Rally Office Hours:
October 30, 2025

Summary

Product tip

The tip demonstrated how to write a query for a custom view in Rally to show "test sets that had a test fail today." Because the "test set" object does not contain an attribute to answer that question, the presenter showed how to use "dot notation" to traverse the hierarchy to the associated "test cases" and their "last verdict" and "last run" attributes. Two ways to display the results were shown: a query counter widget and a progress widget. The progress widget now supports "drill-ins" to view the details of the test sets being referred to.

Q&A highlights

• Tracking User Story Dates: A question was raised about tracking start and end dates for user stories, similar to the "Accepted Date." It was explained that an "In Progress Date" exists, which captures the first time a story moves to that state. A recommended solution for measuring time between states was the cycle time metric on the Team Board, which can be configured to measure time between any two schedule states (e.g., "In Progress" to "Accepted").
• Portfolio Timeline View "Late" Tag: An attendee asked for the algorithm that determines when records in the portfolio timeline view are tagged as "late." The response explained that "late" is determined when the rate of acceptance (in story points or count) is more than 40% lower than the rate required to finish by the planned end date. If the acceptance rate is more than 20% lower, it is marked as "at risk." The system uses a specific calculation that compares the rate of acceptance to the rate of time elapsing between the current time and the planned end date.
• Feature Planning by Sprint: A program manager wanted to associate features with a specific sprint. The presenter confirmed that features cannot be directly assigned to sprints, as they are typically planned into a PI/Release timebox. A workaround was suggested using custom views and view filters scoped to an iteration to display features whose "Planned End Date" falls within the start and end dates of that specific sprint.
• Prioritizing Shared Service Tasks: An attendee asked for the easiest way for a shared services team, whose tasks are assigned across many different user stories and projects, to prioritize their work. The recommendation was to use the "Track Tasks" page, filter by owner, and use Rally's manual ranking capability to prioritize the work.
• Epic Refined Estimate Field: A user asked about the "Refined Work Item Count Estimate" field on an Epic and its intended use, especially regarding preventing an Epic from showing 100% completion when not all subordinate work items have been defined yet. The field is designed to support teams that estimate by item count rather than story points. It was explained that this field impacts the "Estimated Progress by Story Count" and can be used to manually input the expected total count of subordinate work items.
• Visualizing Stakeholder Risk: The question was about having a visual color code for risk on features that is not just based on progress. It was suggested to open risks in Rally and link them to the feature. The presenter confirmed there is no automated way to derive a color code from associated risks and suggested submitting it as an enhancement request.
• Querying Capacity vs. Velocity: An attendee asked for the easiest way to query the total capacity of a PI against all work being done (planned features, unplanned work, defects, etc.) at a high level. It was determined that a single widget combining capacity, planned velocity, and unplanned work is not currently available. It was recommended to start building a PI dashboard using custom views and to submit a feature request for a dedicated widget with that overall breakdown.
• Grouping by Project in a Work View: The attendee stated that they were unable to group by the project column on records in a work view, but then quickly stated that they could not recreate the problem and the question was withdrawn.

Event news

The team promoted the following upcoming events:

• The next Roadmap Session, given by the Head of Product.
• A session on Product Ops connecting strategy and execution.
• A 10-minute session on Strategic Portfolio Management for AI.
• The next Big Room Planning event in Broomfield.

Attendees were also encouraged to take free courses on the Broadcom Academy and to join the Rally community.

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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