This step-by-step tutorial will show you how quick and easy it is to create, visualize, and share your first roadmap and then do even more, like add milestones, apply and save filters as views, and export and publish your roadmap.
We've also created a handy video tutorial to accompany this article, which will walk you through your first roadmap setup in less than 10 minutes and give you some great tips & tricks for roadmapping in Roadmunk.
In this Tutorial:
- Step 1 - Create a New Roadmap
- Step 2 - Create and Import Items
- Step 3 - Add and Create Fields
- Step 4 - Work with Items in the Items Table
- Step 5 - Add Milestones to a Roadmap
- Step 6 - Create a Timeline Visualization
- Step 7 - Create a Swimlane Visualization
Step 1 - Create a New Roadmap
There are two ways to create a roadmap in Roadmunk: from scratch or using one of the customizable in-app templates. Let's start by looking at how to create a roadmap from scratch.
Create a new roadmap from scratch
When you log in to Roadmunk, the first thing you see is your Roadmaps homepage. This dashboard is where you can see and access all your roadmaps as well as the ones other people in your account have shared with you. The dashboard is also where you start to create a new roadmap.
- If you haven't created any roadmaps yet, click the New Roadmap button, otherwise click the + New button in the top-right of the screen and then select New Roadmap in the dropdown.
- In the Create Roadmap dialog, enter a Title and select a Fiscal Year-End. To customize the default fiscal year-end, check out our quick guide here.
- Click Create to create your new roadmap.
The first view you will see of your new roadmap is the Items Table view.
Because you started from scratch, your roadmap has no data, and so the Items Table is empty except for the header row. You'll learn how to add items to your roadmap in the next step of the tutorial, which covers how to create and import items.
Note that the Items Table has two default fields: Items and Date. All Roadmunk roadmaps have these two key fields and they can't be deleted. You'll learn how to add other fields to a roadmap in step 3 of the tutorial, which covers how to add and create fields.
Congratulations! 🎉
You've just created your first roadmap. That was easy, wasn't it? Next, let's look at how to create a new roadmap using one of Roadmunk's templates.
Create a new roadmap from a Template
Roadmunk templates quickly get you started with one of over thirty roadmap types (including Product, Marketing, and Sales Roadmaps - among many others). Each roadmap template comes with the recommended fields but is fully customizable so you can make it your own.
- From the Roadmaps homepage, click into the Templates folder.
- In the template list that appears, select the template you want to use. For this example, we're selecting the Product Roadmap template.
- When you choose a template, you're brought to the Template Preview screen. From here, you can navigate through the various views of the roadmap template to determine if this is the roadmap for you.
- To select a template for use, choose the Use This Template button at the top of the screen.
- In the New From Template dialogue that appears, you can specify the roadmap's Title and Fiscal Year-End or keep the default ones.
- If you don't want to use the template's sample data, select the Start Empty option under the Sample Data section.
NOTE: Every roadmap template comes with sample data that you can duplicate as well as the fields. The sample data is really useful if you want to test a roadmap type before creating one of your own.
6. Click Create to generate a roadmap based on that template.
By navigating to the roadmap's Items Table view through the tabs at the top of the roadmap, you can see the fields that were added from the template in addition to Items and Date. You can add or remove fields as needed on the roadmap, with more details on how to do that coming up in the fields overview of this tutorial.
Congratulations! 🎉
You've now gone through the two different ways of creating a roadmap and can compare them to choose the one that works best for you.
Step 2 - Create and Import Items
There are several different ways you can add items to a roadmap, but for the sake of this tutorial we will be covering the two most common: creating items manually or importing items from a CSV file. Whichever way you choose, the simplest and easiest place to add items is the Items Table view.
The Items Table gives you a tabular view of the items (data) in a roadmap. Each row in the table represents an item, and each item is made up of fields (with one field per column in the table). With every item you create, a new row is added to the table.
Creating a New Item Manually
Every roadmap created from scratch starts out with two default fields in the Items Table: Items and Date. Although you can create a new item just by filling in the Items field with the item's name, you won't get much out of your roadmap if you don't complete the other fields.
