What’s new in iObeya 4.6?
New general features
30+ new board templates
With iObeya 4.6 you will have access to 30+ new templates in the background catalog providing quick access to proven methods and frameworks to improve team collaboration efficiency or to reinvent some of your workshops with new workflows. We have also reorganized the iObeya catalog and introduced new categories making it easier to find a template tailored to your needs.
Double confirmation on board deletion
Have you ever deleted the wrong iObeya board by accident? We have improved the user interface by adding the name of the board to the confirmation message and requiring users to type “DELETE” to confirm they really want to permanently delete the board.
New languages supported and American-English date format
We are pursuing our internationalization efforts to make it easier to connect your multicultural teams worldwide thanks to iObeya. Therefore we are delighted to announce three new languages available in iObeya. The user interface of iObeya 4.6 is now available in French, English, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and Russian.
In addition, you can now select the English (United States) language in your personal settings to display all the dates in American-English date format (MM/DD/YYYY). Here below is an example of a card with the new date format:
Default role for email invitation has been changed
With iObeya 4.5, we included the capability to send email invites to add people to your iObeya room. When you invite people to collaborate in iObeya 4.6, they will automatically be registered with board editing rights and will be able to collaborate without any additional action required from you.
Therefore, it will improve your team workshop’ efficiency while reducing meeting preparation time. You can still manage your team permissions in the team settings if necessary.
IBM Security Verify SSO support (Enterprise plan)
We are also proud to announce that iObeya 4.6 supports IBM Security Verify as third-party Identity and Access Management (IAM). It allows IT, security, and business leaders to protect their users and data in a hybrid multi-cloud environment while enabling business agility and operational efficiency at scale with iObeya.
More information is available on the official supported connectors webpage on the IBM website.
Hyperlinks leading to iObeya
Until now, when you clicked on a hyperlink to another board or room in iObeya, a new navigation tab was opened. During your meetings, you could get lost in all the many tabs opened in your web browser. This era is over!
By clicking on a hyperlink leading to another board or room in iObeya 4.6, it will be loaded in the same navigation tab, allowing you to navigate quickly to another location in iObeya.
By reducing the tabs opened and having easier access to the boards or rooms, you will have faster access to the information and increase your meeting’s effectiveness.
Up to 10 assignees per cards
One of the most popular requests we received from our user community was the ability to assign a card to more than 5 users. Because small changes can make a big difference, we have heard your request and made your wish come true. You will now be able to assign an iObeya card to up to 10 team members allowing you to manage more sophisticated workflows.
New keyboard shortcuts
Adding keyboard shortcuts brings more comfort and efficiency to the daily use of iObeya with a mouse and keyboard.
New keyboard shortcuts include:
Interaction modes
Zoom and navigation
The complete list of keyboard shortcuts is available in the iObeya User Guide.
Interaction modes
- Move and pan: M or 1
- Multiple Selection: S or 2
- Ink: I or 3
- Link: L or 4
Zoom and navigation
- Zoom In: +
- Zoom Out: –
- Full Zoom Out: 0 or Ctrl + 0 or Shift + Ctrl + 0
- Scroll Left: Left arrow
- Scroll Right: Right arrow
- Scroll Up: Up arrow
- Scroll Down: Down arrow
- Room View: Alt + R
The complete list of keyboard shortcuts is available in the iObeya User Guide.
Digital Workplace
Mobile app companion
Remotely or on-the-go between two meetings, you will now have easy access to iObeya from your pocket.
The new iObeya mobile application is a companion that enables users to manage their tasks with iObeya cards on their smartphones.
With this companion, you can:
It has never been so easy to browse, sort and prioritize your tasks directly from your smartphone or tablet, anytime and anywhere.
iObeya mobile is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
- Create iObeya cards on-the-go and never forget an ideal
- Have a clear overview of your tasks and manage priorities
- Archive your tasks as soon as they are completed to move to the next one
- Be notified whenever a new task has been assigned to you
It has never been so easy to browse, sort and prioritize your tasks directly from your smartphone or tablet, anytime and anywhere.
iObeya mobile is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
Better user experience with mobile devices
Did you know that you can use your mobile to participate in brainstorming and voting sessions in iObeya?
