Portfolio Kanban View in Rooms 2

The Portfolio Kanban view displays portfolio items as cards organized in status columns. Move items across columns to track workflow progress, identify bottlenecks, and manage strategic initiatives visually. The view respects your Planning Room configuration and shows the item count in the header (e.g., "Portfolio Kanban (71)").

Portfolio Kanban Capabilities

• Planning Room context: Filters to show only portfolio items matching your room's planning level, schedule, program, and strategic theme
• Workflow visualization: View portfolio items organized by status columns representing workflow stages
• Visual management: Cards display title, ID, tags, icons, owner avatars, and colored borders based on rollup category
• Progress tracking: Move items across columns to update status and track strategic progress
• Bottleneck identification: Quickly spot columns with high work-in-progress counts

Filter Portfolio Items

Use the filter panel to focus on specific portfolio items and reduce visual clutter on the Portfolio Kanban board. The filter panel provides access to many portfolio item attributes, allowing you to create targeted views based on your needs. Click the filter icon to open the panel on the right side of the view.

Apply Filters

1. Click the filter icon in the top right corner of the Portfolio Kanban view.
2. In the Filters panel, use the Filter by... dropdown to access available filter attributes. Common filter options include:
   • Priority: Filter by Low, Medium, or High priority
   • Status: Filter by workflow status values
   • Owner: Filter by assigned owners
   • Create Date, Change Date, Closed Date: Filter by specific dates
   • Business Value, Cost Of Delay, Code Complexity Rank: Filter by numeric values
   • Many additional portfolio item attributes are available in the dropdown
3. Toggle Include closed items to include or exclude closed portfolio items.
4. Select your criteria and click Apply to update the board with filtered results.

The Applied Filters section displays active filter criteria with a count (e.g., "Applied Filters (1)").

Clear Filters

• Click Clear All to remove all applied filters and return to the default view
• Click Remove next to individual filter criteria in the filter panel to remove that particular applied filter

Review Filter Use Cases

• Focus on high-priority items during planning sessions
• View only items assigned to specific owners for workload review
• Hide closed items to concentrate on active work
• Combine multiple filters to create targeted views

Portfolio Item Cards

Portfolio items display as cards showing title, ID, tags, icons, and owner avatars.

Owner avatars: When 3 or fewer owners are assigned to a portfolio item, all avatar icons display on the card. When more than 3 owners are assigned, the first 2-3 avatars display with a "+N" indicator showing the count of additional owners. Hover over any avatar to view owner details. Hover over the "+N" indicator to view a tooltip listing all additional owners.

Rollup category borders: Cards display colored borders based on their rollup category. Different categories use different border colors for quick visual identification of portfolio item types (e.g., Epics, Features) at a glance.

tip

Tags display with proper contrast for visibility in both light and dark themes.

Interact with Portfolio Item Cards

View and Edit Details

1. Click on any portfolio item card to open the asset detail drawer on the right side.
2. The drawer displays portfolio item information including Description, Status, Planning Level, Owners, and custom fields.
3. Edit fields directly in the drawer.
4. Navigate between portfolio items using drawer controls.
5. Resize the drawer: Drag the left edge of the drawer to make it larger or smaller based on your preference; the size preference persists in your browser for future sessions.

Manage Child Items

The Child Items panel allows you to add and view child portfolio items, Stories, Defects, and Tests associated with the portfolio item. Each child item type displays in a separate section with its own Add button and filter.

Add a Child Portfolio Item

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Child Items panel in the left sidebar.
3. Click Add in the Portfolio Items section header.
4. In the Portfolio Items dialog, enter the required information:
   • Scope: Select the project (required)
   • Name: Enter the portfolio item name (required)
   • Timebox: Select sprint or iteration (optional)
   • Team: Select team ownership (optional)
5. Click Save.

Result: The child portfolio item is created and appears in the Portfolio Items table with Name, Number, Owners, and Status columns.

Add a Story

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Child Items panel in the left sidebar.
3. Click Add in the Stories section header.
4. In the Stories dialog, enter the required information:
   • Scope: Select the project (required)
   • Name: Enter the story name (required)
   • Timebox: Select sprint or iteration (optional)
   • Team: Select team ownership (optional)
5. Click Save.

Result: The story is created and appears in the Stories table showing Name, Number, Owners, and Status. The section header displays the count (e.g., "Stories (2)").

Add a Defect

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Child Items panel in the left sidebar.
3. Click Add in the Defects section header.
4. In the Defects dialog, enter the required information:
   • Scope: Select the project (required)
   • Name: Enter the defect name (required)
   • Timebox: Select sprint or iteration (optional)
   • Team: Select team ownership (optional)
5. Click Save.

Result: The defect is created and appears in the Defects table with Name, Number, Owners, and Status columns.