Create and Add Items to the Items Table
- If you haven't created any items yet, click the Add Item button in the roadmap screen. Alternatively, you can either click the + Item button in the roadmap toolbar on the top-right of the screen or click into the first line on the table view (labeled as Add New Item) to create a new item.
- Clicking either the Add Item option or clicking directly into the table will prompt you to enter an item name.
- Once a name has been input into the field, either click out of the table or press the Enter key to save your changes.
Create Items from the Item Card
If you choose to click the + Item button to create your new item, you will be brought to the Item Card. From the item card, you can provide the same details you would be able to provide in the Items Table while being able to add a more granular description and file attachments to the item as well.
Once the item has been created, the item card can be accessed by clicking into the item name on your Items Table view and will also show a summary of any active Linked Items, Sub-items, and Linked Ideas for that respective item.
When creating multiple items that share the same fields, you can also create another item by checking the Create Another option in the bottom-right of the Item Card (beside the Create button). This will replicate all the same fields as the previous item created except for the item's description.
Inline Item Creation
The Items Table also has support for inline item creation, letting you quickly add items to your roadmap.
- Navigate to the Items Table.
- Hover your cursor between two rows and click the green + symbol to create a new item.
- Input your item name and press Enter when done. You can add consecutive items without interruption.
Set the Item's Date
An item's Date can be a range of dates or a specific date.
1. Click inside the item's Date field to open the date picker.
2. To set a date range, select the Start Date and the End Date. To set a specific date, select it as the Start Date. The End Date is automatically set to the same date.
3. Click anywhere off the date picker to close it.
NOTE: You can also set the date(s) in the item card.
Fixed Date or Bucket?
If you don't have fixed dates for an item yet, you can add the item to a time bucket such as Soon or Future instead. Buckets let you be more flexible with scheduling so you can start roadmapping your strategy before you have all the pieces.
To add an item to a bucket, click the Bucket icon in the date picker instead and select the bucket in the drop-down.
Congratulations!
You've just added your first roadmap item. To view details of the item, click the items name in the item's table to open the item card. The item card is like command central for items, where you can view, edit, and manage everything associated with an item.
Import data from a CSV file
Instead of entering items by hand, you may have data that you want to import into a new roadmap. To do this, you export your data to a CSV file and then import the CSV file into Roadmunk.
Setting up the CSV
There's some simple formatting the CSV file needs to follow for the import to work: the file must have an Item field that maps to the roadmap's Items field and it must have field name headers.
To make creating this file real easy for you, we've created a CSV template you can download here. The template has Items, Description, and Start and End Date columns. It also has a Bucket column for items without fixed dates. If your data has other fields, just add them to the template and they'll be automatically added to the roadmap.
IMPORTANT: The items in the CSV should have either Start and End Dates OR a Bucket. If they have both, only the Buckets will be imported.
Starting the Import
Start the import of the CSV file in the Items Table.
1. Click the Import from CSV button (appears only if the roadmap has no items).
OR
2. On the View navbar, click the Import icon and select Import from CSV in the dropdown.
Uploading the CSV
The Import CSV dialog walks you through the import, starting with uploading the CSV file.
1. In the Import CSV dialog, drop the CSV file onto the Upload CSV tab or click to browse and select the file.
Checking field mappings
1. In the Field Mapping tab, you should see the Item field in the CSV mapped to the Item field in Roadmunk.
2. You should also see the remaining fields in the CSV mapped to corresponding fields in Roadmunk. If you decide that you don't want to import one of the fields in the CSV, click Remove in the field's Roadmunk dropdown.
3. If the CSV file has both Start and End Date AND Bucket, choose the one you want to import and remove the other. If an item has both, only the Bucket will be imported.
4. Roadmunk auto-detects the date format in the CSV and sets the format in Roadmunk to match. If see that the formats don't match, select the right one in the Date Format dropdown.
