Best Practices
Get the most out of AgileTune with these proven strategies for managing projects, boards, and teams effectively.
Set WIP Limits
Work-in-Progress limits prevent your team from taking on too much at once. Set a WIP limit on each active column to encourage finishing work before starting new tasks. A good starting point is 2× the number of people working in that stage.
- Start conservative — you can always raise limits later
- If a column is constantly at its limit, it's a bottleneck worth investigating
- WIP limits don't block work; they serve as a visual signal to the team
Use Labels Consistently
Define a shared set of labels across your organization and use them consistently:
- Type labels — Bug, Feature, Improvement, Chore
- Area labels — Frontend, Backend, Mobile, Infrastructure
- Size labels — XS, S, M, L, XL (when you don't use story points)
Consistent labels make filters, reports, and dashboards more useful over time.
Keep Tasks Atomic
A task should represent a single, deliverable unit of work that can be completed in 1–3 days. If a task is too large:
- Break it into subtasks or multiple smaller tasks
- Use a parent task as an "epic" to group related work
- Tasks that sit in "In Progress" for more than a week are usually too large
Run Sprint Retrospectives
If you're using Scrum, hold a retrospective at the end of each sprint. Use the AgileTune analytics dashboard to review:
- Velocity — did the team complete more or fewer points than planned?
- Carry-over — how many tasks rolled over from the previous sprint?
- Cycle time — how long did tasks stay in each column?
- Blockers — were there recurring bottlenecks?
Document action items as tasks so they don't get lost.
Document Decisions
Use task descriptions and comments to capture why decisions were made, not just what was done. Future team members will thank you. The rich editor supports formatting, code blocks, and file attachments for thorough documentation.
Learn the Shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts save significant time over clicking through menus. Start with these essential shortcuts and build from there:
- C — create a task
- ⌘+K — open the command palette
- F — toggle filters
- ? — view all shortcuts
See the full list on the Keyboard Shortcuts page.
Automate Repetitive Work
Use recurring tasks for regular activities like weekly standups, monthly reports, or deployment checklists. Set up webhooks to integrate with your existing tools and reduce manual updates.