Editing the Interplay

Where the facilitator and lead can make important tweaks (edits) to the interplay

Written by Martin West

Updated 2 years ago

Note: Pictures are in process of being updated with the new look and feel. The advice on using Janars has been updated. Any questions, please reach out via the widget on the bottom right of the screen.

The interplay is built based on the canvas defined by an orchestrator. It may be adapted by the facilitator or lead by "editing the interplay". This may be done before and during the interplay.

Accessing the Interplay Edit Screens

There are three ways to access "edit interplay":

When setting up an interplay, you'll be taken first to this main screen

When in the interplay list screen, click on the button with tool tip "View & Edit Interplay"

When in card edit screen, in the card data tab on the right side of the screen, click on "Edit Interplay"

Then click on any card and the modal on the right will be displayed. Scroll between cards via controls in the name of the card.

The main screen is where each card in each stage is presented in horizontal format.
The modal screen for information and editing - provides access to details of the card for editing. This is initially presented in the right hand side. You can easily move between cards via the header. You can also drag the modal window to other side of the screen.

Managing interplay before start

To make change before you start the first card. Select the option to "manage interplay before start" when starting the interplay.

Editing the interplay

Here is a list of edits you can make to the interplay and are covered in more detail below:

Show or hide names
Editing "Due date-time" deadline for any of the cards
Questions - Editing, Deleting, and Adding. There is a more detailed article on editing of question flow.
Edit team
Adding or editing labels and events
Adding Activities (used across many events)

Anonymity & Team Changes

Show or hide names

Anonymity can be a powerful tool to create philosophical safety. It is best used with other techniques for creating a safe environment for people. In Janars, it is possible to switch this mid process. We strongly advise against surprising people.

There is also great power in creating an environment where people feel safe stating their opinions, everyone getting curious and having an engaged conversation where all opinions are valued.

The facilitator, lead and team need to manage this feature together. For instance, teams may find it useful to not show names initially when first discussing the inputs. It may make sense to show names when agreeing to specific personal target as a contribution to the team goal.

Tip - As a facilitator and lead, you want to be consistent in whether you show or hide names. This is dynamic so you may hide and then show. However using this feature without fully communicating your intent in advance is dangerous as it may undermine trust in you and the tool. i.e. participant should never be surprised by their name being revealed against a bit of content. Sometimes the safest approach can be to have names associated with content provided. Please use wisely.

Edit Team

Names of each team member are listed with their roles and status on the card.

Editing "Due date-time"

Note: This must been done prior to starting the card in the interplay. If this is required for first card, then when setting up interplay, use the "manage the interplay before start" option to make this change.

If toggled, it defaults to current date-time for the first card. For other cards, the date-time defaults to the date-time of the prior card. Do use the save button to save the date-time entered.

Note: Click on the save button, when time is changed to save it.

When the due date-time passes, all cards are closed. If you are mid-way through editing the card when you exit the card, it becomes closed. It was closed when the time passed, and your final edits were saved.

Edit questions and question flow

It is a good idea to amend questions before a card is started so you can ensure that all participants see the same set of questions. However it is not necessary as you may add questions when a card is not started or in progress. You may not change questions when the card is closed.

Deleting & editing questions is only possible when the card is not started or when no answers have been saved.

See sections below for more details.

Editing questions

When you open the "Questions Flow", the list of questions is displayed. They are in sequence with “H” - header questions first and then “B” - body questions. “N” stands for a new question. I.e. it is the first time the question appears in any card. “E” stands for an existing question. I.e. This question has been answered in a prior question.

Tip - If you edit a question, then check the next card and make the same edit. Do this until you don't see that same question.

Deleting questions

When you remove a question, the two delete options have different purposes

To remove a question from the interplay, then select the question to delete , and choose delete "The question from interplay" option. This removes the question from all cards in the interplay.

Use "Delete from interplay" by default unless you have a very good reason for not doing this.

To remove just an existing question from a card, choose delete "The question for this card" option.

Adding questions

This can be more complex as there are a number of considerations such as number of records, header and body and how they can flow to the next record.

The rules are build into the software, so the worst case is that you will want to do something that is not possible. Janars will stop you from making a mistake. For more information, please either read the more detailed knowledge base article called "Editing questions and question flow" or reach out via support on screen widget.

Teams and Accessing the active card

Edit Team

Names of each team member are listed with their roles and status on the card.

Quick access to the active card from interplay edit

At any time, once the interplay is started, you can directly go to the active card in the interplay. If this button says refresh, then the interplay was not started when the screen was presented, click to see the "view active card".

Interplay edit for Collaborative Editing interface

Adding or editing labels and events

The collaborative edit (Xapty), the facilitator or lead can setup labels and events in advance before the card starts. Alternately they can do it in the Xapty interface as part of the facilitation.

Adding Activities (used across many events)

Activities are created in both the orchestrator where the canvas is designed AND in interplay edit. Editing or adding (& deleting the activity) can happen until the card is closed. Key features are:

There is no limit to how many events of any type can be created and used.
The activity types are: a) Gather (for data processing - input, simplifying, grouping, agenda creation, classification,, ), b) voting, c) scoring and d) ranking.
Multiple questions can be added to every vote, score, and ranking event.
There are three types of scoring - range, any sequence, and fibonacci (simplified). Relative scoring is used. Planning poker decision model is not supported.
Ranking is based on the top X answers from each participant
Votes are divided by the total number offered by the schema.

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