5. If everything looks good, click Next.
Finishing the Import
1. The Import tab shows a quick summary of how the items will be imported. For the tutorial we're importing to a new roadmap, so all the items are being imported and 0 are being updated.
2. To finish the import, click Update & Overwrite All.
Success!
And voila, you can now see all the items from the CSV in the roadmap's Items Table.
What's next?
You've now seen how all roadmaps in Roadmunk start out with the two default fields: Items and Date. You've also seen how other fields are added to a roadmap through a data import. What's next is for you to see how to add a field to a roadmap manually.
Step 3 - Add and Create Fields
At this point in the tutorial you've learned how to create a roadmap from scratch and using a template as well as how to add items to a roadmap manually or by importing a CSV file. In this article, we look at how to add a field to a roadmap.
When adding a field to a roadmap, you can select a field that already exists in the Roadmunk account or you can create and add a new field.
Add an Existing Field to your roadmap
The simplest and easiest place to add a field is the Items Tables. For the tutorial, we're going back to the roadmap you created from scratch in Step 1. Create a new roadmap, and to which you added an item in Step 2. Create and import items.
Adding the Field to your Roadmap
1. Click the Add Field (+) icon on the far right of the table header.
2. In the dropdown, start typing to search for the field or scroll down to find it, and then select it.
The field gets added to the roadmap's Items Table and you can now enter a value.
Selecting Field Values
Roadmunk has four types of fields: Free-Form Text, List, Multi-Select List and Numeric. To populate numeric or free-form text fields, you just type in the value. To populate list or multi-select list fields, you select values from a list. For the tutorial, we're adding Status, which is a list field.
3. Click inside the item's new field to view the available values.
4. In the field value dropdown, start typing to search for the value or scroll down to find it, then select it. For the tutorial, we're selecting Planning.
Congratulations!
You've just added and populated your first roadmap field. Next we look at how to create a new field before adding it.
Create and add a new field
If you want to add a field to a roadmap and you don't see it in the Add Field dropdown (steps 1 and 2 above), it means the field does not exist in the Roadmunk account and needs to be created. One of the great things about Roadmunk is that you can create a new field right from the roadmap you want to add it to. Here's how.
1. In the Items Table, click the Add Field (+) icon on the far right of the table header.
2. At the bottom of the dropdown, click + Create New Field to open the New Field dialog.
Inline Field Creation
The Items Table also has support for inline Field creation, letting you simply and quickly add Fields to you roadmap.
- Navigate to the Items Table
- Locate the Add Field plus sign
- Start typing the Field you want to create
- Click on the + New “Field Name” Field dropdown
- Select the Field Type you want to create
NOTE: When choosing to create a List or Multi-Select list Field Type, a modal will appear allowing you to input field values.
Creating a Free-Form Text field
1. In the New Field dialog, select Free-Form Text in the Type dropdown.
2. Enter a Name for the field, e.g, Comments or Notes.
3. Click Create Field.
Creating a Numeric field
1. In the New Field dialog, select Numeric in the Type dropdown.
2. Enter a Name for the field, e.g, Status or MRR.
3. Select the desired Number Format for either Currency, General or Percentage.
4. Choose the number of decimal places.
5. Click Create Field.
NOTE: When choosing Currency as your Number Format, you can then select your Currency Format to be either Euro, Pound or Dollar.
Creating a List or Multi-Select List field
List and Multi-Select List fields are created the same way. The only difference is that more than one value can be selected for a Multi-Select List field.
1. In the New Field dialog, select List or Multi-Select List in the Type dropdown.
2. Enter a Name for the field.
3. Enter the first value you want in the field's list and then click Add.
4. Keep adding values to the list in the same way.
5. To change the order of the values in the list, click and drag values to their new position.
6. To delete a value from the list, click the Delete icon.
7. When you're done adding and arranging values, click Create Field.
NOTE: Don't worry about getting the list right the first time. You can come back and edit the list of values at any time.
What's next?
