Project shapes: user guide

Project shapes give each kind of project the structure it needs: its own fields, task types, workflow statuses and ready-made templates. A software project can ask for acceptance criteria before a feature is "Ready". A design project can count revision rounds. A business project can record who took a decision.

Projects you already have don't change. They are Standard projects and work exactly as before.

1. Switch it on (admins, once per workspace)

1. Go to Settings → Modules and switch on Project shapes (under Team management). Save. This also installs the four NIZU shapes and their 24 templates.

2. Optional: to let people describe a project in a sentence and get a suggested setup, go to Settings → AI, switch on New project suggestion, and pick a provider.

3. Give people the right permissions under Settings → Roles → role → Projects:

   • Can manage project shapes and templates: edit shapes, workflows, fields, gates and templates.
   • Can override workflow gates: move a task even when its gate isn't met. Every override is recorded.

   Admins have both permissions automatically.

2. The shapes NIZU ships

Each shape has:

• Project fields: for example the repository URL, the brand guidelines or the budget. They appear in the project's Details.
• Task types: for example Feature, Bug and Chore in Software, or Change and Task in Infrastructure. Each type can ask for its own fields.
• A workflow: the columns of its kanban, for example Backlog → Refinement → Ready → In progress → Code review → Testing → Done.
• Gates: what a task must have before it may enter a status (see section 5).

3. Create a project

Click Add project. You choose the shape first, and it can't be changed afterwards. The window offers three ways in.

Help me choose

Two plain questions:

1. What kind of work is it? Software, design, infrastructure, business, Something else (a Standard project) or I'm not sure.
2. What exactly are you making? Pick a template, for example Mobile App or Logo, or start Blank.

Describe it

Write a sentence or two, the way you'd explain the project to a colleague. For example: "A new online shop for our bakery, live before Christmas, with online payments."

Click Suggest a setup. NIZU proposes a shape, a template, a title and a short description. Click Use this and continue to go through the wizard with those filled in, or I'll choose myself. Nothing is created until you confirm on the last step.

I know what I need

All shapes as cards. Pick one directly, or pick Standard for the classic form.

The steps of the wizard

The wizard asks one thing per step. Steps with nothing to ask are skipped.

1. Start from: a template, or Blank.
2. The basics: what the project is called, who it's for (your own team or a client) and what it should achieve.
3. Dates: when it starts, and whether it must be finished by a date. With no start date, template dates count from today.
4. About it: the shape's project fields. Fill in what you know now; everything can be completed later.
5. People: who takes each role of the template (Developer, Designer, Account manager…). A role left empty leaves its tasks unassigned. The people you pick become members of the project.
6. Timeline: the template's milestones on real dates. Weekends are skipped. Change the start date to see the plan move. If the plan runs past your deadline, the step says so and offers Use … as the deadline.
7. Review: a plain summary of what will be created: milestones, tasks and who does what. Click Create the project and open it.

The template creates all milestones, tasks, subtasks, checklists and dependencies at once. If anything fails, nothing is created.

4. Working in a shape project

• Badge: the project title shows its shape.
• Details: the project's Overview tab has a Details card with the shape's project fields. Click the edit icon to change them.
• Kanban and task list: these follow the shape's own workflow. Cards show a small task-type icon.
• Tasks: when you add or edit a task you pick its task type. The form then shows that type's fields. Checklist fields, such as Acceptance criteria, can be ticked straight from the task view.
• Moving a task to another project:
  • between shape projects, it keeps its category: a "to do" status stays "to do", and so on;
  • into a Standard project, it keeps its type and field values (hidden), so it can be moved back without losing anything;
  • no gate is checked on a move, only on the next status change.
• Recurring tasks keep their type and field values each time; checklists start unticked again.
• Clients only see a field when a manager has ticked Visible to the client on it. Task types are never shown to clients.

5. Gates: "before it may move, it needs…"

A gate is a rule on entering a status. For example, a Feature may only enter Ready once it has a Problem, a Decision owner and at least one Acceptance criterion.

• Block gates stop the move. A window lists what is missing, and you can fill it in right there. Save and move saves the fields and moves the task.
• Warn gates let the move happen and tell you what is still missing. For example: Feature → Done with an unticked acceptance criterion.
• Override: people with Can override workflow gates see Override and move. The task history records who overrode it and what was missing.
• Gates apply everywhere a task can move: the task form, the status dropdown, the kanban, bulk edits, the API and AI assistants. A bulk edit moves the tasks that pass and lists the ones that don't.

The gates NIZU ships:

6. Save a project as a template

In any project, open Actions → Save as template.

1. Give the template a name.
2. For each person who had tasks, name the role they played, for example Developer. Leave a role empty to leave their tasks unassigned in the template.
3. Tick Also keep the values filled in on the tasks if the template should carry them.

The template keeps:

• milestones, tasks and subtasks;
• checklists, unticked;
• dependencies and task types;
• dates, as working days from the project start.

It doesn't copy comments, time logs, files, invoices or history.

The template then appears in the wizard for that shape. A Standard project's template appears under I know what I need.

7. Manage shapes and templates (Settings → Projects → Shapes & templates)

Open a shape to see its tabs:

• Workflow: add, rename and recolour statuses, and drag rows to reorder them. Each status has a category (To do, In progress, Done), so reports know what counts as finished. A status that tasks still use can't be deleted.
• Task types: add types and set the default one. Fields opens the field builder: add, reorder, rename and choose the type (text, long text, formatted text, link, number, amount, date, yes/no, one choice, several choices, team member, checklist, project file). Removing a field only hides it; values already filled in are kept.
• Project fields: the same builder, for the project's Details.
• Gates: for a task type and a status, choose what must be filled in or ticked, and whether to Block or Warn.
• Templates: add or edit templates. Open one to set its milestones (start day and duration in working days) and tasks (milestone, task type, role, working-day offsets, checklist, dependencies).

NIZU shapes are read-only. Click Customize this shape to make your own copy; the NIZU version is then hidden in your workspace. Reset to default brings the NIZU version back. Either way, projects already created never change: they keep the fields, statuses and gates they were created with.

A shape that projects use can't be deleted. Switch off Offer it when creating a project to retire it.

8. Good to know

• Betting (Gamify duels): for a shape with a "Ready" step (Software, Design, Infrastructure), a task can only be staked once it has passed that step without an override. Bets already placed are never affected when a task moves back. Business has no Ready step, so betting works as before.
• Graphic Design revisions: each move from Client review to Revisions counts as a revision. Past the project's Included revisions, the task and the project show Extra revision, consider invoicing.
• Reports and dashboards count a task in any "Done" status of a shape as finished, just like the classic Done.
• Invoicing a shape project's tasks marks them with the shape's first Done status.
• Cloning a shape project creates a new project of the same shape.
• AI assistants (MCP): they can list shapes and templates (project_shape_list, project_template_list) and create projects from a shape and template. They can also create and update tasks with a type and field values. A move refused by a gate comes back with the list of what's missing.
• Languages: everything is available in the 13 languages of NIZU.

9. Questions

My existing projects look the same. Is that right? Yes. They are Standard projects and nothing about them changes.

Can I turn a Standard project into a shape project? No. The shape is chosen when a project is created. You can create a new project with the shape you want, or save the Standard project as a template.

I changed a shape's fields. Why don't my existing projects show the change? Each project keeps the setup it was created with, so later changes never break running projects. New projects get the new setup.

I don't see "Add project" offering shapes. An admin needs to switch on Settings → Modules → Project shapes. After an update, do a hard refresh (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R).