Manage Relations as Cards and Lanes on Views

To view and manage Relations of multiple items on the same screen it is possible to create and customize dedicated Board and List views.

New relations can be easily added right from the view via Quick Add buttons.

To manage existing relations double-click on a card and navigate to Relations tab in detailed popup view. Alternative options are to use drag-n-drop action to re-distribute cards across lanes or to use 'Add relation...' action from context menu.

Related entities as cards on a view

For each entity you can see all its inbound or outbound related items as cards on a view.

In the example below, we’ve selected Features as lanes and inbound relations for cards. As a result we can easily see all the inbound related items for our Features:

Inbound or Outbound Relations as lanes on a view

To build a view that shows many entity relations, it is also possible to use assignable work items as cards and either Inbound Relations or Outbound Relations as lanes.

For example, let’s imagine that we need to see Bugs and User Stories, which prevent the implementation of Features, which are currently in progress. It is possible to see them all on the view.

Here we can see all the Features with Inbound Relations, which haven’t been completed yet, shown as rows, and their inbound User Stories and Bugs as cards on the view.

Supported view setups

Let’s see how it works. In the picture below we can see that the User Story has two inbound related Bugs, one of which is a blocker, and one outbound related Feature. It means that we first need to close bugs, i.e resolve the inbound relations, then implement the User Story, and only after the User Story has been completed we can start working on an outbound Feature.

We can see the same relations on the view in four different ways:

1. Inbound blocker Bugs as lanes and related User Stories as cards

Cards: User Stories
Lanes: Inbound Relations

Here we choose to see User Stories as cards and ask to show their Inbound Relations (Bugs) as lanes. Note: The ‘relation sign’ in lanes shows the direction of the relation:

2. Inbound blocker Bugs as cards and related User Stories as lanes

Cards: Bugs
Lanes: Outbound Relations

Here we choose to see Outbound Relations (User Story) as lanes and show their Bugs (Inbound Relations) as cards.

3. User Stories as cards and outbound Features as lanes

Cards: User Stories
Lanes: Outbound Relations

Here we choose to see User Stories (Inbound Relations) as cards and ask to show their Outbound Relations (Feature) as lanes.

4. User Stories as lanes and outbound Features as cards

Cards: Features
Lanes: Inbound Relations

Here we choose to see Inbound Relations (User Story) as lanes and show their Features (Outbound Relations) as cards.

Filters

It is possible to apply filters to Inbound Relations and Outbound Relations lanes. More information: Filters by Relations

Use case: Relations Board

Let's create a view to see all the incomplete Features with Inbound Relations, shown as rows, and their inbound User Stories and Bugs as cards.

We will use the following settings:

Cards: User Stories, Bugs

Lanes: Inbound Relations

Filter for lanes:

?EntityType is 'Feature' and EndDate is None and StartDate is not None

The filter consists of 3 parts:

EntityType is 'Feature'

- selects only Features as lanes.

EndDate is None

- chooses only entities with no End Date (not completed yet).

StartDate is not None

- chooses only entities with Start Date (started already).

Empty lanes

Empty lanes are hidden from view by default. When we select Inbound Relations or Outbound Relations as lanes only rows of the entities with relations are shown.

Create Relations

To create a new related entity straight from the board, you can use ‘quick add’ button.

To create a relation with an existing entity, you can choose an entity on another board (it appears in the selected items panel), go back to the board with relations and drag and drop the selected entity to the correct cell. A new relation between the existing entities will be created.

To create a relation with an existing entity displayed on the same board, you can right-click on card and select 'Add relation...' option from the opened context menu. After that, select another card that will be connected to it. A new relation between the existing entities will be created.

Edit Relations

To manage existing relations double-click on a card and navigate to Relations tab in detailed popup view.

On views with any assignable items are selected as Cards and Inbound or Outbound relations as lanes or vice versa it is possible to edit relations using drag-n-drop action. Pick a card of a work item and drag it to another lane on the view. It dismisses existing relation and makes the card connected to the item represented as the lane.

To remove existing relation you can also right-click on relation line displayed on View and select 'Delete' action.

See also

• Filters by Relations