The building blocks
Workspaces, projects, issues, views, roles: the handful of words Barynt is built from, with an example.
Barynt has only a few ideas, and they fit inside each other. Learn these words once and the rest of the guide reads easily.
The big picture
Imagine Nimbus, a company building a web app and a mobile app. In Barynt that looks like this:
- Nimbus is the workspace. It holds everything the company tracks, and everyone who works there is a member.
- Web App and Mobile are projects inside it. Each has its own board, its own numbers and, if needed, its own circle of people.
- Inside Web App, “Login drops the session on Safari” is an issue with the number
NIM-1. It is a Bug of Urgent priority, it is In Progress, and it is assigned to Aisha.
The words in bold are explained below.
Work
| Word | What it is |
|---|---|
| Workspace | The home of a team. It has its own members, projects, teams, labels, roles and settings. One Barynt server can hold many workspaces, and they cannot see each other. |
| Project | A group of related issues, with a short identifier such as NIM. Projects can be public (every workspace member is in) or private (only people you add). |
| Issue | One unit of work: a task, a bug, an idea. It has a title, a description, properties and a discussion. Its number is the project identifier plus a counter, like NIM-12. |
| Sub-issue | A smaller piece of a bigger issue. The parent shows how many are done, like 2/5. |
| Relation | A link between two issues: blocks, is blocked by, relates to, is a duplicate of. |
| Attachment | A file or a link on an issue. |
| Comment | A message in an issue’s discussion. Others can reply to it and react with an emoji. |
The properties of an issue
Every issue carries a few properties, and the same set is used across the workspace so that filters and charts mean the same thing everywhere.
Status says where the issue stands:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Backlog | Known, but not planned yet |
| Todo | Planned, not started |
| In Progress | Someone is on it |
| In Review | Done, waiting for a second look |
| Done | Finished |
| Canceled | Will not be done |
Priority says how urgent it is: No priority, Low, Medium, High, Urgent.
Type says what kind of work it is: Feature, Bug, Improvement, Task or Chore.
Labels are free tags such as Frontend, Customer or Design. They can belong to one project or to the whole workspace, and an issue can have as many as it needs.
Assignee is the one person responsible. Due date, story points and time estimate are optional planning fields, which you can switch on per project.
Ways to look at the work
| Word | What it is |
|---|---|
| Board | Columns by status. Drag cards to move work forward. |
| List | The same issues as rows, grouped and sorted as you like. |
| View | A saved combination of filters, grouping, order and layout, such as “Open bugs” or “Due this week”. Private, for a project, or for the whole workspace. |
| Dashboard | Numbers and charts for a project or the whole workspace. You arrange the widgets. |
| My issues | Everything assigned to you, across all projects. |
| Inbox | The things that need your attention: assignments, mentions, replies. |
People and access
| Word | What it is |
|---|---|
| Member | A person with access to a workspace. |
| Team | A named group of members, for example “Mobile team”. Teams can be linked to projects so that their members get access together. |
| Role | A bundle of permissions, such as Member, Admin or Viewer. Roles exist at three levels: for the workspace, for a single project and for the whole server. |
| Platform | The server itself. A platform administrator looks after accounts, workspaces and server-wide settings, but cannot read anyone’s issues. |
The idea behind roles is simple: your workspace role says what you may do in the workspace itself, and your project role says what you may do inside one project. Read more in Roles and permissions.
Where things live
When you are lost, this map helps:
- The sidebar on the left: dashboard, board and your issues, then your projects, then members, teams and workspace settings. Your name at the bottom opens your personal settings.
- The tabs at the top of each project: Board, List, Dashboard and your saved views.
⌘K/Ctrl+Kfrom anywhere: search issues, projects and pages, or run a command.