Congratulations! You've now gotten through the three most important steps in getting started with Roadmunk roadmap: 1. Creating the roadmap, 2. Adding a roadmap item, 3. Adding a field to a roadmap and creating a new field. Next, we'll look at some features of the Items Table that make it easy for you to browse and edit your roadmap items
Step 4 - Work with Items in the Items Table
In this section, we showcase some features of the Items Table that make it easy for you to browse and edit roadmap data, including hiding and showing fields, sorting and ranking items, bulk editing and deleting items, moving items to another roadmap, and viewing and editing items in the item card.
Hide and show fields
The hide/show field feature in the Items Table minimizes the need to scroll horizontally to view your roadmap's data.
Hiding a field
1. Mouse over the field you want to hide until the Hide Field (-) icon appears, then mouse over the icon and click it when it turns blue.
Showing a hidden field
1. Click the Add Field (+) icon that's at the end of the table header.
2. In the dropdown's Hidden Fields list, click the field you want to show.
Remove fields
Just like you can add fields to a roadmap, you can remove them.
NOTE: Removing a field from a roadmap does NOT delete the field from the Roadmunk account. The field still exists but is no longer being used in the roadmap.
1. Mouse over the field you want to remove until the Cogwheel icon appears, then mouse over the icon and click it when it turns blue.
2. At the bottom of the dropdown, click X Remove From Roadmap.
Sort items
By default, Items in the Items Table are ranked in the order they were added (first item at the top). The Item Table's sort feature lets you sort items in alphabetical order by any field in the table.
Sorting items
1. Mouse over the field you want to sort by until the Cogwheel icon appears, then mouse over the icon and click it when it turns blue.
2. In the dropdown, select Sort A to Z for ascending order or Sort A to Z for descending order.
You'll know which field items are sorted by and in what order by the up or down arrow next to the field's name.
Toggling ascending/descending and resetting the sort order
1. You can click the arrow icon next to the field and from the drop down select between between ascending and descending alphabetical order.
2. To reset the sort order, click the arrow icon next to the field and from the drop down select Clear Sort.
Rank items
As you saw, the default ranking of items in the Items Table is the order they were added. The ranking feature lets you change the order by moving items around on the table so they're ranked in a way that's more logical for you (for example, by level of importance or complexity).
- To change an item's rank in the table, click the item's Item Ranking column and drag-and-drop the item in its new location.
IMPORTANT: Unlike with sorting, there's no way to automatically return items back to their original sort order. Once you change an item's place in the table, it stays there until you move it again. You can drag-and-drop more than one item at a time.
Bulk edit items
Let's say you want to change the Status of several items in the Items Table from Proposed to Backlog. Instead of making the change one item at a time, you can do a bulk edit.
1. Select the items you want to edit in the table's first column. A checkmark in the column shows which items are selected. To unselect any item, click its checkmark. To unselect all items, click Clear All at the top of the column.
2. Click the field you want to edit in any of the selected items (Status).
3. In the dropdown, select the new value (Backlog). The existing value (Proposed) has a blue mark next to it.
Bulk delete items
The same way you can bulk edit items, you can bulk delete them.
1. Select the items in the table you want to delete.
2. Click the Delete button that appears above the table.
3. Click the Delete button in the dropdown to confirm the deletion.
WARNING: Deleting items from a roadmap deletes them from the Roadmunk account. You can't undo an item delete and, once you delete an item, it's gone forever.
Move items to another roadmap
The Items Table move feature lets you move items from one roadmap to another. You can move items to an existing roadmap or you can create a new roadmap for the items.
1. Select the items in the table you want to move.
2. Click the Move button that appears above the table.
3. In the Move Items dialog, select the roadmap in the Select a Roadmap dropdown OR click + Create New Roadmap, then click the Next button.
NOTE: If you choose to create a new roadmap for the items, you'll go through the additional step of entering a roadmap Name and Fiscal Year-End, then go through Step 3 again to select the new roadmap.
4. Check the confirmation message and click Move Items.
View and edit items in the item card
If you remember from an earlier article, the item card is like command central for items, where you can view and edit everything associated with an item.
To open the item card from the Items Table, click the item's name.
