By using the Linked Cards tab in a card you can add and view the various linkings like the Parent-Child link, Traceability link, or Dependency link. Once you click the Linked Cards tab, it displays the following options:

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Parent-child Links

Traceability

Dependency Links

Working with Parent-child Links

You can perform the same actions like adding a parent or child card, within or across boards with ease as well as you have the option to Search and Link the Parent/Child option.
In this article, we have only covered the enhanced version of Parent-child linking through the Linked Cards tab present in each card. For more information, related to the remaining hierarchy topics, click the links below.

Pre-requisite: Before you go on creating a parent-child hierarchy between cards, you need to make sure the parent-child hierarchy between the card types the cards belong to, has already been set in the Admin.

We have elaborated on these options step-by-step in the following section. For this, we are going to consider the following image in which we have opened a Ticket type card in edit mode or directly by clicking the LinkCard icon on the card. In this, we are trying to link a parent card and its child card within and across projects. We already have a few USTs and tickets created on the board. We will add as well as Search the cards using the new enhanced feature and link our cards to cover all the steps required.

 

1. Click icon and select Add Parent to add a new parent card.

2. The following window opens.

3. Select the Board (will list all boards to which you have access), card type (will list the card types that are defined under Admin → Settings → Card Type Links), current lane/column in which you want to add this parent card, add the title and description of the parent card, and click Save.

Note: Only those card types will be listed for which you have defined the card type links. For more information, click here.

4. The Parent-child link window gets updated with the new parent card.

5. Now, let’s try to add a few cards to the parent cards using the Search and Link Child option. Click options icon and select Search and Link Child.

6. The following screen is displayed. Select the board in which you want to search for the card and select card type.

7. Select the cards that you want to add as a Child Card and click SAVE.

8. Now, if you want to add a card from across the project, use the same options i.e Add Parent/Child Card or Search and Link Parent/Child and select the Board in which you want to add and card type, and finally create/select the card and click Save. The highlighted card is not present in the current board but you can view it in the parent-card hierarchy.

9. Lastly, if you want to remove a link, click Remove Link and confirm the prompt message. The link will be removed.

10. You can also view the hierarchy in List view by using the toggle button at the top. All the same, operations are available in the list view under the Actions column. The Status column in the list view tells the status of the cards whether they are active, closed, or blocked (highlighted in red color).
Note: All the cards on the Kanban Board are considered ‘Active’ cards. That means active cards include cards that are in the Backlog, Ready column, In Progress column, Completed columns, and ‘Waiting’ type columns and moved to or beyond the ‘Done’ type column on the Kanban Board. Cards that are archived, discarded, and aborted are considered ‘Closed’ cards.

List View

Note:

The following parent-child card hierarchy will not be available for a Closed Board:

  • Add or delete parent-child links between closed Board cards.
  • Add or delete parent-child links between closed and open Board cards.
  • While adding a parent or child of a card via the card hierarchy, no cards of the closed Board will be available via search.

IMPORTANT: Once you close a card, the operation may take time to complete successfully. You will receive an email once the card is closed.

Bulk Removal of Parent-child Links

With the REMOVE LINK option, you can quickly detach child cards from their parent cards without the need to remove each link individually. Simply Ctrl+click the child card you wish to detach and all the parent-child links will be removed from the List View, streamlining the bulk removal process. This option will save you time and improve your workflow with this time-saving enhancement.

Ctrl click

Working with Traceability Tab

Pre-8.0 Release, SwiftKanban allows the definition of links between cards to indicate dependencies/relationships using the ‘Linked Cards’ feature available on the cards. The links can be internal (on the same board) or external (across boards). This is extremely useful, especially in software development. This was handled in the Other-links option under Linked Cards. You can link only existing cards in the ‘Other Links’ option under Linked Cards. For example, after you set a relationship between a user story to a defect, you can later trace the origin of a story and understand the defect that led to the development of that feature. For further information, click here.

After the 8.0 Release, you can not only link between two existing cards but can also add a new card while setting up the traceability link. This option is now available under the Traceability option in the Linked Cards tab of any card.

NOTE: Only Immediate level linked cards for the selected card are available to view in this option.

Prerequisite:
Card Type should have links defined so that cards of only selected card types are linked to each other. See the Defining Links Between Card Types page for detailed help.

To link a card under the Traceability option perform the following steps:

1. Open a card in edit mode or directly by clicking the LinkCard icon on the card and selecting the Traceability option.

2. To link a new card, click icon and select the New card option.

3. In the new window, select the Board (will list all boards to which you have access, in our example, we are creating a new card in another board to which we have access), card type (will list the card types that are defined under Admin → Settings → Card Type Links), current lane/column in which you want to add this parent card, add the title and description of the parent card, and click Save.

4. A new card gets created and traced with the card. You can check the board details displayed on the card that shows the cards are on different boards.

5. In a similar way, you can either create links to the selected card or the cards that are linked to the selected card that will help you to later trace the origin of a story and understand the various cards which led to the development of that feature. You can either select New Cards or Search and Link options to add new links to your cards.

6. Select the Search and Link option and in the new window similar to the New Card option, select the Board (within or across boards) and Card Type (will list the card types that are defined under Admin → Settings → Card Type Links). The Cards will get listed and you can select the cards that you want to link and click Save.

7. On the other cards, you can find two more options available i.e. Remove Link and Set Context to this Card.

8. Selecting the Remove Link option will simply remove an existing link between two cards and they won’t be linked in the Traceability option. Click icon, select the Remove Link option, and confirm the prompt message. The link will be removed.

9. Another option that is available is to set Context to this Card. This option lets you make any card present in your traceability screen as a center point and check its traced items.

11. You can also view the Linked cards in the List view format by using the toggle button at the top. All the same, operations are available in the list view under the Actions column.

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