How to create a Kanban board using Microsoft Lists

A Kanban board is a tool created for agile project development that is now available at your fingertips in Microsoft Lists, providing you a better interface to manage work at personal or organizational level.

The new board view provides an interface to that allows you so visualize the various stages of any type of data stored in Microsoft Lists, while at the same time allows you to move them across stages by dragging and dropping items into different buckets.

Microsoft Lists Kanban board view

To create a board view you should:

  1. With the list open click in the view selector option
  2. From the menu click on Create new view
  3. Provie a name for view
  4. In the Show as selection, select Board
  5. In the Organize board by, choose the choice column that you would like to use to organize your board. Each option available in this column definition will be a bucket in your new board view
  6. Choose the visibility for the new view and click Create

Microsoft Lists Kanban board view

In the following animation you can see the board view in action with items being moved across buckets with the progress value being updated automatically.

Microsoft Lists Kanban board view

A bord view is available to any list where a choice column with a single selection is available, if your list does not fulfill this requirement, you will be able to create a new column to organize your items while creating the board view.

Once the board view gets created you are be able create new buckets, directly from the view interface as illustrated in the following image. This action will add a new option to the choice column you have selected or created for the board view.

Microsoft Lists Kanban board view

Let me know in the comment section what you think about this features and what are the scenarios you have for it.


15 Responses to “How to create a Kanban board using Microsoft Lists”

  1. SDF

    February 7, 2023

    Hi, when trying to get this up on my laptop, I don’t have the option listed in SHOW as section , select board – the only options are have are

    List
    Calendar
    Gallery

    Any ideas? please

    thank you

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      March 23, 2023

      What type of list are you using?
      I just tested several lists in my tenant both in Microsoft Lists and SharePoint and I can see the Board option.

      Reply
  2. Gustavo

    July 10, 2023

    Thank you for the article, is it possible to change the “Unassigned Title” name ?

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 9, 2024

      Hi Gustavo,

      Unfortunately it is not possible to change it.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  3. Jenny

    November 7, 2023

    I’ve created a Board View list to track my tasks. I’ve sorted them by the projects they belong to. However the “Edit View” settings in Board view are very limited, so I can’t see how to edit it so that “completed” tasks do not show. Do you know a way around this?

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 9, 2024

      Hi Jenny,

      If I understood you correctly, you need to modify the view through the settings to exclude the completed tasks.
      1 – Click in the gear icon and then select List Settings
      2 – Open the Board view
      3 – In the Filter section define the condition that will work for your own scenario.
      Microsoft Lists board view filter

      Hope this helps.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  4. mk

    November 30, 2023

    I’m trying to set up the Board View for sort of Kanban board in our team. However, I have the problem that changes I make to items in this view are not immediately visible to other team members. This actually makes the tool unusable for our team. Is it just me having this problem? Am I perhaps doing something wrong or is this a known limitation of the board view that I have just overlooked?

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      January 26, 2024

      Hi Mark,

      It is a limitation of the tool, it does not updates in real time.
      Hopefully this will be fixed with the new updates being released for Microsoft Lists where real time collaboration will be available.

      Have a nice day

      Reply
  5. Bryce

    February 2, 2024

    Did the board option get removed? I only see list, compact list, or gallery options.

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 2, 2024

      Hi Bryce,

      No, it was not removed. From your description you are in the view selector and there you will only see the list, compact list and gallery.
      To create a board view in the same menu where you see these options click in the Create new view option and then choose the board.

      Hope this helps.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply
  6. Stefan

    February 8, 2024

    Hi,

    in your GIF showing the board in action there is no “unassigned” category. How did you get rid of it? Thank you!

    Reply
  7. Sarah

    February 9, 2024

    Hi Joao, thank you for your help so far. Is it possible to create multi-level tasks (i.e. Epic, story, sub task) ?

    Reply
    • João Ferreira

      February 9, 2024

      Hi Sarah,

      With this view is not possible.

      Have a nice weekend 🙂

      Reply

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I've been working with Microsoft Technologies over the last ten years, mainly focused on creating collaboration and productivity solutions that drive the adoption of Microsoft Modern Workplace.