Kanban Swimlanes ?

[compumatter]

In this link it Leantime is stating that it has swimlanes: https://leantime.io/kanban-board/#h-how-to-customize-your-kanban-boards

Yet I have not been able to find out where the feature is enabled nor have I found any docs on its functionality.

Swimlanes as I expect them to appear are horizontal splits that separate groups of tasks with the same column headings. It is better described here: https://businessmap.io/kanban-resources/kanban-software/kanban-swimlanes

Can anyone point me in the right direction of Leantime's implementation of this?

Thanks.

Jay
CompuMatter

[marcelfolaron]

Hi,

On the kanban board is a "Group By" Button which will create the swimlane view once active. Here an example with grouping by users

[compumatter]

Thank you Marcel for the quick reply.

I suspected / wondered if that was it but could not utilize it in the way I have previously used swimlanes.

Let me give you a clear example I suspect you can related to.

Let's say I was creating a website which was 'Client ABC Website' which had the columns Todo | Doing | Done

I wanted swimlanes for Headings, Content, Footer so I could move each along as they progress.

Subtasks do not provide enough detail for this use case. Creating entire new projects called Headings, Content, Footer would be messy very quickly once I have more than one website client.

I see no facility for this type of project / task organization. It's a natural for swimlanes but can't sort it out.

Your thoughts?

Jay

[marcelfolaron]

That makes sense. The best way for us would be to use tags and allow creating groups by tags. There were a few issues when implementing this the first time around due to the fact that tasks might show up under multiple tags. I can revisit that though

[compumatter]

Thanks for the reply Marcel.

I feel the use case I described is common across projects once they involve a second layer. For instance a home builder with swim lanes for the framing and electrical. You can't just make them new projects as they'd blend in with all similar roof / electrical for other houses. Swim lanes solve it.

It's a big gap for us. Truthfully speaking this missing feature has prevented us from adopting the software in our company. It's a wall we hit many times a while back and saw no way around it.

[marcelfolaron]

Thanks, I understand. I'll take another look and see where we are on that.

[gloriafolaron]

@compumatter one thing we've found challenging to balance here is what we call "context" internally. They're like categories so to speak.

So that might look like

This one project has:

1. Life tasks
2. Work tasks
3. School tasks

You could bundle these into swim lanes on a Kanban and see across in a single project.

The problem we run into is that folks don't always understand when a project has hit that second layer (that you mention) vs when they really need a second project. This is both from a cognitive load level and a complexity level (e.g. this project is overwhelming when I go in to view it vs this project has too many moving and unrelated or overlapping parts now)

One solution we've thought of was to "fix" or create set contexts but in your example of the housing builder, that becomes a very targeted customer.

We also find folks struggle with the extra load of figuring out what those categories/contexts should be.

You've always had great insight into these things -- any thoughts on what a balance might look like for you all? I know you set up the system for your clients so they may not even have to worry about it.

It could even be that we predefine a number so people can see how they are used and then allow creation of a few -- or potentially limit the total number of them per project so there's some guidance on project depth.

Ex: if a project has 20 contexts, well, you may really need 3-4 projects by then and could even be running more of a program.

Always appreciate your time and thoughts!

Thanks!

[compumatter]

Gloria,

Thanks for the lengthy reply.

I have put it on my calendar to give your reply some serious thought. I will follow up after giving serious consideration to your many thoughtful and relevant points.

Jay

[alishanawer]

Hi Jay,

Great question, and you're absolutely right to expect swimlanes to behave as horizontal groupings within each Kanban column, as described in the Businessmap link you shared.

Current State of Swimlanes in Leantime

Leantime does mention swimlanes on their Kanban feature page, but as of the current release (and based on my own testing), the swimlane functionality appears to be limited or not fully implemented in the classic sense (i.e., horizontal rows dividing tasks by assignee, priority, or other categories within each column).

What Leantime seems to refer to as "swimlanes" might be more about customizable Kanban views, using filters and groupings such as:

• Project phases
• Milestones
• Assigned users
• Task status

However, this doesn't result in true horizontal swimlanes on the UI that persist across columns.

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What You Can Try

You can simulate a swimlane-like experience by:

1. Using milestones or task types to group tasks.
2. Filtering or sorting the Kanban board view using the sidebar options (top-left menu in the board view).
3. Watching for updates: There are GitHub issues and roadmap notes hinting at more advanced board views in future releases.

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Recommendation

If you're looking for full swimlane functionality (like separating work by team member or priority across the same column headers), it's worth:

• Submitting a feature request or commenting on an existing one in the Leantime GitHub Issues.
• Asking directly in their community forums or Slack to confirm if there's a toggle or config not yet documented.

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Hope that helps! 😊