Aha! Roadmaps | Release dependencies

Regardless of your team's focus, you likely need to coordinate cross-functional work to reach your strategic goals. Releases and schedules in Aha! Roadmaps make it easy to visualize record due dates and dependencies and keep everyone on track through the Releases → Gantt page.

One of the most difficult aspects of roadmap planning is managing dependencies. The Releases Gantt page allows the creation and visualization of dependencies within a single release as well as dependencies spanning across multiple releases — even releases in different workspaces. The Releases Gantt page is perfect for any team that needs to manage delivery dates and complex dependencies that may exist.

Click any of the following links to skip ahead:

• Add features, phases, and milestones

• Create a dependency

• Feature capacity estimates

• Visualize cross-team dependencies

• Report on dependencies

Add features, phases, and milestones

If you want to add features individually, or structure release phases and milestones, click on your release in the Releases Gantt view to open its drawer or detail view. From here, click on the Phases tab, then Add phase or Add milestone for phases and milestones, or the Related tab, then Add epic or Add feature for epics and features. Edit the details of each after you add them.

If you know exactly where you want to add a release element, expand your release on the lefthand side of the Gantt view, then click the + icon between the two records where your new release element should appear. From there, you can add a New feature, Existing feature (one that has been hidden from the Gantt view), a Milestone, or a Phase.

You can also use the + icon that appears alongside a phase name to add New or Existing features directly to the phase.

Features do not have to have a Date range to appear on a release. This way, you can organize them in the context of the rest of the release before assigning them dates. Features without dates will appear at the start of a release but with hazy bar borders.

Assign dates to a feature by clicking and dragging its bar on the Gantt view or by clicking on it to open the feature detail drawer. You can also hide the feature from the Gantt view by clicking the More options button beside the feature's name and selecting Remove from Gantt.

If you choose, you can calculate a release or a release phase's Date range from its child phases and features. To do this, open up a release or release phase's detail view, and select the appropriate calculation type.

• If a release or a release phase is set to calculate its dates from child records, and one of those records' dates change in a way that affects the release or the release phase's dates (even through an integration), the parent record's dates will update automatically. Note: If an integration updates a release or a release phase's Start date or End date, the calculation type will change back to Enter manually, and updates to child records' dates that you make in Aha! Roadmaps will not update the parent record.

• If a release or a release phase is set to calculate its dates from child records, and the parent record doesn't have any child records, its dates will remain blank.

• You can always choose to set a release or release phase's dates to Enter manually.

• Workspace owners can set default record date settings by navigating to Settings ⚙️ Workspace Configure Record dates.

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Create a dependency

To create a dependency in your release, hover over a release element, then click and drag the ball icon that appears next to the dependent release element.

• If the dependent release element is in the future, the dependency line will be grey. If the dependent element is in the past — or if the dates slip on the release element it depends on — the dependency line will turn red.

• Remember, child and parent records don’t have to share the same start and due dates on a Gantt view. When you move a parent record, its child records do not move with it unless they are visible on the Gantt chart, so remember to expand a release, phase, or epic if you want to move its child records as well as the parent.

Note: By default, the page will be filtered to only display releases for the current workspace you have selected in the hierarchy dropdown. Simply edit the Release name filter to add releases from different workspaces if you wish to visualize cross-workspace dependencies.

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Feature capacity estimates

If capacity planning is enabled and you have not already added a feature estimate, adding a feature to the roadmap will add an estimate based on the Date range of that feature. As you manipulate the dates of the feature, the corresponding estimate will change to reflect the total time the feature spans on the roadmap.

If a capacity estimate has been defined by manually inputting a value, manipulating the feature on the roadmap will not impact the capacity. This allows teams to visualize a feature that may be worked on across multiple days but have an overall capacity impact lower than the duration of calendar days it is expected to be worked on.

To manage the capacity for features your team is working on, try the Capacity report.

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Visualize cross-team dependencies

If your plans extend across releases — or across workspaces — you may want to focus on cross-team dependencies without expanding every item on the Gantt chart. To do this, use the Other dependencies section of the Gantt. This section shows any dependencies that affect a given release or epic and are not otherwise visible on the Gantt chart.

The Other dependencies section currently shows incoming dependencies — anything that your release or epic depends on to complete successfully. It does not yet show outgoing dependencies — anything that depends on your release or epic.

• Configure dependencies in the Gantt chart by clicking Customize view ⚙️ Manage dependencies. From here, show or hide the connector lines that indicate dependencies, and enable or disable the Other dependency sections for each release or epic. Note: You can also configure connector lines for individual records by clicking the More options menu beside the record name.

• Use the left-side arrows to expand or collapse releases, release phases, and epics. Any incoming dependencies between an expanded and a collapsed element will be visible in the Other dependencies section of the Gantt.

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Report on dependencies

The Gantt chart visualizes your plans in progress. You can also use reports in Aha! Roadmaps to analyze data, summarize progress, and chart trends.

• Include key details about dependent work items. Use the [Record type] record links table in any list, pivot, or chart report (or custom roadmap!). Then, add the Linked [record type] table and select any field (like Status, Assignee, or Due date) on the linked record's layout.

• For a focused view of critical dependencies, filter these reports to show only records with Depends on/Dependency of relationships. You can also add information about manual and automatic risk indicators. Then, add your filtered report as a dashboard panel.

• View dependencies for multiple objects at once using the dependency report.

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