Scheduling dependencies

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After adding a dependency to an issue, you can easily adjust the dates of the linked issues by dragging either end of the schedule block.

If you reschedule an issue that results to conflicting dates for any of its dependent issues, then the corresponding number badges of the affected dependencies will turn red.

Issue dependencies with aligned dates

Red number badges, indicating conflicting dates for issues with dependencies

Dependency scheduling settings

The occurrence of conflicting dependent issues in your plan is also based on the settings that you configure for dependency scheduling in your plan. The following settings are available:

Scheduling behaviorDescription
SequentialDependent issues cannot be worked on at the same time, whether the issues are manually scheduled or auto-scheduled.
ConcurrentDependent issues can be worked on at the same time, whether the issues are manually scheduled or auto-scheduled.

For example, you have the following in your plan:

  • You have dependent stories TIS-1 and TIS-2, with TIS-1 blocking TIS-2.
  • You have Sprint 1 as the immediate sprint in your plan, and Sprint 2 and Sprint 3 following it.
  • Both issues have the same target start and end dates.
  • Both issues are estimated at 30 story points.
  • Both issues are assigned to the same team, and team velocity is at 30 story points.
  • Both issues are not currently assigned to any sprint.

While the issues have no assigned sprint, the badges will turn red. This is because the dependent issues have the same target dates, which is not a realistic schedule because TIS-1 is blocking TIS-2. Thus, the badges will turn red.

Impact of dependency scheduling settings

Following the above details, since both issues are estimated to consume a full sprint, then the number badges will turn red if the issues are scheduled in the same sprint. This applies to both manual scheduling and auto-scheduling of the issues.

If the issues had an estimate of 15 story points each, then the following will happen based on the setting chosen:

Sequential
  • The dependent issues will be auto-scheduled into Sprint 1 and Sprint 2. The number badges will not turn red.
  • If you manually assign the issues to the same sprint, the number badges will turn red. This is because the dependent issues must be scheduled into different sprints.
Concurrent
  • The dependent issues will be auto-scheduled into the same sprint, Sprint 1. The number badges will not turn red.
  • If you manually assign the issues to Sprint 1, the number badges will still not turn red. This is because dependent issues can be scheduled and worked on in the same sprint.

When you're auto-scheduling your plan, note that the lead time that appears in the dependency details is an auto-scheduled value. The lead time value displaying is the new value that will be updated once the suggested changes are accepted.

Sample lead time of a dependency when a plan is auto-scheduled

Last modified on Mar 6, 2020

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