August 2025 Release Notes

We’ve introduced Start Dates to board tasks, giving delivery teams, project managers, and PMOs greater visibility into when work is planned to begin and not just when it’s due.

Previously, tasks on boards could only be assigned a due date. While this was sufficient for simple tracking, it limited the ability to understand when work actually starts and how long it's expected to run. With this enhancement:

• Teams can now capture both the start and end of a task.

• The start date gives a better indication of expected commencement, especially when tasks span multiple days or are dependent on other work.

• Tasks can be more accurately sequenced and prioritised within a board.

This change is particularly valuable for teams using Fluid boards to manage Agile delivery, as it brings more structured planning to daily task execution, while maintaining the flexibility of a Kanban-style approach.

Getting Started

To enable start dates on a board:

1. Open the board you want to update.

2. Go to the Board Settings page.

3. Enable the Enable Start Date for Board Cards toggle.

Once enabled, all board tasks will include a Start Date field alongside the Due Date. Start dates can be entered manually or updated via integrations (e.g. DevOps or Jira) if configured.

This release introduces a powerful enhancement that brings Agile flexibility and traditional scheduling together in one seamless experience. Project managers and PMOs can now link any type of schedule task - whether it's a milestone, deliverable, workstream, action, or phase - directly to tasks on their boards.

This is made possible by the addition of start dates on board tasks, introduced as part of this release. With both a start and end date available on board tasks, schedule items that span a duration - such as deliverables, phases, and workstreams - can now be driven by the timelines defined at task level.

Whether you're using DevOps, Jira, or Fluid’s own Kanban boards, this feature enables your schedules to reflect what’s really happening across your delivery teams. It eliminates the need for manual updates and gives project managers and PMOs a real-time view of progress across the schedule.

For example, if you're using DevOps, you can first link your Fluid board to your DevOps project. Once that connection is established, you can then link your schedule tasks in Fluid to the tasks on your Fluid board. As developers update the status of their tasks in DevOps, those updates flow through the Fluid board and are reflected in your schedule. This ensures that the start and end dates, progress, and completion status of tasks are always up to date, giving you a synchronised plan with minimal effort.

For those using Fluid’s own boards without any external integration, the process is just as smooth. You can link your schedule tasks directly to tasks on your Fluid board. As your team progresses through their Kanban workflow, those updates are reflected in your schedule.

How Linking Works

• Project managers continue to use the existing Link a Board Task action to link schedule tasks to board tasks.

• You can now link a board task to any type of schedule item, not just milestones. This includes:

  • Phases

  • Deliverables

  • Workstreams

  • Actions

  • Milestones (as before)

When a board task is linked:

• If the board task has both a start date and due date, these dates are applied to the linked schedule task. The dates become locked and cannot be edited manually.

• If the board task has only one date or no dates, then the schedule task dates remain editable by the PM.

In all cases, the following are always driven from the board task:

• Status

• % Complete

This ensures that the project schedule reflects the actual delivery progress and reduces the need for manual tracking.

In the case of mislestone, the following rules apply:

• If the linked board task has a due date, it sets the milestone date.

• If no due date is present, the milestone date must be set manually.

This enhancement makes it easier than ever to align delivery activity with planning. It brings the flexibility of Agile boards together with the visibility of structured schedules, giving PMOs and project managers a more accurate and integrated view of their projects.

To support more robust risk management across projects and portfolios, we’ve introduced two new fields to the Risk form: Treatment and Treatment Description.

The Treatment field allows users to classify each risk based on the chosen response strategy. The available options reflect standard industry approaches:

• Avoid – Taking action to eliminate a risk by either not starting or by stopping an activity that carries a risk.

• Reduce – Taking actions to reduce the likelihood of a risk occurring or to lessen its potential impact.

• Transfer – Shifting the impact or financial consequences of a risk to a third party.

• Accept – Acknowledging the existence of a risk and choosing to take no proactive action to mitigate or transfer it.

• Exploit – Taking proactive steps to ensure a positive risk, or opportunity, materialises and its benefits are maximised.

The Treatment Description field provides space to document how the selected response will be implemented, offering clarity on planned actions, owners, timelines, or contingency measures.

Together, these fields help project teams go beyond simply identifying risks. They enable them to document, communicate, and track concrete response strategies. For PMOs, this provides a consistent way to assess the quality of risk handling across the portfolio, support governance reviews, and report on risk treatment trends. It also strengthens auditability by ensuring that risks are not just listed but actively managed with a clear plan of action.

This enhancement forms part of our continued investment in governance and assurance, making it easier for organisations to deliver projects with confidence and control.