Rally Office Hours:
April 2, 2026

Summary

Product Announcements

• Querying Portfolio Items vs. Parents: In Rally, queries for custom views must use the specific name PortfolioItem to find feature parents, as the Parent field in the API specifically refers to story-to-story relationships. (09:27)
• Identifying "True" Orphaned Stories: To find stories that have absolutely no parentage (neither a feature nor another story), users must query for both PortfolioItem = null and Parent = null. (11:11)
• Editable Parent Field: In the user interface, only the "Parent" field is editable for updating a story's relationship; the "Feature" field is a non-editable display designed to preserve traceability. (13:23)
• API vs. UX Naming: Users are reminded that when writing custom queries or integrations, they must use the data structure of the API (such as PortfolioItem) rather than the display names seen in the user experience. (18:50)

Q&A

• Viewing Ancestor Hierarchy: Users can view the full hierarchy of a work item by clicking a specific hierarchy icon located next to the parent field on a detail page. (23:44)
• Milestones on Timelines: Currently, the timeline view groups milestones at the top; it is not possible to display them directly on a portfolio item's row in a Gantt-style format. (25:51)
• Custom Fields in API: The Rally API supports custom fields, which are identified by their internal schema name (typically starting with c_) rather than their UI display name. (34:56)
• Finding Internal Field Names: Project administrators can find the underlying API name for any field by visiting the Workspace Administration panel and viewing the "Name" column next to the "Display Name". (37:37)
• Cross-Team Dependencies: For tracking dependencies beyond the standard seven-day widget, it was suggested to use custom dashboards or HTML widgets to filter specifically by release and project. (45:26)
• Multi-Select Reranking: There is currently no built-in method to reorder values in a custom multi-select dropdown after they are created; users must delete and recreate them in the desired order. (53:02)

Event News

• AI and Strategy Webcast: A major webcast titled "Evolution of Strategy in the Age of AI" is scheduled for April 29th, focusing on how AI transforms strategic portfolio management (SPM). (55:16)
• Q1 Rally Roadmap: The Q1 Rally Roadmap session, featuring the head of product, is now available on-demand for insights into the product's future direction. (56:17)
• SPM Trends Webinar: A focused webinar is available to help organizations understand strategic portfolio management trends and improve the effectiveness of strategic planning. (57:15)

• Executive Planning Workshop: An upcoming four-day workshop in May offers leaders the opportunity to sit down with Rally product and engineering teams to learn planning and execution at scale. (57:57)

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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