Rally Office Hours:
February 5, 2026

Summary

Product Announcement

The product announcement section of the session covers new endorsed widgets and a call for UX research participants.

Endorsed Widgets

• The Rally team released the first round of endorsed widgets, which are intended to bridge the gap between older applications and custom views (04:50).

• These endorsed widgets are custom HTML widgets added to the catalog, and the source code is provided (05:11).

• The widgets are tested internally, undergoing quality assurance and pull request review by the engineering team, but are not part of the standard application stack (05:25).

• The source code for the widgets is available on GitHub, allowing users to download it, make changes, and upload it as a subscription widget (05:38).

• More endorsed widgets are planned for release over the next couple of months (05:54).

• Users can filter the widget catalog by the "Endorsed" type (06:21).

• Subscription administrators can enable or disable these widgets in their subscription (06:49).

• Initial endorsed widgets include "Blocked Work," "Recent Activity," "Test Sets by Results by Iteration," and "Time Box Dashboard" (06:59).

• The "Time Box Dashboard" is a rewrite of the release and iteration dashboards and follows the view filter (07:10).

• Another new widget, the "Context Text Field Editor," is intended to replace the older "Iteration Retrospective" app (08:01). This widget displays a rich text field from an object within the custom view's context, such as the scoped project (08:35).

• A user asked if the endorsed widgets are released as disabled by default so subscription administrators can decide whether to enable them (10:10). The initial batch was released as enabled, but the Rally team will consider releasing future batches as disabled (10:44).

• A user expressed surprise at the release of the widgets (11:04), and the Rally team clarified that pre-releases are typically announced in the subscription administrators' community channel (11:31).

• A user asked if the "Time Box Dashboard" could be made responsive when scoped at the team level to avoid a large blank space, and the Rally team said they would take that enhancement request down as it currently has a static height (12:11).

• The Rally team also offered to look at adding pre-announcements to the regular community in addition to the subscription administrators' channel (13:11).

• To find the subscription administrator community, users should check their community portal at community.brocomb.com under the communities list (13:31). If a subscription administrator does not have access, they should open a support ticket (14:07).

UX Research Initiatives

• During the Q2 PI planning, the Rally team is undertaking two UX research initiatives: one on dependency management and one on saved views and filters (14:55).

• The team is looking for user input and feedback to solve problems in these areas (15:16).

• Users interested in participating can schedule time with the UX research team using a provided Google Calendar link or by emailing the UX researcher (15:28).

Q&A

Minimizing Repetitive User Administration

• A user asked about streamlining repetitive user administration tasks, specifically looking for custom templates for tasks (16:49).

• The Rally team suggested using the existing capability to create templates from stories and associating tasks with them. Applying the template to a new story would include the associated tasks (17:50).

• The user asked if the template replication was "deep" (e.g., replicating children of children). A Rally team member clarified that it currently only goes one level deep (18:30).

• Another suggestion was to use CSV files for importing static, repeating tasks (19:11).

• The Rally team explained that template visibility depends on sharing permissions and is not necessarily grouped in a specific project (20:24).

• The Rally team also suggested using the new "deep copy" feature found in the item's dot menu, which resets state values when copying hierarchical items (21:05). The user noted a possible caveat that this feature might not copy user stories that are children of other user stories (22:18).

Converting Old HTML Widgets

• A user shared a custom page with old widgets, including one that looks for iterations within a release's start and end dates and allows direct editing of fields like "theme" and "confidence" for each iteration (23:01).

• The user noted that the old widget code does not work when copied into a custom HTML widget in the new views (24:21).

• The Rally team identified that the issue is the use of the SDK.js library, which is being deprecated (25:42).

• A suggestion was made to try using a "Custom List" to replicate the functionality, as the new Custom List allows for editing in the fields (26:15).

• The team acknowledged that figuring out the correct query to filter iterations within the release dates would be necessary for a Custom List (27:08).

• The team also encouraged the user to submit feedback about their use case, as the need to identify all iterations within a release timebox is a "natural request" (28:51).

• The user confirmed they would try the Custom List, and the team suggested submitting feedback "per widget" for conversion issues (32:31).

Custom Grouping of Project Teams

• A user asked for the best way to create a custom grouping of projects across different Agile Release Trains (ARTs) (33:04).

• The Rally team confirmed this can be done in the work views by using the filter button to "browse all projects" and select specific teams (34:42).

• The team noted that this capability is not currently available in a widget or chart (35:13). The best approach for a widget would be to scope high in the hierarchy and then use a query to filter for the desired teams (36:36).

• The team suggested the user submit an enhancement request for the ability to cherry-pick teams in widgets (35:47).

Slack Integration

• A user asked about the ability to control Rally through Slack and vice versa (37:51).

• The Rally team confirmed there is no native integration with Slack, and the recommended path for bi-directional integration is through ConnectALL (38:22).

• The team noted that bi-directional integration is technically possible using the available APIs, although they generally only support informative one-way communication (39:03).

Flow State Filtering

• A user was unable to filter a user story list by the "Flow State" column when viewing an aggregate group of teams (40:39).

• The Rally team explained that "Flow States" are unique to each individual project (team). Because the scoping is at the higher (ART) level, which does not have that specific flow state, the filter cannot be applied, even though the individual stories know their flow state (42:43).

• The team suggested sorting the column as a workaround and noted that this is a variant of the known issue where a filter applied at a parent level does not go down to the individual child items (43:15).

• The team recommended submitting an enhancement request for this capability (44:32).

Scope Change Widget in Custom Views

• A user noted that the old custom page's scope change widget showed the cumulative work moved in and out for an entire iteration. In the custom views, the new scope change widget only allows drilling down to each individual day separately (45:39).

• The user wants a summary of the added/removed scope for the entire iteration (47:19).

• The Rally team said this sounds like feedback that should be given to the team (46:47).

Event News

Design Partnership for ValueOps Insights

• A design partnership is available for the ValueOps Insights product, a metro product that sits next to Rally (50:22).

• The Rally team is defining many new areas of this product (50:30).

• Those interested in helping to drive some of the product's capabilities and analytics should reach out to Shamim or Rusty (50:38).

BrightTalk Session: "Will AI Replace the PMO?"

• A BrightTalk session will take place next week covering "Will AI Replace the PMO?" (50:54).

• This session will discuss ValueOps and the impact of AI's increasing functionality on different roles, specifically within the product management organization (51:02).

Roadmap Session

• A roadmap session for 2026 Q1 will be held the week after next, which will cover the output of this week's PI planning (51:15).

• This will also be a BrightTalk session (51:27).

• The session will be recorded for those who cannot attend at that time (51:31).

On-Demand Content

• An on-demand session titled "From Chaos to Control Value Stream Governance Through Intelligent Automation" is available (51:37).

• This session discusses ConnectALL and how to streamline value stream management (51:44).

Learn by Doing

• The "Learn by Doing" event, where people join Rally's teams during PI planning, is a fantastic event (51:56).

• The next "Learn by Doing" event will be in May (52:17).

• Users can nominate themselves to attend (52:21).

Additional Resources

• Additional resources include a link to the Rally community, the office hours link, and a newsletter subscription (52:34).

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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