Add a Test

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Child Items panel in the left sidebar.
3. Click Add in the Tests section header.
4. In the Tests dialog, enter the required information:
   • Name: Enter the test name (required)
   • Description: Enter test description with formatting options
   • Status: Select test status (optional)
   • Owner(s): Search and select test owners (optional)
   • To Do: Enter effort estimate (optional)
   • Detail Estimate: Enter detailed estimate (optional)
   • Type: Select test type (optional)
   • Reference: Enter reference information (optional)
5. Click Save.

Result: The test is created and appears in the Tests table.

View Child Items

Each child item type displays in a table with the following features:

• Columns: Name, Number, Owners, Status
• Clickable links: Click the Name or Number of any child item to open it directly in the asset detail drawer
• Pagination: "Rows per page" control and page navigation at the bottom
• Item count: Section headers show the count of items (e.g., "Stories (2)")
• Filter: Use the filter icon next to each section header to filter child items
• Remove: Click Remove next to an item to disassociate it from the portfolio item

When you click a child item name or number, it opens in the asset detail drawer. Click the back arrow to return to the parent portfolio item.

tip

Use the Child Items panel to build complete work hierarchies by adding portfolio items, stories, defects, and tests directly from the parent item's detail drawer. This keeps you in context while decomposing strategic initiatives into deliverable work.

Manage Attachments

The Attachments panel allows you to upload and manage files attached to portfolio items.

Add an Attachment

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Attachments panel in the left sidebar.
3. Add a file using either method:
   • Drag and drop: Drag a file from your computer and drop it in the dashed area
   • File selection: Click the Select file(s) button and choose a file from your computer
4. The file uploads automatically.

Result: The attachment appears in the Attachments list below the upload area.

Attachment requirements:

• Maximum file size: 4MB per file
• Maximum files per upload: 1 file at a time
• Filter: Use the filter icon next to the Attachments header to filter attached files

note

You can upload multiple files by repeating the upload process, but each upload is limited to 1 file at a time with a 4MB maximum size.

note

Owner avatar images remain visible when you open the asset detail drawer, providing consistent visual context about portfolio item ownership.

Add and View Comments

The Comments panel provides a collaboration space for discussions about portfolio items.

Add a Comment

1. Open a portfolio item's asset detail drawer.
2. Click the Comments panel in the left sidebar.
3. Click in the Add a new comment text field.
4. Type your comment.
5. Use the Write and Preview tabs to toggle between editing and previewing your comment.
6. Click the send icon (arrow) to post the comment.

Result: Your comment appears in the comments list with your name, email, timestamp, and avatar.

Comment features:

• Timestamps: Each comment displays the posting time (e.g., "0 minutes ago - 16 Jan 2026, 17:20")
• User identification: Comments show the commenter's name, email address, and avatar
• Linked context: Portfolio item reference appears with each comment for context
• Reply: Click reply below any comment to respond to specific comments
• Write/Preview modes: Toggle between editing and previewing formatted comments

tip

Use the Comments panel to collaborate with team members on portfolio item planning, decisions, and clarifications. Comments remain associated with the portfolio item for full context and history.

Move Cards Between Status Columns

1. Click and hold on a portfolio item card.
2. Drag the card to a different status column.
3. Release to drop the card in the new column.

Result: The portfolio item's status updates to match the column, and the card moves visually to the new location.

Column Header Metrics

The Portfolio Kanban view allows you to display up to three different metrics in column headers:

• Item Count: The number of portfolio items in each column
• SWAG Estimate: High-level rough estimates for strategic planning (displayed on the left side of the column header)
• Estimate: Detailed estimates for portfolio items (displayed on the left side if shown alone, or on the right side if shown with SWAG)

You can enable or disable these metrics based on your planning needs. When multiple metrics are enabled, they display side-by-side in the column header to provide visibility into your portfolio item distribution and sizing.

Add Portfolio Items

Create new portfolio items directly from the Portfolio Kanban view:

1. Click the Add Portfolio Item button in a status column footer.
2. In the Add Portfolio Item dialog, enter the required information:
   • Title: Name of the portfolio item (required)
   • Scope: Project where the portfolio item will exist (required)
   • Timebox: Sprint or iteration assignment (if applicable)
   • Team: Team ownership (if applicable)
3. Click Save.

Result: The new portfolio item appears as a card in the selected status column on the kanban board.

Group Portfolio Items by Release

When the Portfolio Kanban board is grouped by Release, the view organizes epics into groups based on each epic's Planned Release attribute. Epics that have no Planned Release assigned appear under a group labeled Release: (None). Grouping by Release helps you track portfolio work against release commitments.

You set this grouping on the Portfolio Kanban board using the Customize option in Agility Core. For the steps, see Work with Portfolio Kanban Board.

Related Topics

Planning Room Capabilities in Rooms 2

Portfolio Tree View in Rooms 2

Getting Started with Sage

Portfolio Planning

Portfolio Tracking

Using Rooms 2