In this article:
1. How to Create the Rule?
2. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'Child Card is Blocked' Rule
The "Child card is blocked" business rule will automatically block a parent card if any of its child cards are blocked. This rule usually works in combination with the "All Children are Unblocked" rule.
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 Rules tab → select the "Child Card is Blocked Rule" rule.
Note: In case there is a set of defined 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 "Child Card is Blocked" configuration panel has the following fields and properties:
(1) Name — give a name of the rule to distinguish it.
(2) Description — provide a description of the rule behavior in the system.
Note: when a business rule is created, it will get a rule ID and will be made available in the Business rule panel under name and description.
PRO tip: You can specify the board name in the rule name in order to easily distinguish rules configured for each of your boards.
(3) Share with — this option allows you to share the rule with other users in the system so that they can edit/disable/enable the rule.
Every business rule has three main control settings: When; And; Then. It is a sort of "point-and-click" programming language with which you can automate any process. The way it works is based on the programming conditional statement “if this, then that.”
(4) WHEN — this is the event that will trigger an action (i.e. When a card is created).
(5) AND — define the child card filter and specify the conditions that trigger the block action.
- When users create a new rule, the Board filter will be applied by default. This means that the rule will be executed only for the boards you specify in the filter. If you remove the board property and enable the rule, it will be executed for the entire account. You can use "or" to add extra boards and optimize the scope of the rule. Use the minus sign to remove a board.
- Click the "Add new property" link to open the Card property match panel and select any of the pills. For example Priority. In the rule configuration panel, you can set it up as Critical. Note: you can select the criteria that will match your scenario.
(6) THEN — if all events and conditions are evaluated as true, the parent card will be blocked.
As a result of this configuration, only child cards located in Board X that have critical priority will trigger the parent block action.
Important: To save and enable a rule, click on the Save button at the lower right corner of the configuration panel.
Please, read more about parent/child links and how to create them.
3. Practical Examples of Using the 'Child Card is Blocked' Rule
This rule comes in handy when you would like to block the parent card whenever one of its child cards is blocked. By default, if a parent initiative has a blocked child card, the initiative would not be blocked as a result but would only have a visual indication that one of the linked cards is blocked. This rule can be implemented to simply notify the Team Leader / Project Manager that there is an issue with the initiative that needs to be resolved. There can be scenarios where the rule can also notify different people depending on the type of blocker on the blocked card. The rule keeps people accountable for blocked cards and makes it easier to keep track of difficulties in completing the tasks.
In addition, the rule can be combined with the "All Children are Unblocked" rule to achieve the opposite behavior - unblocking the initiative when all of its linked child cards are unblocked.