Trello is a visual application of boards, lists and cards that enable users to flexibly manage the simplest of tasks as well as the biggest of projects. In fact, projects do get very big, to the extent that it needs to be broken down to more manageable pieces. In addition, some tasks or cards depend on other cards’ completion before they can move forward. These are dependencies, and people refer to them as parent/child relationships. In agile development, they use the terms epics and stories.

Substantial, a digital product studio, uses Trello for managing their software projects. In their work, they have encountered difficulty in seeing a high-level view of their project’s progress. They also run complicated projects that outgrew their workflow. They have always wanted to create parent/child relationships in their boards. But instead of using existing plugins, they created the Hello Epics Power-Up. Now, they see all related items, and quickly realize what work is left to do. For a brilliant extension to Trello, we suggest trying out our own tool Bridge24 for Trello.

Introducing Hello Epics Power-Up

The Hello Epics Power-Up uses dependencies functionality that enables users to create and attach children cards to parent cards. Accordingly, a dependency describes the relationship between a higher level parent card, and more drilled down but related child card. This feature is useful in projects where users develop product features, plan events, or just go into the deeper details of a project. It also allows users to:

  • See the status of each child card from within a parent card at a glance
  • Visually track the completion of children cards, and
  • Quickly navigate to any related card in the board.

How to Create Card Dependencies Using Hello Epics

The new Trello Power-Up is easy to use. Once the Hello Epics is enabled on the board, users can open a card that is selected to become a parent card. Next, click the ‘Attach Children’ link. For non-existing children cards, they should select the ‘Create and attach new children’. They should type the name of each card they create, select the list where these cards will go into, and then click the ‘Done’ button. In the case of pre-existing cards, or cards that users create later, they should choose the ‘Attach existing children’ option, and select these cards.

A Sample Scenario

As an example, when planning a conference, users have big tasks such as finding a venue, booking speakers, and promoting the conference, among others. Using a simple checklist might not be enough, especially when tracking each item is necessary. Instead, users can create the Find a venue card and elect it to become a parent card. Related to it, they can create children cards such as Pick a location, Research a venue, Contact for prices, and so on. Each child card can have details such as due dates, assignees, or attachments. Furthermore, the parent card updates real time for better status information.

Setting Up Default Lists and other Settings

When creating new children cards, Hello Epics Power-Up allows users to set up default lists. Thus, Trello will add the cards to the proper list, either below the parent card’s list or a specific one such as To do or Backlog. Users can also set up a default ‘done’ list. Therefore, as Hello Epics automatically update the parent card, it becomes easier for users to see which next task they should work on.

In boards where there are multiple done lists, users can select a matching criteria such as ‘Any list that starts with’… or ‘ends with’ option. Once a card gets into a list that matches this criteria, Hello Epics will consider that card as completed, and will subsequently update the parent card. Users can see this at the front of the parent card. A checklist badge offers information at a glance, so users can easily track progress even for bigger projects.

For Agile Teams

Trello is a popular tool for agile teams. Hello Epics makes it useful for complex projects where parent cards attach as children cards themselves to other parent cards. An example would be when agile teams develop a new product. This product may include a web app, an Android app, an iOS app, and a desktop app. Each of the separate app cards can be parent cards themselves.

Manage Card Relationships – All Within Trello

Hello Epics Power-Up enables users to manage very large projects in a single board. The board shows the connections in the relational hierarchy. Users can then easily view the highest level and then go down to the details in only a few clicks. This Power-Up is available free for 30-days, and $3.25 per team member per month when paid annually. To know more about Power-Ups, new features and the latest announcements, visit Trello also on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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