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Using Plane

This is a beginner's guide to Plane, the tool we use to track sprints, tasks, and bugs. If you've never used a project tracker before, start here — no prior experience assumed.

If you haven't read it yet, read Milestones & Planning first. This page shows you where our Agile process (sprints, backlog, definition of done) lives inside Plane.

Plane lives at plane.buraq.games, signed into with your Buraq account — see Accessing Buraq's Tools if you haven't logged in yet. There's no separate invite step; an admin sets up your account and you're in.

What Plane is

Plane is an open-source project management tool, similar to Jira or Linear. Everything we plan and track — sprint tasks, bugs, design work — lives there instead of in chat messages or spreadsheets. If it's not in Plane, it doesn't exist as far as the team's plan is concerned.

Core concepts

Plane has a few building blocks. Here's how they map to our workflow:

Plane term What it means here
Workspace The whole studio — one workspace for Buraq Squad.
Project One game or initiative (e.g. SCARLET, HEXYBER).
Cycle A sprint. Ours are 2 weeks, matching Milestones & Planning.
Module A feature or system within a project (e.g. "Inventory", "Boss Fight 1").
Issue A single task, bug, or piece of work — the smallest unit you interact with.
State Where an issue is in its lifecycle: Backlog, Todo, In Progress, In Review, Done.
View A saved filter, e.g. "My Issues" or "This Cycle's Bugs."

Logging in and finding your project

  1. Log in with the account your lead invited you with.
  2. You'll land on your workspace. Pick your game's project from the sidebar.
  3. Click Cycles in the left nav to see the current sprint.

Your daily workflow

  1. Find your work. Click My Issues (top nav or sidebar) to see everything assigned to you, or open the current Cycle to see the whole sprint board.
  2. Move issues as you work. Drag an issue's card between states, or open it and change its State field:
  3. Todo → not started yet
  4. In Progress → you're actively working on it
  5. In Review → done from your side, waiting on review/testing
  6. Done → meets the definition of done
  7. Comment instead of DMing. If you have a question or update about a task, post it on the issue, not in Discord/WhatsApp. That way the context stays attached to the work.
  8. Log blockers immediately. If you're stuck, add a comment on the issue and flag it in standup — don't wait for the sprint review.

Creating an issue

  1. Click + New Issue (top right, or C keyboard shortcut).
  2. Fill in:
  3. Title — short, specific ("Fix camera clipping in Level 3", not "camera bug").
  4. Description — what's wrong / what's needed, and how to verify it's done. Link a design doc if one exists.
  5. Assignee — who's doing the work.
  6. Cycle — which sprint it belongs to (leave blank to add it to the backlog instead).
  7. Priority and Labels — use these to mark bugs vs. features, and urgency.
  8. Save. It now shows up in the relevant board and in the assignee's My Issues.

Sprint planning in Plane

  • At sprint planning, the lead opens the Backlog view, and the team drags prioritized issues into the new Cycle.
  • During the sprint, new work that comes up goes into the Backlog, not straight into the active cycle — see Scope changes.
  • At sprint review, walk the Cycle board: anything not in Done rolls into the next cycle.

Tips for beginners

  • You don't need to understand every Plane feature on day one — My Issues and moving cards between states covers 90% of daily use.
  • If an issue is unclear, comment and ask rather than guessing.
  • Keep issue titles short and states up to date — the whole point of the tracker is that anyone can glance at it and know the real status without asking.