1. Edit the item's Name.
2. Delete the item. WARNING: The item will be permanently deleted from the Roadmunk account. You can't undo a delete.
3. Edit and format the item's Description using plain text or Markdown.
4. Get help on Markdown formatting.
5. Upload, view, download, and delete file attachments.
6. Post Comments. To add a Mention to a Comment, enter @ and start typing the person's name to select it from a dropdown. People you mention in a Comment get an email notification.
7. View item Activity, including edits and Comments. To hide edits, click Select View Comments only.
8. View and edit the item's Fields.
Step 5 - Add Milestones to a Roadmap
Milestones are fixed indicators that you can add to a roadmap in addition to items. A roadmap's milestones can be displayed on a Timeline together with the roadmap's items and are a great way to spotlight goals, achievements, events, and other related time markers.
There are two ways you can add milestones to a roadmap: manually or by importing them from a CSV file. In this article, we show you how to add a milestone manually to the Milestones Table.
The Milestones Table gives you a tabular view of a roadmap's milestones. Each row in the table is a milestone, and each milestone is made up of fields, one field per column in the table. With every milestone you create, a new row is added to the table.
Add the milestone to the Milestones Table
Every roadmap created from scratch starts out with three default fields in the Milestones Table: Milestones, Date, and Milestone Type.
1. On the View navbar, click the Milestones icon.
2. Click the Create New Milestone button (only appears when the table is blank).
OR
3. Click the + Milestone button.
4. In the Create New Milestone dialog, enter a Milestone Name. This name appears in the Milestones field.
5. Click Create.
NOTE: The dialog stays open until you close it so you can continue to quickly add more milestones one after another.
Set the milestone date
1. Click inside the milestone's Date field to open the date picker.
2. Select a date in the date picker. The default is today's date.
NOTE: Unlike items, milestones have a single fixed date.
3. To save, click anywhere off the date picker to close it.
NOTE: You can also set the date in the milestone card.
Change the Milestone Type
1. Click inside the milestone's Milestone Type field.
2. In the dropdown, select the new type.
NOTE: You can also change the type in the milestone card.
View the milestone in the milestone card
Congratulations! You've just added your first milestone. To view details of the milestone, click the Name of the milestone in the table to open the milestone card. The milestone card is like command central for milestones, where you can view, edit, and manage everything associated with a milestone.
Step 6 - Create a Timeline Visualization
Timelines vs. Swimlanes
Roadmunk has two types of visualization: Timelines and Swimlanes.
Timelines are the more traditional way of visualizing a roadmap, showing a time-oriented view of items such as initiatives and objectives punctuated by milestones to highlight goals, achievement, and other important time markers.
Swimlanes are the right choice when you need a more agile theme-based roadmap that allows you to plot items on a dynamic grid and pivot data in multiple ways.
Because they offer a more traditional type of visualization, we first take a look at Timelines. We'll get back to Swimlanes later on in this tutorial (Step 8. Create a Swimlane Visualization).
Timelines and views
Each Roadmunk roadmap can have multiple Timelines. To create a Timeline for a roadmap, you create a roadmap view and then create a Timeline visualization associated with the view. Views in Roadmunk allow you to create and save different ways of looking at the same roadmap, each with its own visualization, filterset, data pivots and, in the case of a Timeline, milestones. A roadmap can have several views and therefore several different Timelines.
Timelines and dates
In step 2 of the tutorial, Create and import items, you saw how you can assign an item to a time bucket, such as Soon or Future, if the item doesn't have fixed dates yet. While buckets are great when visualizing items in a Swimlane, they don't work well in Timelines. In fact, for an item to be visible in a Timeline, it must have dates. If many of the items in your roadmap are assigned to buckets, it may make more sense to visualize them as a Swimlane.
View 1: The roadmap default view
Every roadmap you create comes with a default view named View 1. View 1 doesn't have a visualization or filters yet so it contains all the items in the roadmap (you'll learn about filters later on in Step 7. Add and apply filters to a view).
