Content:
1. How to Create the Rule?
2. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'All Children are Unblocked' Rule
The "All children are unblocked" business rule will automatically unblock a parent card when all of its child cards are unblocked.
1. How to Create the Rule?
To configure and enable the rule for your account, go to the Administration panel at the top right side of your screen, and open the Business Rules tab. Select the "All children are unblocked" rule.
Note: If there is a set of defined rules to your account → use the Add new rule button at the upper right side of the panel.
2. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
The "All Children are Unblocked" configuration panel has the following fields and properties (img.1):
(1) Name — give a rule name to distinguish it.
(2) Description — provide a description of the rule behavior in the system.
Note: when a business rule is created, it will get a rule ID and will be made available in the Business rule panel under name and description.
PRO tip: You can specify the board name in the rule name in order to easily distinguish rules configured for each of your boards.
(3) Share with — this option allows you to share the rule with other users in the system so that they can edit/disable/enable the rule.
Every business rule has three main control settings: When; And; Then. It is a sort of "point-and-click" programming language with which you can automate any process. The way it works is based on the programming conditional statement “if this then that.”
(4) WHEN — this is the event that will trigger an action (i.e. All children are unblocked).
(5) AND — define the child card filter and specify the conditions that trigger the unblock action.
- When users create a new rule, the Board filter will be applied by default. This means that the rule will be executed only for the boards you specify in the filter. If you remove the board property and enable the rule, it will be executed for the entire account.
- To add more criteria, which are relevant to your use case, click the "Add new property" link to open the Card property match panel and select any of the pills.
(6) THEN — if all events and conditions are evaluated as true, the parent card will be unblocked.
Important: To save and enable the rule, checkmark the green box at the top right corner of the configuration panel. Please, read more about the parent/child card relations and how to create them.
To enable the rule → click on the Save button at the lower right corner of the configuration panel. Click on the red x-sign to cancel the creation of the rule.
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'All Children are Unblocked' Rule
This rule usually works in combination with the "Child Card is Blocked" rule where blocking a linked child card also blocks the parent initiative.
The 'All Children are Unblocked' rule can be used to achieve the opposite behavior — to unblock the parent initiative whenever the last child card gets unblocked.
The combination of both rules is useful in cases where work on the main parent initiative cannot continue if one of its child cards gets blocked. An example of this in a software development context would be to block a new version deployment initiative whenever a bug is found during testing. This would mean that the new version cannot be deployed before the bug is resolved (child card is unblocked).