Complementary to the iObeya mobile companion, you can also connect to iObeya using a web browser on your smartphone to access a board and participate in a workshop. In iObeya 4.6 we have added a unique QR code associated with each brainstorming and voting session allowing team members to connect in seconds with their smartphone.
The user interface has also been improved to make it easier to visualize boards and to navigate in the iObeya room from a mobile device. You will now be able to open a board and access the most critical information from your smartphone in a few seconds.
Keep in mind, not all the features will be usable on a mobile device. However, you can still turn on the Desktop mode in your web browser and, depending on the size of your device, it allows you to enjoy the same experience as on your PC.
Whiteboarding sessions
In this version, Instant Meeting has been renamed Whiteboarding Session and the duration of the session has increased from 24 to 48 hours giving users more time to collaborate in the session.
In addition, the tool dock is now fully configurable like on any other iObeya boards, allowing you to take benefits from the entire tool set available in iObeya during your whiteboarding sessions:
- Collaborate with customers, suppliers, or partners on a private board
- Host a brainstorming or voting session outside of your iObeya rooms
- Deploy a digital whiteboard solution in your organization at no extra cost
Lean Enterprise
Board Preview
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
In the Lean Enterprise vision, teams can easily collaborate and share information throughout the company.
However, making decisions is not so easy when information is scattered across multiple places. The Board Preview allows to gather several pieces of information from different boards within another board, ideal to synthesize content into one single place.
You can now visualize any content of a source board into a recipient one. Any updates on the source board will be reflected in real-time on the board preview.
The board preview is a picture-in-picture of iObeya boards that allows you to build flexible dashboards, information escalation, problem-solving processes… essentially anything you can imagine!
To access the documentation and get more information, click here.
QRQC card renamed as Problem Solving card
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
The QRQC card helps your team to track and analyze problems using the Quick Response Quality Control approach developed by Nissan in the 90’s. The objective of the QRQC method is to respond to defects, anomalies or recurring problems, to identify root causes in order to define and manage an action plan for rapid resolution.
To make it easier to understand the purpose of this card, we have decided to rename it so that you can take advantage of this proven method to improve your problem solving skills.
If you want to see it in action, watch the on-demand webinar about Problem Solving with iObeya.
Timeshifting available for standard users on planning boards
In iObeya, only the room administrators are able to edit board settings and therefore to change the time frame of a planning board for instance. However, we have discovered thanks to your feedback that the responsibility of shifting a visible planning can be shared between team members and unfortunately standard users were not able to do it.
In iObeya 4.6 they will now have the ability to shift the planning boards forward autonomously as we made this action available for standard users. Depending on the timescale of your visible planning, iObeya will suggest appropriate time windows to make it easy to shift the planning board forward (e.g. from 1 week to 4 weeks on a 4 weeks schedule).
From now on the teams will be able to have their weekly meetings and to shift the schedule when needed even if the room administrator is off duty or just unavailable.
Industry 4.0
QCD add-on (Enterprise plan)
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
Because your Visual Management needs to be flexible and should evolve over the time, it’s now possible to modify the name of your QCD letters via the settings menu as many times as you want. This menu also gives you the ability to assign a letter to a group, so it can be categorized and easily filtered in the new indicators input interface.
With QCD version 4.6, we are introducing a new simplified edition interface giving you direct access to all the QCD letters on a board to edit their indicators. In this view, you can filter letters based on the groups you’ve defined, search on indicators and have a visual view of their completion status.
Because your Visual Management needs to be flexible and should evolve over the time, it’s now possible to modify the name of your QCD letters via the settings menu as many times as you want. This menu also gives you the ability to assign a letter to a group, so it can be categorized and easily filtered in the new indicators input interface.
With QCD version 4.6, we are introducing a new simplified edition interface giving you direct access to all the QCD letters on a board to edit their indicators. In this view, you can filter letters based on the groups you’ve defined, search on indicators and have a visual view of their completion status.
New add-on: Daily Capacity Management (Enterprise plan)
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
Continue your Industry 4.0 journey with iObeya! Today we are proud to introduce a new module: Daily Capacity Management (DCM).
There is no doubt that efficient resource management is critical for Operations: DCM allows you to visually plan and steer your daily activities in a collaborative manner and with a high level of detail (15 minutes granularity).