1. On the Roadmap navbar, you can see View 1 in the View dropdown with the Create View (+ View) button to the right of it. The View dropdown is where you select the roadmap view you want to open.
2. Below the Roadmap navbar is the View navbar. Since you're looking at the Items Table, the Items icon is selected on the navbar. A bit over to the right on the navbar is the Visualize button which, you guessed it, is what you use to create a visualization for a view.
Changing the view name
By the way, you're not stuck with View 1 as the name for your Timeline. You can change the name of the view by clicking the Settings icon at the far right of the View navbar, then selecting Rename View in the dropdown. For the tutorial, we'll change the name to My first view.
Create a Timeline visualization for the view
Now that you know how views and visualizations work together, you're ready to create a Timeline visualization for your first view.
1. On the View navbar, click the Visualize button.
2. In the New Visualization dialog, select Timeline.
3. Click Create.
When the new Timeline appears, the Visualize button is replaced by a selected Timeline icon. You can go back to the Items Table any time by selecting the Items icon instead.
Timelines have three main areas or sections: 1) the time range, 2) items on the timeline, and 3) headers (additional pivots).
1. The time range
Because a Timeline is a time-oriented visualization of a roadmap, one of its main components is the time range represented by the horizontal timeline along the top.
Adjusting the timeline's scale
The first thing you'll notice about the timeline is the timeline slider. By dragging and dropping the slider or dragging the handles on either end along the timeline, you can zoom in or out on the timeline by adjusting the time range that is visible on the screen (the timeline's scale). As you drag the slider, the dates at either end of the timeline change. For more precision, you can click these to set the start and end of the range to exact dates.
Setting time periods
The next thing you'll notice about the timeline is that it's split up into time periods and that these extend down as dotted vertical lines to form the timeline's columns. If today's date falls within the timeline's scale, you'll see it as a red solid line. You can set each time period on the timeline separately by clicking it and selecting Months, Quarters, Halves, or Years in the Time Period dropdown. Which time periods you select will depend on the set scale of the timeline and the degree of detail that you want.
Limiting the timeline's date range
In addition to adjusting the timeline's scale, you can limit the date range of the entire timeline by setting its start and end dates. A timeline's date range determines two things: the items that are included in a Timeline (only those within the set date range) and the outer limits of the timeline slider. To set the limits of the timeline's date range, click the Date Preferences icon on the far left of the timeline, select a Start Date and an End Date under Date Settings in the dialog, and click Save.
2. Items on the timeline
The second major component of a Timeline is the horizontal bars representing the individual items in the roadmap. These item bars are plotted along grey horizontal streams spanning the timeline to reflect the item's date range.
Timelines start out with only the time pivot so, until you set up other pivots by adding headers (see below), the vertical arrangement of items is in no particular order. When headers are added, the streams on the Timeline are aligned with the headers along the left and the items are arranged on the streams accordingly.
Item labels
Each item on the timeline has a label above the bar. The default label is the item's Title (Items field in the Items Table).
Viewing item dates
As you saw above, only items that fall within the timeline date range are included in the Timeline, and only items that fall within the timeline scale are visible. To view an item's date range, mouse over the item's name on the Timeline.
Changing item dates
You can change an item's dates directly in a Timeline by dragging and dropping the item bar along its stream or dragging the handles on either end. As you drag the item bar, you'll see the dates changing.
Viewing and editing item details
To view and edit details of an item in the item card, click the item's label on the timeline.
3. Headers (additional pivots)
As you've seen so far, all Timelines start out with just the time pivot, which gives you only a one-dimensional view of your roadmap items. That's where Timeline headers come in.
Headers allow you to add another pivot to a Timeline by grouping items vertically on any field in the roadmap in addition to plotting them horizontally along a timeline. In fact, you can add both a header and a subheader to a Timeline in order to further organize items in each grouping by a second field.
Adding a header to a Timeline (primary pivot)
- On the View navbar, click the Format icon.
2. In the Layout tab, click the Header dropdown.
3. In the dropdown, select the field you want to use for the timeline's main groupings (primary vertical pivot). For the tutorial, we're selecting Category.
