Projects and occasional writing. 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z https://dozigden.com/ Luke 2026-09-04T00:00:00Z https://dozigden.com/blog/2026/09/04/youre-not-going-to-make/ <p>...Is pretty much the response I got at work when I said I'd made my own Kanban board for running personal projects.</p> <p>For anyone not in on software development lingo, a Kanban board is a very popular organisational tool for groups delivering software. It's a glorified todo list, where things move across the board from left to right as work gets completed.</p> <p>Fortunately, profiting and retiring wasn't the idea. I pretty much wrote it because I had this visual in mind of associating stories across columns without going full on swimlanes / epics / parents (all enterprise lingo for different ways of making many little things into big things). And thus 'slicks' were born.</p> <p><a class="zoomable-image" href="https://dozigden.com/blog/images/2026-09-04-bo-slicks.png" aria-label="View full-size image: BoardOil showing how 'slicks' make curved gooey outlines around stories across columns."><picture><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-480.webp 480w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-704.webp 704w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-1000.webp 1000w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-1408.webp 1408w" sizes="(max-width: 47rem) calc(100vw - 3rem), 44rem"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-480.png" class="post-inline-image" alt="BoardOil showing how 'slicks' make curved gooey outlines around stories across columns." width="1408" height="693" srcset="https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-480.png 480w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-704.png 704w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-1000.png 1000w, https://dozigden.com/img/-ggf-ntldr-1408.png 1408w" sizes="(max-width: 47rem) calc(100vw - 3rem), 44rem"></picture></a></p> <p>I love using it, and the other half seems pretty taken with it too. We even planned our wedding with it. Before BoardOil we were using a small markdown based system that was backed by files on disk. It did the job but we were stretching the seams a bit.</p> <p>Once BoardOil had bedded in for our use I decided I'd put it out there and see if anyone else could make use of it. The slowly growing number of stars on GitHub, and even the issues being raised, have made me happy in ways that years of enterprise development haven't.</p> <p>It's the first time I've ever put anything (usable) I've made public and it's been a little nerve wracking. It's not perfect, and yes, I've used a fair amount of 'AI'. There's probably a different post to make about that, and how conflicted it makes me feel.</p> <p>In the meantime that little bit of blue, dynamically reaching across columns, makes me very happy. I did that and I don't think there's another board quite like it.</p> <hr> <p>If you'd like to try BoardOil:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://demo.boardoil.dozigden.com">Live demo</a></li> <li><a href="https://boardoil.dozigden.com/installation/">Install instructions</a></li> </ul>