In other words, it helps you manage the time or the capacity of a given resource, no matter if this is a person or a piece of equipment.
Use cases currently being tested with the beta version are:
- Manufacturing scheduling with collaborative progress monitoring
- Quick changeover planning and execution
- Lab daily task management
Many other use cases could be explored, even for office activities outside the shopfloor.
Available capacity can be filled with standard tasks from a customizable catalog or with a bulk import from external software, such as a scheduler.
During the execution, operators in the field will easily update task statuses on an ongoing basis and give a visual outlook of execution progress to any iObeya user anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
The DCM add-on is fully integrated with the performance management capabilities available in iObeya. In case of deviation, a quick fix can be prompted and corrective action can be created in a related QCD letter.
A dashboard displays adherence to the schedule as well as other performance indicators such as the value-added ratio, the remaining activities, or the available time.
To access the documentation and have an overview of the DCM module, click here.
Agile@Scale
Jira connector (Enterprise plan)
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
The latest version of the Jira connector brings some of the most eagerly awaited features to visualize your work while connecting iObeya with Jira.
The Jira tables available in iObeya now have three options to visualize your Jira cards:
Kanban Table: Connect your boards in iObeya to your Jira workflows. This Kanban table will help you boost your productivity while you are in your stand-up meeting by identifying the bottlenecks in your projects. Move Jira cards from one column to another in iObeya and automatically change their status in Jira, and vice-versa.
Sprint Table: Connect your boards in iObeya with your Jira sprints. In a few clicks, the sprints in Jira and iObeya are synchronized without any rework required to maintain both systems up-to-date. For instance, use this table to create Team Boards and Program Boards for your PI planning events. If you activate the option Capacity and Load, iObeya will allow you to plan your work in your sprints according to your capacity and warn you if you exceed it. Epics are also supported, allowing you to plan them on your Sprint boards in iObeya and to keep the value when you synchronize with Jira.
Free Table: Connect your boards in iObeya with other Jira fields. Create any Visual Management boards connected to one or two Jira fields to easily manage your Jira projects. For instance, you can visualize your Jira issues organized by version or priority to report progress to your management. You can also visualize cards from different Jira projects directly in iObeya.
In this version you can also create new Jira issues directly from iObeya and link them to the parent item using the “Epic Link” relationship, allowing for instance to break down product features into smaller User Stories using the Story Map board template available in iObeya.
Last but not least, there are other improvements in this version:
- Choose which types of Jira link to display on your board
- The support of the Cascading Fields in the Jira cards
- The possibility to clear all “New” indicators on the Jira cards after an import
- Various performance improvements to better support large Jira projects
To access the documentation and discover the new capabilities of our Jira connector, click here.
Azure DevOps connector general availability (Enterprise plan)
Reminder ☝
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
This is an add-on that needs to be installed and activated on your iObeya platform. If you can’t find it, you need to request your platform administrator to install this add-on.
If you are not using Jira but working with Microsoft, the Azure DevOps connector is now officially available.
The new connector provides a two-way integration between iObeya and Azure DevOps, allowing the best of both worlds. With the bi-directional connection, no need to manually update data and content after your Agile rituals. As work gets done in Azure DevOps, updates flow back to iObeya to keep your Visual Management boards up-to-date and vice versa.
The main features are:
- Bi-directional data synchronization between iObeya and Azure DevOps
- The Azure DevOps card with 4 customizable field layouts
- Bulk import Azure DevOps work items to any iObeya board
- Import and visualize dependencies between work items and projects
- Create Azure DevOps work items directly from iObeya and link them to other work items
- Manage linked work items directly in iObeya to track related works and dependencies
- The Azure DevOps Sprint table to plan your work in a user-friendly interface. By activating the option Capacity and Load, iObeya will allow you to plan your work in your sprints according to your capacity and warn you if you exceed it
Therefore, iObeya becomes an all-in-one place for your PI Planning sessions, Sprint Planning meetings, Daily Scrum stand-ups, and Agile retrospectives, with your Azure DevOps data at your fingertips.
To get more information about the Azure DevOps Connector for iObeya, click here.
Release notes 4.6
To learn more about what changed in iObeya 4.6, read the detailed Release notes to get the full list of changes and bug fixes included in this new version.