Adding a subheader to a Timeline (secondary pivot)
1. In the Layout tab, click the Subheader dropdown.
2. In the dropdown, select the field you want to use for the timeline's subgroupings (secondary vertical pivot). For the tutorial, we're selecting Status.
3. Click the Format icon to close the panel.
You should now see headers along the left side of the Timeline grouping items first by Category and then by Status.
Hiding empty headers
If an item has not been assigned a field value that you are trying to pivot by, it will show up on the roadmap as a stream labeled [Field Name] : None. In the case below, the item NPS Pilot has not yet been assigned a value from the Owner field, as a result it is placed in the stream labeled OWNER: None.
In order to hide empty headers:
1. Navigate to the Format tab.
2. Find the Hide empty headers checkbox.
3. Check the box to hide any empty headers on your roadmap.
Format Timeline layout and colors
Once you've selected and added pivot headers to your Timeline, you can format the layout and colors of the headers and items.
Formatting the layout
Adjust the header width
If you've added both headers and subheaders to your Timeline, there may not be enough space to view these properly. To widen the space for the header:
1. Mouse over anywhere along the right edge of the headers.
2. When the vertical blue bar appears, click and drag it to set the desired width.
Switch to the Condensed theme
Another way to provide more screen space for your Timeline is to switch from the default Original theme to the Condensed theme.
1. Open the Format panel again (Format icon on the View navbar).
2. Find the Theme label, select the Condensed theme icon.
NOTE: The Condensed theme works best with a Horizontal header orientation (see below).
Change header orientation
Another way to give your headers more space is to change the orientation of the main header. The default orientation is Horizontal.
1. Open the Format panel again (Format icon on the View navbar).
2. Find the Headers label, select the Vertical orientation icon.
NOTE: The Vertical orientation works best with the Original theme (see above).
Formatting colors
You have two options when setting a Timeline's colors: Color By Base Color and Color By Field. The default setting is Color By Base using a range of blues.
Change the Base Color
You can choose a different color for the Base Color other than blue.
1. Open the Format panel again (Format icon on the View navbar).
2. Click the Colors tab.
3. Below the Color By dropdown, click the paint drop and select a new color.
Set Timeline colors to Color by field
In addition to making your Timeline more visually appealing, Color by Field allows you to create a color-based pivot in addition to the time pivot and headers.
1. Still in the Colors tab, click the Color By dropdown.
2. In the dropdown, select the field you want to use for the color-based pivot. For the tutorial, we're selecting Status.
3. In the Palette dropdown, select the color palette you want to use. For the tutorial, we're selecting Groovy.
4. To make the colors of the Status subheaders match the colors you choose for the items in the Items section of the tab (see step 6), select Subheader Inherits Item Color below the Palette dropdown.
5. In the Headers section of the tab, drag and drop the Header label onto the color you want to apply to the Timeline's headers (Category).
6. In the Items section of the tab, drag and drop Status names onto colors to indicate how you want to color-code the items on the timeline.
7. Click the Format icon to close the panel.
You should now see the selected formatting applied to your Timeline.
1. In the header column, you should see the selection of the Category field for the header pivot and of the Status field for the subheader. pivot. You should also see that the column has been widened and the header orientation has been set to Vertical.
2. In the Legend, you can see the selected color-coding makes it easy to identify the status of each item on the timeline.
3. In the header column, you can also see that the subheaders (Status) inherit (match) the colors selected for the items.
Step 7 - Create a Swimlane Visualization
Swimlanes vs. Timelines
You've seen how Timelines are the best choice when you want to present a time-oriented view of roadmapped items like initiatives and objectives. But when you're working with an agile theme-based roadmap, you need a more dynamic type of visualization that allows you to plot items on a dynamic grid and pivot data in multiple ways. That's where Swimlanes come in.
