1. Introduction to card links
The Card linking is used to connect (link) several cards together.
It is a common rule to group together cards that are related to one another in order to associate and synchronize them on the whole (relative cards, mirror cards)
Another reason to start linking cards is to create a breakdown of a card, which incorporates hierarchical structure (parent/child cards). This is a precondition for the Portfolio Kanban Management scenario.
2. Type of links
1.1 Relative Cards – these are similar cards with no hierarchy between them. For example - let’s assume that you’re coordinating a marketing campaign for customer “X”. Card 1 represents the work of the Designer and Card 2 represents the work of the Content Manager. It would be appropriate to link these two cards as relatives.
1.2 Parent/Child cards – this type of relationship enables you to breakdown a task (parent card) into smaller pieces of work (child cards) and track each child card’s metric separately.
Note: A parent card may have an unlimited number of child cards. A child card can have only one parent card.
1.3 Mirror Cards – use this type of connection if you simply want to duplicate a card. Any change of the original card will be automatically reflected in the mirror one and vice versa.
Note: This kind of connection has a limitation – a card which already has a parent/child link cannot be mirrored.
1.4 Successor/Predecessor cards – this relationship creates rules of order in the breakdown of your work via dependencies between the cards. If this connection is established, the system will not allow you to start working on the card defined as a successor, before the completion of the predecessor card (it first has to be moved to Done). The system will prevent that by blocking the successor card and make it immobile.
To learn how to make links between cards, please read the dedicated article "How to Link and Create a Breakdown of a Card?".
3. How to make links visible at the closed card view?
To make the linked cards visible at the closed card view (Image 1)-> go to the Grid Menu at the upper right corner of your board interface -> select Configure Card View -> checkmark " Show links" (one per row).
(Image 1)
On hover, you will see details about each linked card from the parent card itself.
- The Arrow icons beside the card titles of the linked cards show whether a task is a parent of other tasks (arrow points up) or a child of another task (arrow points down). An arrow pointing right represents a relative, while the parallel lines are used to show mirror cards.
The curved arrows are used to visualize successor and predecessor card relation.
- The Colour code stand for the position of the linked cards on the Board.
The grey color corresponds to the "Backlog".
The blue color corresponds to the "Requested" stage.
The orange color corresponds to the "In Progress" stage.
The green color corresponds to the "Done" stage.
The purple color corresponds to the "Archive".
Tip: The color codes are very helpful when you want to get an idea about the number of incompleted cards.