Support Parent / Child relationships
Asked by Fred Bowker:

Can Trello please support parent / child relationships. This is a much needed feature that would allow me to create hierarchies, parent stories, epics etc. It really does feel like something that should be included. There is Hello Epics but that is $50 a year per user for something that seems like it should be core functionality.

Apart from that thanks to the Trello Team for a really great product


Answers:
author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Hi [@Fred Bowker](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5493465)

I did an article on parent/child linking with Trello

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-articles/Mikes-Trello-Tips-Parent-Child-Card-Linking/ba-p/2418149>

Hope this helps

Mike

comments: author: Fred Bowker
body: Hey Mike, thanks for your reply, I read over the article, but having seperate boards and the other options all seem like work arounds. Basically you have to create different workflows and structures for something that could be handled quite simply. Parent Child relationships is really useful as then you can use this for epics or parent stories or however you want to setup your hierarchy. Jira has this feature and it's widely used. Also Hello Epics implements this in a nice simple way. The only issue is then you need to pay 50$ per user for a feature that really does feel like it should be core functionality of a Trello Kanban board


author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Trello's was never conceived to be hierarchical and I love that it sticks to its core philosophy. Trello was built as an Agile tool and true agile has no hierarchy.

If none of the proposed Trello solutions work for you and you don't want to pay for a power-up to do it, then I suggest finding a tool that does do, of which there are plenty...

Why don't you use Jira, just out of interest?

I personally wouldn't want Trello to add this feature because I want it to stay true to its origins and by doing so, continue being a truly unique tool in the market


author: Fred Bowker
body: Why does allowing for cards to be linked parent and child affect it being an Agile tool, surely being Agile is about letting the user use the tool in a way that best reflects their workflow. Basically Trello is a board with tasks, that you can move through a workflow, allowing another way to associate these tasks, is a feature that is ofter requested. I don't see how it has anything to do with whether it is an Agile tool or not.

Both Jira and Trello offer a board, I use Trello as I don't need all of the added feature of Jira. However Trello I think would be improved by allowing you to have Parent / Child relationships. They already have checklists so this is a form of hierarchy, it is just an improvement to allow this to be reflected as a hierarchical relationship that is then visible on the board.

If there was a feature to allow you to associate tasks, it doesn't mean you need to use it, simply that for people who do then this option is available. Its origins are a Kanban board, having parent / child relationships would not affect this.


author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Your first paragraph, you can do that using linked cards. How is that any different to what Jira does? Epics \> Stories \> tasks are all just individual work items that are linked.

In terms of it being Agile, I am saying it was a tool conceived when there was still a purity about agile and in my opinion it is the one tool out there most closely aligned to agile values and principles. I don't want it to sell out like every other tool there is, it doesn't need to.

Your last 2 paragraphs are rather contradictory. You tell me that if Trello add this feature, I don't have to use it yet you won't use Jira because it has features you don't have to use ?. Also there is already a feature to associate tasks, you just for some reason don't like it.

In summary,

* Trello currently has multiple options to solve your problem but you don't like any of them.
* You don't seem to want to use the plethora of alternatives that will give you want you want.
* Your best hope is to contact the Trello team to request this feature but in my honest opinion I would say don't expect to see it any time soon.


author: Fred Bowker
body: Hi,

It looks like we are getting into some random debate about Agile, which won't really be helpful, Many people have asked for this functionality as it would help them with their work flow.

So to answer:

* Trello has lots of work arounds for parent, child relationships, if these were any good there would be no need for hello epics and lots of people wouldn't be asking for this feature.
* An answer of, use a different tool, doesn't really help
* Yes I'll put in a feature request or update a current one.

Anyway thanks for your answers, and I get that you don't think this would be a useful feature to add to Trello


author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: I think we can agree to disagree on this but I genuinely want to help and I do think there are some alternative tools that would fit your needs perfectly.

I hope you have luck with requesting it as a feature


author: milynnus
body: [@Fred Bowker](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5493465)

You can create your own board with parent child relationships with automation. Trello plus point compared to other apps link Clickup, asana, Jira, etc is that it allows you to build custom boards with relationships that best fit your organisation requirements for your business processes. The relationships are maintained regardless of where you move the card.

comments: author: Fred Bowker
body: Hi, sorry I'm not sure what you mean, can you build parent / child relationships between cards currently in Trello? Jira allows you this functionality, and it is hugely helpful. Currently the only way I know of doing this in Trello is by using a powerup ssuch as Hello Epics. It seems like a fundamental thing to have in something like Trello as it allows a lot more flexibility in how you arrange your tasks.


author: milynnus
body: [@Fred Bowker](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5493465)

You can use cardlinks to add to a newly create card to point back to the trigger card and you can like wise add the new card link to a checklist "Related Cards". You can do a lot more with cardlinks.


author: Fred Bowker
body: This doesn't look like it will handle the simple case of having parent child relationships, I'm not looking for something that I can do a lot more with. I'm looking for really simple functionality to allow me to have parent / child relationships between cards. This functionality is implemented in Jira and Hello Epics has a nice implementation. Checklists could be used to show subtasks, but this isn't as good an approach as allowing for individual cards to have parent child relationships.

I suppose my question is, is this something that Trello supports without using powers, and is it a feature that they would consider adding as it really does seem like a feature that would improve the Trello workflow for users