Swimlanes and views
Just like Timelines, to create a Swimlane for a roadmap, you create a new view for the roadmap and then create the Swimlane visualization associated with the view. A roadmap can have multiple views and therefore multiple Swimlanes and Timelines. Each roadmap view has its own Swimlane or Timeline, filterset, and data pivots. If a roadmap has milestones, they are visible only on Timelines.
Creating a Swimlane visualization
To create a Swimlane visualization for a roadmap you create a new roadmap view, selecting Swimlane as the view's visualization.
1. On the Roadmap navbar, click the + View button.
2. In the New View dialog, enter a name for the view.
3. Select Swimlane as the Visualization Type.
4. Click Create.
Swimlanes have three main areas or sections: 1) the column header, 2) the row header, and 3) items on the Swimlanes.
1. The column header
The column header serves as the Swimlane's horizontal pivot. Unline Timelines, which have time as a fixed horizontal pivot, Swimlanes allow you to customize the horizontal pivot by selecting the field you want to use for the column header.
Change the Swimlane time period
All Swimlanes start out with a time-based horizontal pivot, with the column header set to monthly time periods. You can change the header to Weeks, Quarters, Halves, or Years.
1. On the View navbar, click the Format icon.
2. In the Layout tab, click the Column Header dropdown.
3. In the dropdown, select the new time period.
4. Click the Format icon to close the panel.
Select a pivot field for the column header
To select a non-time-based horizontal pivot for the Swimlane, select the field you want to use for the column header.
1. Still in the Layout tab, click the Column Header dropdown.
2. In the dropdown, select the field you want to use for the horizontal pivot.
2. The row header
The row header serves as the Swimlane's vertical pivot. Unlike Timelines, Swimlanes have a single vertical header. Like the column header, you can select any field in the roadmap for the row header.
Add the row header
1. Still in the Layout tab, click the Row Header dropdown.
2. In the dropdown, select the field you want to use for the vertical pivot.
3. Items on the Swimlane
Swimlane items are color-coded and matrixed on the Swimlane's grid in alignment with the column and row headers. Before you add the row header, items are aligned in the Swimlane only horizontally.
Item Labels
The default label for items on a Swimlane is the item's Title (Items field in the Items Table).
Formatting Swimlane layout and colors
Once you've selected and added column and row headers to your Swimlane, you can format the layout and colors of the headers and items.
Format the layout
Changing header orientation
You can change the orientation of your Swimlane's row headers if you need more space to display field names. The default orientation is Horizontal.
1. Still in the Layout tab, find the Headers label.
2.Select the Vertical orientation icon.
Hiding empty headers
If an item has not been assigned a field value that you are trying to pivot by, it will show up on the roadmap as a stream labeled [Field Name] : None.
To hide empty headers:
1. Navigate to the Format tab.
2. Find the Hide empty headers checkbox.
3. Check the box to hide any empty headers on your roadmap.
Format colors
You have two options when setting a Swimlane's colors: Color By Base Color and Color By Field. The default setting is Color By Base using a range of blues.
Changing the Base Color
You can choose a different color for the Base Color other than blue.
1. Open the Format panel again (Format icon on the View navbar).
2. Click the Colors tab.
3. Below the Color By dropdown, click the paint drop and select a new color.
Setting Swimlane colors to Color by field
In addition to making your Swimlane more visually appealing, Color by Field allows you to create a color-based pivot in addition to the row and column header pivots.
1. Still in the Colors tab, click the Color By dropdown.
2. In the dropdown, select the field you're using for the column header pivot.
3. In the Palette dropdown, select the color palette you want to use. For the tutorial, we're sticking with the default Citrus palette.
4. To make the colors of the column headers match the colors you choose for the items in the Items section of the tab, select Column Header Inherits Item Color below the Palette dropdown (see step 6).
5. In the Headers section of the tab, drag and drop the Header label onto the color you want to apply to the row headers. If you choose not to match the column headers with the items (see step 4), they will also use this color.
6. In the Items section of the tab, drag and drop column header field values onto the color to indicate how you want to color-code the items on the Swimlane.
7. Click the Format icon to close the panel.
You should now see the selected headers and formatting applied to your Swimlane.
