If you’re new to Zenhub, here’s how you can create an account: 

1. Go to Zenhub.com and click “Try for free”
2. Input your work email and create a password, then click “Create an account”
3. Tell us what type of project you’re using Zenhub for and what your role is
4. Tell us your organization’s name
5. Click “Connect to your GitHub account” to access all of Zenhub’s features.  ‍

Zenhub is better with GitHub connected. Not only does Zenhub automatically populate your board with issues directly from your GitHub repositories, but it also will now grant you access to some of Zenhub users' favorite features. 

‍With GitHub connected, you will have access to: 

• Automate time-consuming processes like sprint planning and updating workflows
• Track your team's productivity gains over time with real-time reports 
• Enable your team to work closer to their codebase with our browser extension

How to connect with GitHub:

1. Click "Connect with GitHub"
2. If you are the organization's owner, you should see a "Grant" button beside the organization – click this. If you are not the owner, click "Request." This will notify the owner with an automated email to grant you access. We recommend also contacting them directly to ensure they received the email.
3. Once you've selected "Grant" or "Request," you can go ahead and click the "Authorize ZenhubIO" button. If you're the organization owner, no other action is required – welcome to Zenhub!
4. If you are waiting on your organization owner to authorize Zenhub, they will need to go to GitHub's organization settings and click "third party access." Zenhub should appear as a third-party app. From here, they must click "Review" and then "Grant."

For more information on authorizing GitHub with Zenhub, read this blog or reach out to support@zenhub.com if you have any questions. For information on security and permissions in GitHub, please skip to lesson 3. 

With the close integration Zenhub has with GitHub and over 8000 teams using Zenhub worldwide, security is a top priority for us, and we know it is for you too. Read the FAQs about security and permissions below, and don’t hesitate to contact our support team at support@zenhub.com if you have any further questions. 

What is the level of access Zenhub has to a user’s source code?
‍The repository scope that Zenhub requests when connecting to GitHub is full-read and write access. We require this level of access to provide features like issue templates and an overall better experience for our users.
While we recognize that this level of access allows us to read a user’s code, at no point does Zenhub ever read your code or pull requests. 

‍How does Zenhub keep my data safe?
‍We understand that this access puts a big responsibility on our shoulders to manage users’ assets securely. On the DevOps team, we have several encryption and access control policies that ensure assets are kept safe. 

Zenhub is also certified with SOC 2 Type II designation, a highly regarded security certification verified by third-party professionals. Learn more about our SOC 2 designation here.‍

Give your teammates the advantage of getting more productive in Zenhub by inviting them to collaborate with you. Here’s how to invite your team: 

1. Click “Invite your team” on the left-hand navigation
2. Either copy the link to your workspace and send it to your teammates or invite your teammates by email. That’s it! 

Workspaces allow you to collaborate with your team to ship better software. Your workspace is where you will keep your GitHub issues organized within Zenhub. You can create workspaces both in the Zenhub web app or in GitHub using the Zenhub browser extension. 

‍How to create a workspace

1. To create a new workspace, click on your organization name and select the “Create a new workspace” button.
2. From here, you can give your workspace a name. Note: No two Zenhub workspaces can be of the same name, so choose a name unique to your team. 
3. Give your workspace a description (optional)
4. Add GitHub repositories to the workspace by selecting “Add repositories.” You can add repos from all organizations with access to Zenhub. To change the organization you’re searching for, click the avatar in the bottom left corner to see all available organizations. 

Software projects often span across multiple repositories. To accommodate this, you can add multiple repos into your workspace, including those in other organizations, to get one unified view of all work being done. 

How to merge multiple repositories

1. Click the “Repo” drop-down on your Zenhub board. 
2. Using the “Add repo” button, you can select up to 5 repos at a time to add to your workspace. To add repos from other organizations, click the avatar on the bottom left corner to see all available organizations. 

All issues from new repos will be added to your board's "New issues" pipeline. Bulk move issues into their appropriate pipelines by leveraging filters and multi-actions. To copy the pipeline groupings from another workspace for this repo, use automated workflows to automate the movement of issues into different pipelines. 

Final thoughts‍

We hope you found this guide helpful in getting started with Zenhub! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our support team at support@zenhub.com. Need a bit more help getting set up with Zenhub? Schedule a chat with an onboarding specialist here.‍

In this first video of our Intro to Zenhub series, onboarding success manager Sy Mender takes you through the basics of reading and organizing Zenhub boards. Here are some key takeaways:- Zenhub boards are where your team tracks, organizes, and visualizes work- Different pipelines represent different stages of the software development process- Connect multiple public and private repositories from GitHub to populate your board-  Filter issues using filters in the top navigation- Click into issues to expand them and see more information- Create new epics, issues, and pipelines from board view by clicking the "+"

In this episode of our Intro to Zenhub series, we show you how to leverage Zenhub to gain insight into your team’s productivity. Zenhub’s reports are created in real-time using data straight from your team’s GitHub repository. The reports mentioned in this video that you can generate in Zenhub include: - Burndown chats to see how your team is progressing in the current sprint- Velocity tracking, to get a historical view of your team’s velocity (how much work they complete) in an average sprint- Cumulative flow chart to see how work flows across the board from pipeline to pipeline- The control chart to track your cycle and lead time to help predict the average completion of a project- Release reports to forecast delivery dates, manage scope changes, and catch bottlenecks

In this episode of our Intro to Zenhub series, we show you how to visualize all of your team’s large-scale work in one place with Zenhub roadmaps. Zenhub’s roadmaps are updated in real-time using data sourced from GitHub, so the information is always accurate and up-to-date. Create a roadmap by adding start and end dates to your Zenhub epics and projects. We recommend using Roadmaps to keep stakeholders in the loop on what’s happening at a high level. Zenhub roadmaps are also great for predicting project end dates, as they predict end dates in real-time based on your team’s tracked velocity.

In this episode of our Intro to Zenhub series, we show you how to reduce busywork by leveraging workflow automation. Workflow automation enables updates from one board in Zenhub to be reflected in other boards. Workflow automation is simple – just click on “Workflows” in Zenhub and the pipeline you wish to have work flow from, then select the pipeline you want work to flow to.