Date Dependencies Observation

When you work with card relations a lot, then you might easily lose track whether the deliverables such as child cards or cards in previous-next relation. Most of the time the work is supplied by other people or departments and it can quickly slip out of required time frames.

IMPORTANT: The Date Dependencies Observation works not only on card relations within a single Board but also across multiple Boards.

To catch quickly whether something will not be delivered within the required time all dependent parent and previous cards will be marked with yellow stripes, like that one:

Possible dependency issues:

Next and Previous card relations:

• Next card starts before the previous card
• Next card starts before the previous card ends
• Next card ends before the previous card starts
• Next card ends before the previous card

Child and Parent card relations: 

• The child starts before the parent
• The child ends before the parent starts
• The child starts after parent ends
• The child ends after parent

Relations do not have to be direct. For example, the date from the "grandchild" card (child of another child card) can be in conflict with the "grandfather" card (parent of another parent card). The same situation applies for cards that are "chained" by previous-next relations.

Example:

Parent and Child relation

You can see on the card front that it has 3 child cards of which 1 has been completed. It might be also possible that one of these 3 child cards has another child card that might be slipping the time frame of the parent card. To see exactly what is slipping we can find that out by opening the striped card and having a closer look at the date section of the card.

As you can see on the above image there is 1 date conflict (grey message under the due date). By clicking on the grey message with the date of conflicts you will be presented with a list of direct or indirect child cards that are have date conflicts described in the upper section of this article.

In this example, there is only one that exceeds the due date of the 28th of April by 5 days because its due date is on the 3rd of May.

TIP: To better understand in which card you are currently in, we have made it WHITE so you can easier recognize what the other card is because it is displayed in GREY color.

Hover over a conflicted date to see more information about the conflict.

In case of multiple conflicts, you will find a list of conflicts containing all information needed to understand the conflict.

Adjusting the date of the parent or child will make the stripes go away when child cards are finished before or on the exact due time point as the parent. The child card should also not start earlier than a parent card – this will also result in stripes because child cards should be done within the time frame of a parent.

The most convenient way to manage time dependencies is the Gantt chart, where you can adjust times using sliding and Drag & Drop.

Previous-Next relation

This card has only one relation - a next card. 

As you can see on the image below there is 1 date conflict (grey message under the due date). By clicking on the grey message with the date of conflicts you will be presented with a list of direct or indirect previous/next cards that are have date conflicts described in the upper section of this article.

In this case, there is only 1 next card that has its start date 9 days before the due date of previous card.

Hover over a conflicted date to see more information about the conflict.

 

Adjusting the date of the next or previous card will make the stripes go away when previous is finished before or on the exact due time point as the next card.

As in the Parent-Child relation described before in this article, here as well is the most convenient way to manage date dependencies by using the Gantt chart, where you can adjust times using sliding and Drag & Drop.