Managing dependencies

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When planning work for your teams, it helps to monitor the dependencies across the issues in the plan. This helps you spot any issues that are blocking the progress of other issues, and ultimately helps you create a realistic schedule for your teams.

Before you begin

To use dependencies in the new experience, dependencies must already be configured in Portfolio for Jira. If dependencies are not configured yet, see Managing Portfolio dependencies (current documentation) to know how.

Viewing issues with dependencies

For issue dependencies to be displayed in the new experience, you'll need to add the dependency fields to your plan first.

  1. In the roadmap view of the plan, click more () in the fields section.
  2. Select the Dependencies checkbox. The 'Incoming dependencies' and 'Outgoing dependencies' columns will be displayed.


When the dependency fields are already displaying in your plan, the dependencies of any issues will be also be displayed in the corresponding columns.

1The incoming dependencies and outgoing dependencies columns, where the dependencies of an issue will appear as an issue count.
2

Click the dependencies field of an issue, to view the associated dependencies in detail.

3

The details of the associated dependencies, which include:

  • Dependency type, which is the relationship that is defined by the issue links configured in either Portfolio for Jira or Jira
  • The issue details, status, and assignee of dependency
  • Lead time, which is the number of days left until work for the dependency is due to start
4

The number of dependencies that a particular issue has.

A number on the left of the schedule block means there are (n) outgoing dependencies for the issue, while a number on the right means there are (n) incoming dependencies.

You can also click on the number to view the associated dependencies in detail.

(info) When you're optimizing your plan, note that the lead time that appears in the dependency details is not an optimized value.

Sample lead time of a dependency when a plan is optimized

Adding a dependency to an issue

For issue dependencies to be displayed in the new experience, you'll need to add the dependency fields to your plan first.

  1. In your plan, find the issue for which you want to add a dependency.
  2. Find the corresponding dependency column (incoming or outgoing), and do one of the following:
    • If there's no existing dependency yet, hover on the field > click + Add dependency.
    • If there are existing dependencies, view the dependency details > click + Add dependency below the issue list.
  3. Select the type for the dependency.
  4. Enter the issue key or summary to start searching for the issue > select the issue.
  5. Click the check icon. The dependency will be added for the issue.
  6. In the roadmap view of your plan, above the timeline section, click Review changes. The 'Review changes' dialog will display, with all changes selected by default.

    While reviewing your changes, perform the following as needed:

    • To view multiple changes, expand the corresponding item in the 'What changed' column.
    • With all the checkboxes already selected by default, clear the ones for the changes you do not want to save in Jira. While these changes won't be saved in Jira, these will still exist in your Portfolio plan.
    • Select the checkboxes of the changes you want to save in Jira, then click Save selected changes in Jira.
    • To discard any changes, select the checkboxes of these changes, then click Discard selected changes. These changes will then be discarded from your plan, and the values will revert to the ones currently saved in Jira.

You can also add multiple dependencies to an issue. Add and specify the details for the dependencies first, and then review and save your changes in Jira.

Removing a dependency from an issue

For issue dependencies to be displayed in the new experience, you'll need to add the dependency fields to your plan first.

  1. View the dependencies of the issue in detail. The dependency details will be displayed.
  2. Find the dependency that you want to remove from the issue.
  3. Click the delete icon next to the dependency.
  4. In the roadmap view of your plan, above the timeline section, click Review changes. The 'Review changes' dialog will display, with all changes selected by default.

    While reviewing your changes, perform the following as needed:

    • To view multiple changes, expand the corresponding item in the 'What changed' column.
    • With all the checkboxes already selected by default, clear the ones for the changes you do not want to save in Jira. While these changes won't be saved in Jira, these will still exist in your Portfolio plan.
    • Select the checkboxes of the changes you want to save in Jira, then click Save selected changes in Jira.
    • To discard any changes, select the checkboxes of these changes, then click Discard selected changes. These changes will then be discarded from your plan, and the values will revert to the ones currently saved in Jira.

You can also remove multiple dependencies from an issue. Remove the dependencies first, and then review and save your changes in Jira.

Last modified on Nov 29, 2018

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