What are swimlanes and how do they work?
Swimlanes are the horizontal rows on the Planningboard that group cards by a chosen criterion — such as the assignee, a parent work item, a project, or a custom enumeration field. Each swimlane shows the cards belonging to that group within the visible Plan columns, and can display a capacity bar when capacity tracking is enabled. See Concepts for a broader overview of how Plans, cards, and swimlanes relate to each other.Which swimlane assignment types are available?
The Assignment Type widget parameter controls how work items are grouped into rows. The following modes are available:
How do I set up user (assignee) swimlanes?
Set Assignment Type to Users (Assignee) and supply the User Role field with the Polarion role ID whose members should appear as swimlane rows (for example,project_user). Planningboard displays one swimlane per user holding that role in the current project. Users outside that role are not shown.
How do I configure parent item swimlanes?
Set Assignment Type to Parent Item. You can then configure:- Sort By — the property used to order parent swimlanes (custom properties including priority are supported as of version 25.9.0).
- Parent Role — the link role that connects child items to their parent (for example,
implements). - Parent Query (optional) — a Lucene query to restrict which parents appear as rows.
- Filter Parents — whether to limit visible parents to those matched by the query (
Yes/No).
How do I use a custom field (enumeration) as swimlanes?
Set Assignment Type to Enumeration Field and provide the Field ID of the enumeration custom field (for example,team). Planningboard creates one swimlane per enum value. You can optionally supply a Rows Filter to restrict which values appear as rows.
Both single-value enumeration fields and list-type fields whose items are enumeration values are supported. The
status, resolution, and type built-in fields are not supported for swimlane grouping.How do I show only users active in the current Plan range?
Enable the configuration propertynextedy.planningboard.activeTeamAssignmentsInPlanRangeOnly=true in Polarion Administration > Configuration Properties. When set, Planningboard hides users whose Team Assignments fall entirely outside the time range of the Plans currently displayed on the board. Users with no active assignment in the shown range have their cards moved to the Not Assigned / Other row.
This feature requires:
- A project with configured Teams and Team Assignments.
- User swimlanes derived from Team Assignments.
- Planningboard version 25.12.0 or later.
Can I filter swimlanes to show only users from a specific team?
Yes, but it requires coordinating two separate configurations:- Swimlane filter — configure a Team page parameter on the Planningboard widget to restrict which team’s members appear as swimlane rows.
- Plans filter — add a query in the Parameters for Plans (Columns) section to filter the Plan columns to only iterations belonging to that team.
Does Planningboard support page parameters (e.g. $pageParameters.xxx) in swimlane configuration?
No. Swimlane row configuration in Planningboard does not support Polarion page parameters. Available row configuration modes are static: hardcoded assignment type, link roles (one Planningboard page per team), or Nextedy’s standard Team work item type via the Teams Service.
Planningboard does not support custom Team work item types for swimlane configuration. If your project uses a custom Team WI type (as opposed to the standard Nextedy Team WI), consider using Nextedy GANTT (which added custom team type support in version 25.5.0) as your primary planning tool. See SAFe Integration FAQ for multi-team planning patterns.
Can I collapse and expand individual swimlanes?
Yes. Swimlane collapsing is enabled by default (collapsibleSwimlanes = true). Users can click the swimlane header to collapse or expand individual rows, which is useful on boards with many lanes.
Can I control whether empty swimlanes are shown?
Yes. TheshowEmptySwimlanes widget parameter controls this behavior. When set to true, all possible swimlane rows are shown even if they contain no cards. When false (the default), empty rows are hidden to keep the board compact.
How are swimlane rows ordered?
TheswimlaneSort parameter controls the vertical order of swimlane rows. The default value is alphabetical. As of version 25.9.0, parent item swimlanes can be sorted by any custom property, including priority — configure this via the Sort By field in the Parent Item assignment type settings.
What happens to cards when a user has no swimlane?
Cards assigned to a user who does not appear as a swimlane row (for example, because they lack the configured role, or their Team Assignment is outside the active Plan range) are moved to the Not Assigned / Other swimlane at the bottom of the board. From there, they can be reassigned or rescheduled.Where can I learn more about swimlane configuration?
- Configuration FAQ — detailed widget parameter reference for all swimlane options.
- Capacity FAQ — capacity bar behavior per swimlane.
- SAFe Integration FAQ — SAFe-specific swimlane assignment types.
- Multiple Assignees FAQ — limitations around multi-assignee capacity in swimlanes.
- Guides — step-by-step how-to guides including swimlane setup.