In most cases the Relationships tab seems to be used as a catch-all device for items that don't have a more intuitive abstraction. This is the most clunky part of the VersionOne tool by far.
I would like to see something like the ability to customize grids to use the "+" expand button to show related items. For example, you could customize the "Issues" tab so that you could expand an issue and see all of the work items associated with it, similar to the way that tasks and tests are displayed in the Detailed Tracking page. This would be much better than having to drill down to each individual item, clicking the Relationships tab, and then scrolling down to find what you want.
Other pages could be customized in the same way. If done right, this would make the application MUCH easier to use. There are some cases (change sets, for example) where four or five mouse clicks are required to get to a related item or even to see if one exists. This is not good interface design.
This approach could be implemented in many places (goals, issues, requests, change sets, etc.) and the need to use the Relationships tab could be greatly reduced if not eliminated entirely. I will admit that this ("+" to expand) would not work for all cases (upstream vs downstream dependencies for example), but would work for the majority of cases and I would even contend that there are better visualization mechanisms for these cases as well.
by: Mike C. | over a year ago | User Interface
Comments
I have mixed feelings for this request. Half of what you've asked for is something that I requested at least several years ago - the grid view for requests and issues (and other similar assets) that shows the associated BLI and Defects using the same BLI-task/test grid view. That would be awesome.
When it comes to removing the relationships tab and making all of those aspects part of the UI, that is where I get a little unsure. It would seem to me that that would end up overly polluting the UI, making it much harder to use that it can be right now. In addition, wouldn't you end up with the same problem you are describing now? Instead of going to 1 place to see various info for the BLI, I'd potentially have to go to multiple locations across the application.
I guess I wouldn't be against this request if 1) it wasn't trying to remove the relationship tab and 2) it wasn't trying to show the varying relationship info all over the UI - again with the exception of the request/issue -> bli/defect grid (that would be awesome!!)
The request may sound a little extreme but the main problem in my opinion is that the relationships tab is often the only way of getting at something that should be viewable in a more user friendly format. I don't have a problem with it being there but it sometime seems like a crutch and an excuse for not putting in a more context-appropriate view. It is a very database-centric, catch-all view that is not designed around specific use cases.
The relationships tab is very clunky and while it is sometimes a convenient way to show all items related to something, it is seldom the best way to visualize a specific relationship. In terms of general usability, many users find it frustrating. There are many examples of this, a few of which have already been mentioned.
There are ways to solve this without cluttering up the interface. One might be to simply to add more options to existing views. For example, in the "Backlog" tab under "Product Planning", there is a menu item called "Show Tasks and Tests". A few more options could be added like "Show Issues", "Show Requests", etc. This idea could be used across all the grid displays making all grids expandable and giving the user some options as to which kinds related items are shown when an item is expanded.
If there are concerns about this approach "polluting" the UI, then another approach might be to create some user-configurable views for this purpose.
One more comment on this subject... It is not necessarily elimination of the relationships tab that is important. It's going through the exercise and asking the question: What would be the best way to display information XYZ if the relationships tab were not there? This would force these issues to be confronted and would ultimately result in better UIs.
I agree that the Relationships tab is not ideal. I would like a view that will allow me to see the life of associated items. For example, I would like to see the requests associated with all work items linked to a specific goal. Currently, I have to open the goal, go to the relationship tab, open each item (one at a time), go to their relationships tab and scroll down to find any related requests.
The relationships tab has been phased out of the Details View in the Spring 2011 release. The new Details View design offers many improvements including:
* Relationships are shown together with the asset details. This is similar to the old summary tab however empty relationship grids are collapsed so to reduce clutter. This also allows us to remove the old summary tab.
* A relationship summary is shown at the top of each Detail View, showing all of the existing relationships and a count of how many exist. This also acts as an anchor link to the particular grid, shown lower in the Details View.
Further details about the Details Views and the Spring 2011 release can be found here:
http://community.versionone.com/Release%20Notes/ReleaseNotes2011Spring.aspx