What is Planningboard?
Planningboard is a visual Planningboard embedded in Siemens Polarion ALM. It arranges Polarion Plans and work items as cards across swimlanes, giving teams a capacity-aware, drag-and-drop interface for sprint and release planning — without leaving the ALM environment. It complements Nextedy GANTT’s timeline view with a board-style view.How does Planningboard fit into Polarion?
Planningboard is installed as a standard Polarion third-party extension and renders as a widget embedded in Polarion LiveDoc and Wiki pages. Each widget instance is independently configured via widget parameters — so different teams or projects can have different board layouts on the same Polarion instance. See Installation and Create Your First Planningboard for setup details.What are the main sections of the board?
The board is split into two areas:
What is a “card” on the board?
Each card represents a Polarion work item. The content of a card is fully customizable via widget parameters. Clicking a card opens the Work Item Properties sidebar, where you can review and edit fields without navigating away from the board. The sidebar fields displayed are configured via theSidebar Fields widget parameter.
What are swimlanes, and how do I choose the right type?
Swimlanes are the horizontal rows on the board that group work items. The grouping is controlled by the swimlane assignment type, set in Widget Parameters > Swimlanes (Rows) > Assignment Type. Available types include:
For full details on each type, see Swimlanes FAQ.
What happens when I drag a card to the wrong swimlane?
It depends on the swimlane assignment type. With Parent Item swimlanes, Planningboard enforces the parent–child relationship: if you drag a card to a swimlane where its parent does not belong, the card automatically snaps back to the correct parent’s row. With Users (Assignee) and Enumeration Field types, placing a card in a swimlane reassigns the work item’s field to that row’s value.Can I move verified work items?
No. Once a card has the status Verified, it is locked in place and cannot be moved or unplanned via drag and drop. This prevents accidental replanning of completed work. Verified items can be filtered out of the Unplanned section using the filter controls in the toolbar.Who can edit the board, and who can only view it?
Planningboard enforces license-based access control:- Licensed users have full editing capabilities: drag-and-drop cards, access the sidebar, toggle the Unplanned section, and create new Plans.
- Unlicensed users can view the full board content — including cards, swimlanes, and capacity bars — but all editing actions are blocked. Drag-and-drop operations do not persist for unlicensed users.
Unlicensed users retain full read access so they can participate in planning reviews and track progress without needing a seat.
What does the capacity bar show?
The capacity bar is a per-swimlane (per-plan column) visual indicator of how much effort is allocated relative to available capacity. Hovering over it shows a detailed tooltip. The capacity bar is only visible when Show Capacity Load is enabled in the widget parameters. Capacity is calculated per user as:- Allocated capacity — sum of remaining estimates for tasks assigned to that user within the plan
- Total capacity — user’s available capacity from the team calendar for the plan period
- Available capacity — total minus allocated (negative values indicate overallocation)
What Plans appear as columns on the board?
Plans displayed as columns are controlled by the Plans widget parameters:- Plans Type — selects the plan mode (e.g. Project Plans (
PROJECT_PLANS) for standard project plans, or SAFe modes for SAFe environments). - Plans / Plans Query — a Lucene query that filters which Plans appear.
- Show # of last plans / Show # of next plans — controls how many past and upcoming Plans are loaded (defaults: 1 past, 5 future).
Does Planningboard support SAFe?
Yes, with caveats. Planningboard includes SAFe-specific plan modes (SAFe Sprints in Program (SAFE_SPRINTS), SAFe Sprints in Portfolio (SAFE_PFL_SPRINTS), SAFe Program Increments in Program (SAFE_PIS), SAFe Program Increments in Solution (SAFE_SOLUTION)) and SAFe swimlane assignment types (SAFe Programs, Agile Release Train Teams, Program/Solution Teams). SAFe configuration is highly context-dependent: the configuration UI changes depending on which Plans Type you select, and each hierarchy level (Portfolio, Program, Team) requires different settings.
Does Planningboard support page parameters for dynamic filtering?
No. Planningboard swimlane configuration does not support Polarion page parameters (e.g.$pageParameters.xxx) for dynamic row filtering. This is a known limitation. The available workarounds for multi-team deployments are static: configure separate Planningboard pages per team using hardcoded link roles. If you need dynamic team-based planning, Nextedy GANTT (25.5.0+) supports custom team work item types and may be a better fit as the primary planning tool. See Multiple Assignees FAQ for related constraints.
Where do I configure Planningboard?
All per-instance configuration is done through the Widget Parameters panel of the Planningboard widget on a Polarion LiveDoc or Wiki page. The main parameter groups are:- Parameters for Work Items — scope, query, sort order, dependency roles, sidebar fields
- Parameters for Plans (Columns) — plan type, plan query, last/next plan counts, capacity display, assign-to-parent-plan
- Queries — custom queries for the Unplanned section
- Swimlanes (Rows) — assignment type, user role, report links
- New Plan — template, naming pattern, duration, Teams configuration
Sources
Sources
KB Articles
- Swimlane Assignment Types
- Planningboard Widget Parameters
- Planningboard interface & basic interactions
licenseReadonly.cy.tsConfig.javaPlanningBoardDataService.javaPlanningBoardWidgetDependenciesProcessor.javaPlanningBoardWidgetRenderer.java