Rally Office Hours:
January 22, 2026

Summary

Product Tip

A member of the Rally team gave a tip focused on using a custom view in Rally to report progress around a timebox, specifically for dependency management and blocked work. This tip was discussed after a conversation in a previous office hours session about dependency management, cross-team dependencies, and blocked work.

Key elements of the custom view demonstrated:

• Progress Reporting: The custom view could include a burndown chart or the "cool feature changes over time" feature.
• Metrics: Other metrics like defects over time or planned versus unplanned work items could be included. An example was shown of displaying the percentage of work that is "AI assisted" using an aggregation on that system field.
• Dependency and Blocked Work Widgets (Tall Stretch Area):

• Cross Team Dependencies Sequencing Issues: This widget is available in custom views, although it did not display an issue in the demo.
• Cross Team Dependencies Summary: This widget showed six cross-team dependencies within the current scope (a single agile release train with a few teams).
• Blocked Items: A widget to display blocked work.
• Slipped Work Items: A widget that shows work items that have slipped.

• List View (Below Widgets): A list view can be added, for instance, to show blocked work.
• Short Stretch Area: Cross-team information can be displayed in a short stretch area to save screen real estate, but the blocked work or slipped work items cannot be added there. Options for the short stretch include a progress bar or a query tile for counting.

The member of the Rally team mentioned that the widgets for cross-team dependencies, blocked items, and slipped work items are built into Rally.

New Feature Announcement

A member of the Rally team announced a new feature available for early access that allows administrators to set and lock fields on the detail page for different artifact types. This is intended to help organizations enforce a desired workflow and consistency for end users by organizing fields, hiding obsolete ones, and preventing reordering by end users.

• The feature applies to all artifact types, including defects and test cases.
• Settings are applied at the workspace level, affecting all projects within that workspace.

Q&A

• Slipped Items Widget Update: A participant asked why the "slipped items" widget data takes until Thursday to update for iterations ending Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, causing a day lag that is inconvenient for Wednesday retrospectives. A member of the Rally team said that she thought it was supposed to work at the iteration boundary and that the documentation states an association must be in place 72 hours after the iteration began, although she wasn't sure that was correct. The member of the Rally team took the participant's name and promised a definitive answer by the next week's office hours.

• Feature-to-Feature Cross-ART Dependencies: A participant had a follow-up question regarding visibility of feature-to-feature dependencies across two different Agile Release Trains (ARTs) for bi-weekly meetings. The participant was looking for a view that would show predecessors and successors, allow inline updates of details, and assist with managing the dependencies, such as expected code drop times.

  • It was noted that the Cross Team Dependencies Summary widget shows the count but lacks inline editing, requiring a click to the full detail page for updates.

  • A custom list with a query using successors.object ID or predecessors.object ID was offered as a workable option to list items with dependencies. The list can show cross-ART dependencies if the user has visibility.

  • The participant acknowledged that the custom list is less visually smooth than the release tracking view but is likely usable.

• Custom List Lock-down and Consistency: The participant questioned how to lock down a custom list's fields and configuration after sharing it. It was recommended to turn off the three check boxes under the View Mode Toolbar—specifically, the options for allowing group by, filtering, and the field picker—to effectively lock down the view and prevent users from changing the field order.

• Story Age Tracking for Kanban Teams: A participant asked how to see the exact age of a story in progress on a board, specifically the total time spent in development and testing, since the team uses the Kanban framework without iterations or releases.

  • The closest available option is displaying the "In Progress Date" on the card, but this requires manual calculation of the age.

  • The aging chart on the team board shows aging trends and individual stories in progress.
  • The participant was encouraged to use the Rally feedback capability to request an enhancement for displaying the story age.

• Defining Holidays in Rally: The participant also asked if it is possible to define holidays and non-working days so they are not counted in the cycle time report. A member of the Rally team stated that this is not possible; only the workdays (like Monday through Friday) can be defined at the workspace level. This was also suggested as valid feedback to submit.

• Using the URL Gadget: A question was raised about the use of the URL gadget in a custom view. A member of the Rally team explained that the gadget opens an external URL within the Rally window. This can be a Rally URL, an internal document repository link (like Google Docs), or a link to another tool. An example of using a Mirror board URL was given as a way to reduce context switching.

Event News

• ValueOps Insights Platform: The Rally team is continuing to seek design partners for the ValueOps Insights platform. Use of Insights is free for Rally customers. Shamim or Rusty are points of contact for more information.
• Q4 Roadmap Session: The speaker reminded viewers that the Q4 roadmap session, which ran through new features released in Q4, is still worth viewing. The announcement for the new roadmap session will be coming soon.
• Product Operations Webinar: A webinar featuring Melissa Perry, a thought leader in product management and operations, was recommended. She joined a member of the Rally team to discuss product operations and connecting strategy to execution.
• Big Room Planning (BRP): The February BRP session is closed to join, but another session is coming up in May. Customers can nominate themselves to attend and learn how Rally conducts BRP, participate in workshops, and maximize value from the planning experience in Rally.
• Other Reminders: Viewers were reminded to join the office hours list, join the community, and subscribe to the newsletter.

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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