Item Relations

Teamhood allows you to set and track dependencies between items in the same workspace. This means that you can set dependencies between items held in the same or different boards. There are 4 item relation types which you will find:

• Child / Parent – breakdown items into smaller pieces
• Waiting for (Dependency) – link items so that specific ones need to be finished first
• Blocking (Dependency) – link items so that specific ones will be blocked by current item
• Synchronized Copy – copy item to same or other workspace. It will keep some (configurable) properties synchronized.

⬇️ Scroll down to learn more about each relation type. ⬇️

Child items

This is the most fundamental building block of any larger task or project. You will breakdown bigger things into smaller things by using child item relation type. The best thing is that you can have as many levels of child items as you like! While Kanban view is the most comfortable for up to 3 levels of hierarchy, Gantt and List views are capable to display all of them. You can add child items right from the parent item card or open item details and continue from there.

⚠️ You cannot detach child items and still keep the relation. If you will convert child item into a standalone parent item card, it will loose the relation to original parent.

Blocking and waiting Dependencies

There are 2 ways to set dependencies in Teamhood – by connecting dependent items with arrows or in work item details.

1. To connect the dependent items with arrows you will need to open one of these views – Gantt, Workload or Timeline. Here, you can simply connect the items to mark their dependencies.
2. Otherwise, to set item dependencies, you will need to open the item details. Here, in the section ‘Item relations’ you will see two sections – ‘Waiting on’ and ‘Blocking’.

Add items that must be finished before the current item can start to the Waiting on section. These items will be shown with a yellow exclamation point.

Add items that are waiting for this item to be finished to the Blocking section. These items will be shown with a red block sign.

Once a dependent item is complete, the symbol next to it will turn into a green checkmark.

That is it, your dependencies are all set. Now, you can see them in Gantt, Kanban, and List views, as well as several Workspace reports.

Manage Dependencies in Different Boards

As mentioned, Teamhood allows you to set item dependencies between different boards in the same workspace. The most convenient way to do that is by using the Timeline or Workload views.

Here you can conveniently see items from all boards categorized by the boards or by the assignees. To make dependency management even more convenient, you can filter out unnecessary information and minimize the boards which you do not want to see. Thus leaving only the important information in your view.

Dependencies Manager

Clicking the dependencies field in List or Gantt view opens a dedicated Dependencies Manager — one interface where you can see and manage everything an item is waiting on or blocking. Previously this opened the full item details, which was a confusing place to land when all you wanted was the relations.

Filtering by Dependencies

You can filter by dependency state to quickly see what is actually workable. Four conditions are available:

• Has all dependencies ready — everything this item was waiting on is complete, so it can start.
• Has not ready dependencies — still blocked by unfinished work.
• Has any dependencies
• Does not have any dependencies

These filters work in Kanban, Gantt, List and Home views. “Has all dependencies ready” is particularly useful as a daily pull list — it answers “what can we start right now?” in one click.

Auto Scheduling Dependencies

For those using item dependencies, we recommend turning on the feature to ‘Auto-schedule dependent items’. Once this feature is turned on, and you change the schedule of an item with dependencies, the schedule of those dependent items is automatically adjusted. So, if one item is running late, your project plan and duration adjusts automatically.

This feature can be found in Workspace settings.

Synchronized item copies

The most advanced and most powerful relation type – synced copies. It will allow you to connect items between different workspaces and keep the data synced.

Use case example for synchronized item copies.

The best example is – you have a project portfolio workspace where only top level project milestones or stages are present. But then you want to delegate each milestone to a separate team which works in a separate workspace. Synced copies to the rescue! You will simply copy any item and move it to another workspace. Once it get’s finished or updated in that workspace – information will circle back to the original item (root). Try it for yourself!

💡 Business plan subscribers can configure which item fields get copied and which ones are synchronized.

A few things worth knowing when working with synced copies:

• Changes are visible in the change log. When a synced copy is modified, that change is reflected in the item’s change log, so you can see what happened across boards rather than wondering where an update came from.
• You can keep the copies when deleting the source. Deleting a source item gives you the option to keep its synced copies, which prevents the accidental loss of connected information in other workspaces.
• They can be created automatically. An automation action can create a synced copy for a triggered item, and the Open API can create them programmatically.
• Tracked time is attributed clearly. Hovering a tracked time value shows whether it came from child items, synced copies, or both — see time tracking.