Rally Basics.
This video will show you how to use the basic functions of Rally during your daily work activities.
You’ll learn the differences between list views and board views,
how to customize these views,
how to use filters, and how to use the recycle bin.
You’ll also learn how to perform essential functions on the iteration status page;
edit work items, view associations that work items have, and prioritize work with re-ranking.
There are a few different ways that you can choose to view your information within Rally.
You’ll typically see your data presented in either a list view,
board view,
chart,
or work item details editor.
Let’s look at the Iteration Status page to understand all of these usage models.
First, we will demonstrate the list view.
Your Team will use the Iteration Status page to check in on
how the Iteration is progressing and update status during their sprint work.
On this page, you have the option of using a list view or board view to show the progress of your work.
As you can see, we’re looking at the stories and defects that have been planned for Iteration 6.
You’ll see summary statistics at the top of the page, and then you’ll see a board or list with details.
You can expand or collapse this to optimize screen real estate.
Regardless of which view you are using,
most pages include the toolbar where you can add new work items
as well as configure the page to display the data you want by using fields to determine what to show.
First, we'll demonstrate customizing this page while you are viewing the list view.
First, we’ll demonstrate customizing this page while you are viewing the list view.
On the top right of the list, you’ll see an icon for toggling the page to a board or list view.
You can easily determine which fields display as columns by using the Show Fields button.
The fields you choose to show will remain in your view as columns unless you remove them.
You can also sort the list by a particular column,
or reorder the columns by dragging and dropping the column header to a new location.
Below the list on the left hand side of the screen,
you can change the number of items you’d like to show.
On the right, you can page through rows that are not visible at the moment in your view.
On the top row of your list, you may see a rollup summary of values that are applicable.
In this case, you’ll see a summary of points and hours for the work items within the iteration.
Each row following the summary row in the list represents a work item.
If you have the right permissions and have sorted your list by rank ascending,
you can use the grab bars on the left to re-rank the work items in the list.
Drag and drop ranking is relative to the view you’re in and for the team
or teams you’ve selected in your project picker.
Keep in mind that changing the rank of items in this view may
have an impact on other views or work items across teams or interspersed throughout Rally.
The expand and contract arrows will
appear for items that have other associated items, such as tasks.
Select these to view more detail on what other items are supporting the work item you’ve expanded.
Most cells on the list view allow you to change data by typing directly into the cell.
Depending on the fields you decide to show in your list,
you can drill down into associated work items for a user story such as defects and dependencies,
or even view a discussion associated with the work item.
Most pages in Rally have a help icon in the upper right hand
corner for easy access to get context-sensitive help.
Now, let’s review how to use the work item toolbar.
The toolbar is present on pages with the list view.
If you select the checkbox for any row, you’ll see a toolbar that includes the available actions you can take for that work item.
actions you can take for that work item.
If you want to change the data for multiple work items at once, you can select the check box for each
item and then select Edit from the toolbar.
Also remember that the Add New button is available on most pages
to allow you to add new work items.
Now, let’s look at the same data in a board view.
On the iteration status page, the data in the board view is organized
into columns based on the scheduled state.
Each work item is represented as a card, with the relevant information
shown right on the card such as ID, owner, and whatever else you’ve selected to display.
else you’ve selected to display.
You can select fields that you would like to display on the card, and you can deselect fields that you don’t want to be visible.
This is done using the Show Fields button.
You can also filter data in the board view, but we’ll cover that later in this video.
Within most board views, you are also able to add swimlanes.
Swimlanes are horizontal rows
that can be applied to a board for a team to easily visualize work items by
category or sub-process and show different types of demand more clearly.
A swimlane helps you visualize a specific attribute.
You can collapse columns to increase screen real estate
and to customize the focus of your board.
When you drag and hover a card over a collapsed column, the column will expand so that a card can be dropped
Just as you’ve seen in the list view, clicking on items in the card
will allow you to update the information, sometimes right on the card, and other
times in the dialog box that shows when you select the associated icon.
Some data is status information and is not editable.
However, each card has an Actions menu in the upper right-hand
corner that shows you more actions you can take with the work item.
The check, when selected, indicates that the item on the card is ready
to be moved to the next column to the right.
You can block an item by selecting the stop sign icon.
You can also enter the blocked reason.
