1. Introduction to Business Rules
The Business rules in Kanbanize trigger actions (create a card, move a card, update a card, send a notification, call web service, block a parent card, etc) when certain events occur or certain predefines criteria have been fulfilled.
Business Rules are working on the principle: If "X" and "Y" conditions are met then do "Z".
Using Business rules is an easy way to automate your processеs. You can synchronize data on different Boards and facilitate your everyday work with the system.
2. Business rules navigation
You have to be an Account Owner or user granted with the "Manage Business Rules" privilege to be able to work with the Business rules automation engine.
Notes:
- Account Owners can manage business rules across the entire account.
- Users with the "Manage Business Rules" privilege are allowed to create, modify and delete Business rules on all boards where the user is an assignee.
Moreover, when creating or editing a business rule, the system allows you to share the business rules (grand access) with other users (e.g Workspace Managers) that could modify/enable/disable them.
To access the business rules, go to the Administration menu and select "Business Rules".
3. Type of Business Rules
The dedicated panel provides access to all Business rules in Kanbanize.
* Open the image in a new tab to get a closer view.
This is the list of business rules that you can apply to your account.
- Card is created - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever a card is created. A typical example would be to update the card tags if it is created in a predefined set of columns/swimlanes.
- Recurring create cards - With this rule, you can set up a schedule and create new cards automatically. For example, you can configure the system to create new cards every day at 5 pm.
- Card is updated - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever a card is updated. A typical example would be to move a card to a particular swimlane if its color is changed to red.
- Recurring update cards - With this rule, you can set up a schedule and update the details of specified cards automatically. For example, you can configure the system to scan your cards every day and change the color to red for those cards which are assigned to a concrete person. These rules are executed once per hour.
- Card updated by email - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever a comment is added via the email integration feature. For example, you can move a card to "Waiting on us" when a customer replies to one of your emails and the email is processed by the email integration.
- Child card is blocked - This rule will automatically block a parent card when ANY of its children cards is blocked.
- All children are unblocked - This rule will automatically unblock a parent card, when ALL of its children cards are unblocked.
- Card is moved - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever a card is moved to a predefined set of columns/swimlanes. A typical example would be to change the assignee when a card is moved to the For Review column.
- Child card is moved - This rule will automatically move a parent card to a specified position when ANY of its children cards is moved to a predefined set of columns/swimlanes. A typical example would be to move a parent card to In Progress when any of its children is moved to In Progress.
- All children are moved - This rule will automatically move a parent card to a specified position when ALL of its children cards are moved to a predefined set of columns/swimlanes. A typical example would be to move a parent card to Done when all of its children are moved to Done.
- Relative card is moved - This rule will automatically move a card to a specified position, when its relative is moved to a predefined position. A typical example would be to have two relative cards in different boards, so when the card on board A is moved its relative in board B will be moved too.
- Time-based rule - This rule will automatically update, move or send notifications when a time-related rule is evaluated as TRUE. A typical example would be to send a notification email one day before a deadline or to move a card to a specific column when its start date is approaching.
- Card revisions - The card revisions rule will save a new card revision every time a card property is changed (the properties are configurable). The most popular scenario would be the creation of a new revision when the card's description is changed.
- WIP limit is reached - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever the WIP limit in a predefined set of columns/cells is reached. Selecting a lane adds all the cells in that lane to the set.
- WIP limit is exceeded - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever the WIP limit in a predefined set of columns/cells is exceeded. Selecting a lane adds all the cells in that lane to the set.
- Card count - This rule will trigger a predefined action (create, move, update, send a notification, call web service) whenever the number of cards in a predefined set of columns/lanes/cells satisfies a limiting condition.
4. How to configure a Business Rule?
Select the rule that you want to apply to your account. For example - "Card is Created" rule.
The configuration panel of every rule has three main control settings: When (1) And (2) Then (3).
When
This is the event that will trigger an action when the conditions set in the filter are executed/fulfilled.
And
Here you define the filters which specify the conditions under which the actions should be triggered. Depending on the rule type, you will be able to specify multiple or no filters.
Then
Here you select which actions will be triggered if the rule is successfully evaluated for execution.
When the configuration process is completed, we recommend users to custom the rule name and provide a description (optional). Rules can be shared with other registered Kanbanize users (e.g Workspace Managers) that could modify/enable/disable them further (optional).
Important: Don't forget to click the green checkmark in order to enable the rule and save it in the system.
All business rules, which are enabled for your account become available in the Business rule panel (img.1).
(1) You can use the filter to run a quick search for the rule you are searching for.
(2) To edit or delete a rule, hover over it to see the respective icons.
(3) To create a new rule, use the Add New Rule link at the top of the panel.
To disable a rule, clear the "Enabled" checkbox.
Img.1
Note: At the bottom of the existing business rule panel, you can see the number of Total Business Rules vs the number of Active business rules.