Question About Kanban Boards

Posted by Andy Brice
Dec 21, 2018 at 11:40 AM

washere wrote:
I think a browser based project for Hyper Plan would take a huge chunk
>of time (ie Andy’s money in reality). Further, the browsers would crash
>on the main strength and power of HP, large files with many cards. It
>would be just a commissioned toy at Andy’s expense. Soon forgotten and
>abandoned by a few.

Browsers have come a long way. But it would certainly be very expensive in terms of my time, only to probably end up with a slower and less rich UI.

>
>Secondly, a Dropbox remote connection might be more wise, simply saving
>the working file in cloud and being able to work in it with a cache on
>desktop.

I do this a lot between my various Mac and Windows machines and it works very well. Hyper Plan detects when another machine has updated the plan and refreshes.

>There are various database locking algorithms for multi users.
>But the age old simple: one user at a time assess would be easy to
>implement. Also if gdrive or onedrive have easier protocols/API set to
>suit HP, then they can be used instead of it as well as Dropbox to save
>him time.

Storing your files in DropBox folders doesn’t result in true concurrency. If 2 people write to the file at the same time, you end up with a conflict and a second copy of the file.

A server component would allow full concurrency and access control.

Do the DropBox APIs handle locking and true concurrency? I haven’t looked into it.

>
>Finally, the project like any similars needs a large client base to find
>it, which means needing PR. To get PR, users are needed and word of
>mouth. Catch 22. The main way to have a breakthrough is to have an
>easier interface introduction for newbies to it AND also people who are
>not tech savvy.

Realistically I don’t think Hyper Plan is ever going to sell in the mass market. It is for a techie audience.

>
>This is a problem infoqube, similarly comprehensive and innovative,
>suffers from too. In HP’s case the cure is easy: free floating cards
>mode. The cards in free mode, can be auto-threaded together in ordered
>relationships to conform with current modes easily too. The user can
>then edit those threadings.

I think that would be a useful addition. But I don’t think it is suddenly going to make my fortune. ;0)

>
>That free fliating mode would be the classic Visual/White/Cork Board of
>index cards a.k.a. Kanban everyone knows by sight and will dive in
>intuitively. HP would then be an enticing and easy self-training
>software and they learn more from there. And will then recommend it to
>others, mainly online which is what really matters. This is the key as
>simple logic shows.

It might be an easier way in for the less technical people. However this can be a 2-edged sword as less technical people tend to be more price sensitive and require a lot more technical support.

—
Andy Brice
http://www.hyperplan.com