Selecting the icon again will unblock it, and remove the blocked reason.
Moving a card to the next column will also remove the blocked reason.
If you have the proper permissions, you may change the position
of the cards within the column to re-rank them.
As in the list view, this ranking is relative to the view.
But in the board view, you are ranking work items relative to other items in the same column.
Remember that changing a rank can impact the rank’s position in other views.
The Iteration status page also shows examples of charts.
You can select a chart to see a larger view.
You can use the chart icons at the top of the chart to move from one type of chart to the next.
In this example, you can see the cumulative flow chart.
You can also view charts that will display cycle time and throughput information.
There is a legend at the base of each chart to help you interpret it.
If you select the chart and move the mouse to an area,
you can view more detailed information for that area.
Sometimes you want to get to the nitty-gritty details of a work item or other artifact.
For this, we have the Detail editor.
The detail editor is designed to provide you with quick access to the most important information about work items.
You can see this view by selecting the ID of any work item.
Let’s look at a User Story example.
You can view the detail editor in a full view or anchored to the right of your Rally page.
You arrive on the Details tab by default.
The data on this tab are grouped into logical categories for your work item.
Select the field or the dropdown arrow next to the field to make changes.
When entering information into fields where you see an editing bar,
you have a wide range of editing opportunities including fonts,
links, and other word processing capabilities to format your text.
You can also use the window expander to make your edit area larger.
You can drag-and-drop some fields to change their position in the detail editor.
The icons that are displayed across the top contain their own view of data
specified for the type of work item you are looking at.
You can select an icon to see its respective view.
You can also use the show and hide fields option if you want to customize
the fields you see in the editor.
If you show or hide fields for a user story,
these settings will be applied to all new user stories you create.
Remember that only you can see the customizations you make to the detail editor.
Now, let’s look at using filters in Rally.
Rally gives you the option for quick filters and advanced filtering.
Depending on the page you’re on, you may see one or both types.
Setting them will focus the data in your view.
Quick filters are simple filters that allow you to choose fields to filter on
according to a certain value or multiple values.
Your page is filtered by all of the filters you define. Just choose the values you want to see.
Advanced filters allow you to add operators and add more complex queries,
such as if a user story created by a particular owner is NOT in a certain release.
Here, you choose the field, the operator, and the value.
You can add multiple filters and choose whether to match them all,
match any of them, or instead create a custom filter condition.
The filter icon will remind you how many filters you have in place.
If you don’t see the data you’re looking for, check here first to see if you’ve applied the correct filtering.
The last filters you used on a page are automatically saved.
You may remove any of the filters you’ve created by
deselecting them or clear them all by selecting clear filters.
If you’re an editor or an administrator for your team, you can delete and restore work items.
You can recover most work items from the recycle bin in case you delete them by accident.
Access this page by selecting the Recycle bin link under the Home tab.
The recycle bin continues to follow the scope settings in your project picker,
and you may focus it further by applying a filter, just like you do on other pages.
Sort by selecting the column header.
Use the gear icon to the left of an item to restore or permanently delete it.
When you restore an item a banner appears at the top of the page
which includes a link to the item’s detail view.
The permanently delete option removes the item from both the recycle bin and the system.
Be careful, there’s no undo for this.
There are a few rules to remember when deleting a hierarchy or group of associated work items.
When you delete a work item with tasks, the tasks are also deleted.
Deleting a parent user story will send it to
the recycle bin and disassociate all of its user story children.
Note that the child user stories will not be deleted to the recycle bin,
they’ll remain active in the system.
The same thing happens when you delete a portfolio item.
Its child portfolio items, or user story children, will be dissociated but not deleted.
It’s a good practice to clear your recycle bin often.
There are times where you need to find a specific work item quickly
instead of filtering for it on a particular Rally page.
For this you can use the search function.
When searching for a work item, you can search on a particular page
or within all of Rally.
If you want to search all of Rally, you can use the search bar in the upper right of the menu bar.
For work items you view frequently, you can use one convenient location throughout Rally.
The menu bar includes navigation to your 10 most recently viewed items.
You can also pin items to your personal pinned items list
whenever you see the Actions menu.
It is available on cards as well as within the detail editor when viewing a work item.
Congratulations! Now you understand some of the basic actions that you can take in Rally.
To learn more about Rally and agile practices, check out our blog and community.
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