Rally Office Hours:
August 20, 2026

Summary

Product announcements

• Kanban board general availability: The Kanban board extension to the custom board widget is now generally available, allowing advanced mapping of states to schedule states, work-in-progress (WIP) limits, exit agreements, and tracking card age (06:01).
• Pie and bar column chart enhancements: These charts now support non-artifact types, such as releases, iterations, builds, or users. This allows users to visually display proportions or aggregate data by tags and milestones (07:01).
• Portfolio item (PI) flow states general availability: Now officially out of beta, this feature enables users to set customized PI states at different levels of the hierarchy that roll up based on their parent states (13:30).
• Custom page migration progress: The transition tracking shows that custom page migration traffic has stalled around 38% to 39%, with a target goal of reaching 65% in August ahead of the October 31 deadline (15:08).

Q&A

• Tracking non-value-added time: An attendee asked about differentiating the impact of specific initiatives on blocked time. A speaker responded that there is no out-of-the-box solution, but suggested using the lookback API or historical data until a public API for the new cycle time widget becomes available (20:56).
• Exporting story URLs to Miro: A participant asked how to include Rally story URLs in a bulk CSV export. A speaker explained it is not directly supported but can be achieved in Excel by appending the formatted ID column to a preconstructed URL string formula (26:41).
• Managing external dependencies: A user asked for best practices for tracking external partners not using the tool. Speakers recommended creating a dedicated tracking story with zero points within the primary team's workspace or utilizing a custom Boolean flag field (28:56).
• Story-to-defect conversion required fields: An attendee questioned why required defect fields are not enforced immediately during conversion. A speaker noted this is intended behavior, but the system will force the user to supply the required information upon the very next edit (35:56).
• Maintaining project scope in custom views: A participant asked how to link to a shared defect page without hardcoding a specific project ID. It was explained that removing the project fragment from the URL allows it to correctly default to the user's active or default project context (36:45).
• Shared custom view column persistence: A user reported that individual modifications to shared screen columns were unexpectedly affecting all users. A speaker clarified that local view mode modifications should only persist in that specific browser's local storage and advised using the "revert" button to restore the saved layout (40:10).
• Planned and unplanned widgets for features: An attendee requested plan and unplan widgets for tracking feature-level trends across multiple PIs. A speaker shared that, while there are no immediate plans for that specific feature, the widget is being updated with more configurations, and feedback should be submitted (43:52).
• Color support in context field editor: A participant noted that rich text color formatting is lost when viewed in the context text widget. A speaker acknowledged the limitation and thanked them for bringing up the issue (48:42).
• Custom trend charting for defects: A user asked about creating custom defect trends; a speaker announced that a defect trend widget and a more generic historical aggregation widget are currently in development for the current PI (51:53).
• Kanban swim lanes for blocked and ready items: An attendee asked if both blocked and ready states could be combined into a single Kanban board swim lane. The speaker confirmed it is not supported and advised submitting a product request (53:46).
• SSO connection issues with Excel plugin: A user asked for troubleshooting help regarding intermittent single sign-on connection failures with the plugin. A speaker recommended opening a formal support ticket for further investigation (55:10).

Event news

• Rally roadmap on demand: The recent product roadmap session held on Tuesday is now available for on-demand viewing (57:30).
• Upcoming delivery matters webinar: A panel discussion in partnership with Scaled Agile is scheduled in a couple of weeks to discuss scaling SAFe and integrating AI components (57:55).
• Mastering the transition webinar: A recorded webinar from last month is available to assist users in learning the skills required to transition custom pages over to custom views (58:35).

Note: This summary was generated with the assistance of an artificial intelligence language model. While we strive for accuracy and quality, please note that the summary may not be entirely error-free. We recommend independently verifying the content and consulting with a product expert for specific advice or information. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the use or interpretation of this content.

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