Configuring the scheduling of dependencies

Advanced Roadmaps gives you more control on how the scheduling algorithm ranks issues that have dependencies in your plan.

The following options are available for how Advanced Roadmaps schedules issues with dependencies:

• Rank dependent work item below required item
• Rank required work item above dependent item
• Off

To illustrate, let's say you have an Engineering plan, with the following details:

• Your plan has Story 1, Story 2, Story 3, and Story 4.
• Story 1 is the highest ranked issue in your plan.
• Story 1 is dependent on Story 4.
• Story 4 has a lower rank than Story 1.

In this example, since Story 1 is dependent on Story 4, Story 4 is then the required item and Story 1 is the dependent item.

Rank dependent work item below required item

With the Engineering plan, the work items will be scheduled this way:

• Story 1 (dependent item) will have to wait until Advanced Roadmaps schedules Story 4 (required item).
• Other work items that have a lower rank (Story 2 and Story 3) may also be scheduled before Story 1.
• Advanced Roadmaps will consider other priorities until the dependencies of a work item are resolved – and only then will Advanced Roadmaps prioritize the work item.

Rank required work item above dependent item

With the Engineering plan, the work items will be scheduled this way:

• Story 4 (required item) will be ranked above Story 1 (dependent item).
• Advanced Roadmaps won't schedule any work item with a lower rank than Story 1 before Story 1 itself — unless Story 1 depends on that work item.
• Advanced Roadmaps will basically do whatever is necessary to complete the required work item as soon as possible.

Off

Advanced Roadmaps will ignore any dependencies when scheduling the work items. The ranking of the work items will be taken into account, with the dependencies displayed in the schedule.

To configure the scheduling of dependencies:

1. In your plan, click more () next to the plan name > Configure > Scheduling.
2. In the Scheduling options section, select the dependency scheduling option for your plan as necessary.