In this article:
1. How to Create the Rule?
2. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'All Children are Moved' Rule
This business rule will automatically move a parent card to a specified position when all of its child cards are moved to a predefined set of columns/swimlanes. A typical example would be to move a parent card to a certain column in “In Progress” (e.g. Ready to Sign-Off) when all of its child cards are moved to a certain column in their workflow (e.g. QA Ready).
This rule is very useful for tracking bigger projects and is suitable for the Portfolio Kanban management scenario.
1. How to Create the Rule?
Only users with "Account Owners" or "Manage Business Rules" privileges can create business rules.
Go to your Administration panel at the top right of your screen → open the Business Rule Tab → select the "All children are moved" rule.
Note: In case there is a set of predefined 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 moved" configuration panel has the following fields and properties:
In the Name and Description fields, you can define the name of the rule and give a description of the scenario you will achieve with it. This way you can create an overview of your active business rules, as upon creation every automation is present in the Business Rules panel.
PRO tip: You can specify the board name in the rule name in order to easily distinguish rules configured for each of your boards.
You can share the rule with other users (e.g. Workspace manager), if appropriate. In this case, they will be able to edit/disable/enable the rule.
The Business rules are a sort of "point-and-click" programming language with which you can automate any process. Each Business rule has three main properties: When; And; Then.
1. WHEN - this is the event that will trigger an action when it occurs (i.e. all child cards are moved).
2. AND - here you define the filters, which specify the conditions under which the actions should be triggered.
- Board: It is mandatory to specify the board where you will be applying the rule. There are two operators - is and is not. You can pick more than one board.
- Position: The filter position is also mandatory for this Business rule. There are two options here as well: position is/is not - select one of the options from the dropdown. Click on Not Set to select a board (1) from the dropdown and a position (2) from the board minimap (you can select a cell or an entire column/swimlane by clicking on its name).
- Click on "or" to add extra positions and optimize the scope of the rule. Use the delete sign to remove a position.
- Click on the Add new property button to add extra filters, if necessary. Select a Regular field or/and a Custom field → click on Add.
For all time-related fields, you can select the following units: Days, Hours, Minutes, and Seconds. When you have added the filter, set it up by clicking on Not set, or entering a value.
Note: You can add as many filters as you wish by clicking on Add new property and repeating the steps.
3. THEN - Define the position where the parent card is to be moved.
Click on Add Action → Choose where to move → select the board and position from the board minimap (you can select a cell or an entire column/swimlane by clicking on its name).
To enable the rule, click on the Save button at the lower right corner of the panel.
Read more about parent/child links and how to create them.
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'All Children are Moved' Rule
While the system automatically moves parent cards between the main stages of the board (“Backlog,” “Requested,” “In Progress,” “Done,” “Ready to Archive”), it does not know how to move cards between different columns of the same stage. This is where the "All Children are Moved" rule comes in handy. It can be used to move a parent Initiative card between the "In Progress" columns based on which column its children are in.
Let's look at a practical example — Whenever all the child cards are moved to the "In Progress" column “QA Ready,” the parent Initiative card is moved to the "In Progress" column “SIT.” The rule setup in this case will look like this:
If you want to move the parent card when one of the children is moved, check out the "Child Card is Moved" Business Rule.