On the taskboard and other tracking views, highlight stories with blocking issues, and provide more visibility into the issues/impediments blocking any stories. This will let us easily see what's being held up and what those blockers are so they can be addressed.
by: Existing V1 Request L. | over a year ago | Tracking
Comments
Expanding on this, highlight the Backog Item/Defect as "Blocked" if any subordinate task or test is blocked.
This can be done currently by adding the choices to the Story/Defect and Task status dropdowns. That is how we deal with it.
I agree with Tom, simply adding this as a status option to tasks shows up on the taskboard and other places quite effectively for us. You can then also filter on "status -> blocked" in the detail tracking view as well.
What is missing, however, is the automatic rollup to the backlog item/defect (or story)when a subordinate task is blocked. I think this was the original intent of the request.
Visual indication of blocked items would be a very nice feature. Especially on the taskboard. Using just 'Blocked' status does not provide the same visibility and does not attract attention.
It is too bad that this is one feature where Rally really shines over Version One. In Rally, blocked items are very visable.
What I would like to see is a "Add Block" feature just like we can add Tasks to Stories or Defects. That way we can quickly add the reason for the block, and in the case of multiple blocks, identify those. Then, as part of the standup, we can pull up a list of blocks and the stories/defects those items are blocking.
Blocking Issues can now easily be set and seen. See the Spring'10 Release Notes for more details. There's a video that walks through the Blocking Issues functionality.
http://community.versionone.com/Release%20Notes/ReleaseNotes2010Spring.aspx