Tracking Impediments with Issues
The Issues page tracks impediments that slow down or block progress through stories, defects, portfolio items, or test sets. Issues provide visibility to ensure impediments are addressed before impacting team progress.
Issues provide visibility across all grids, board views, and page views, ensuring all team members can keep up to date on the status of impediments as they progress to resolution.
Who Tracks Impediments with Issues
- Team Members: Identify and report impediments that block their work on stories, defects, or tasks.
- Scrum Masters: Track all team impediments, facilitate resolution, and ensure blockers are addressed quickly.
- Product Owners: Monitor impediments affecting backlog items and prioritize resolution work.
- Project Managers: Review impediment trends across multiple teams to identify systemic issues.
Permission Requirement
To view issues, you must have Read access to the Product Planning or Team Planning area. To create, edit, close, or delete issues, you must have Edit access to the appropriate area. To create blocking issues that affect multiple assets, you must have Edit access to the affected work items (stories, defects, portfolio items, or test sets).
How Issues Work
Issue Types and Purposes
Issues serve multiple purposes in impediment tracking:
- General Impediments: Track obstacles that slow down work without completely blocking it
- Blocking Issues: Identify impediments that completely prevent progress on specific work items
- Cross-Project Issues: Track impediments affecting multiple teams or projects
Issue Lifecycle
- Created: Issue is identified and logged with details and impact
- Resolved: Solution is identified and implemented
- Closed: Issue is fully complete and removed from active tracking
Visibility and Integration
Issues appear throughout Digital.ai Agility:
- Grid Views: Issues grid with filtering and ranking capabilities
- Board Views: Red banners on blocked items in taskboards and Kanban boards
- Details Pages: Issue indicators on affected work items
- Reports: Issue tracking and resolution metrics
Troubleshooting
Why don't I see issues affecting my work items?
Issues may be filtered out of your current view. Check filter settings to ensure "Show Closed Issues" is enabled if you need to see resolved impediments. Verify you have Read access to the Product Planning or Team Planning area where issues are created.
Why can't I create a blocking issue on a backlog item?
You must have Edit access to the backlog item you want to block. If the backlog item is in a different project or at a different hierarchy level, verify you have appropriate permissions. Some work item states may restrict blocking.
Why does an issue show as "Resolved" but still appear in my active issues list?
Issues use a two-stage closure process: first Resolved, then Closed. Resolved issues remain visible in active views until explicitly closed. This allows verification that the resolution was successful before final closure.
Why can't I delete an issue that's blocking work items?
Issues that are actively blocking work items should be resolved and closed rather than deleted to preserve impediment history. Remove the blocking relationships first, then delete the issue if necessary. Deletion requires Edit or Admin permissions.