Sub-issues and relations
Breaking work down, and the four typed links between issues — blocks, blocked by, relates to, duplicate of.
Two different mechanisms, often confused. Sub-issues express containment. Relations express dependency or similarity between issues that are otherwise independent.
Sub-issues
An issue can have a parent. The child appears on the parent’s page, and the parent shows progress across its children.
Use it when the child is genuinely part of doing the parent — the parent is not finished until the children are. A parent issue with five sub-issues is one deliverable broken into steps.
Sub-issues are ordinary issues: they have their own status, assignee, labels, dates and Intent, and they appear in lists and filters on their own account.
Depth is not a feature
A tree three levels deep is usually a project that has not been recognised as one. If the parent has its own start and end date and you would report on it, make it a project and let its issues be flat.
Epic progress
Set an issue’s type to Epic to see its child-issue progress chart. It shows burnup and progress estimates derived from the child work. Estimates describe the recorded work; they are not a delivery guarantee.
Relations
Relations link two issues that are not parent and child. There are four types:
| Relation | Meaning | Inverse |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | This issue must be done before the other can proceed. | Blocked by |
| Blocked by | The other must be done first. | Blocks |
| Relates to | Relevant to each other. No ordering implied. | Relates to |
| Duplicate of | Same work, recorded twice. | Duplicate of |
Blocks and blocked by are two views of one link — record it from either end and both issues show it.
Blocked by is the one that earns its keep
It is the only relation that changes what you should work on. An issue that is blocked by something open is not startable, and a triage list that ignores that produces plans that cannot happen.
The suggested “Blocked” saved view uses a team-maintained label. It does not automatically evaluate these relations; inspect linked blockers before starting work.
Duplicate of does not merge
Marking a duplicate records the relationship. It does not merge the two issues, move comments, or close either one. Close the duplicate yourself, deliberately, so the discussion on it is not silently orphaned.
Relations and the context bundle
Relations are part of an issue’s context. When a reviewer is trying to work out whether a change is complete, “this was blocked by ENG-51, which is still open” is exactly the kind of fact that should not have to be remembered.
See Context bundles.
Related
Something here wrong, missing or out of date? Tell us at support@orneos.com — corrections to these pages are welcome and we would rather hear it than have you work around it.