click Tools > View as Wallboard.
Tip: Want to get a JIRA Agile Wallboard set up quickly? Create a new dashboard and add the Agile Wallboard Gadget. This gadget displays a board as a Wallboard.
Configuring multiple dashboards as a Wallboard slideshow
- Create/configure your dashboards to display as Wallboards, as described in the 'Setting up a Wallboard' section above.
- Navigate to one of the dashboards and click Tools > Set Up Wallboard Slideshow.
- Select the dashboards you wish to include as well as any display options, then click Done.
Click Tools > View Wallboard Slideshow to view your new Wallboard Slideshow.
Note: If you have too many items in a column on a wallboard, the items in the column will cycle as well, this is not configurable and not related to the Cycle Period.