A related list offers an ideal solution to string related data across entities together. It enables you to pull records from any module or external source and float them as a tab within your project, sprint, epic, work item, or release detail view layout.

Here are a few ways for you to leverage related lists to meet project requirements:

Epics often span across multiple releases. As a project manager or owner, you need to monitor which epics are tied to a specific release and the epic owners need to trace back to the associated release. Create a lookup related list of epic module on the release detail view and enable generate backlink so the relationship is navigable in both directions.

List name: Epics for this release

List type: Lookup

Lookup module: Epics

Related module: Release

Generate backlink: Enter a backlink name. Example: Related Release

The backlinks create an easy to-and-fro link between the records in the epic module and the releases in which the related list is available. Release owners get a consolidated view of the epics, and epic owners can always trace to the release towards which the epics are heading.

The approval process for expenses often requires the approver to verify that the expense claims for the specified time frame are valid as per the timesheet entries. Instead of opening the expense module separately, you can incorporate the related expenses into the detail view layout of the timesheet. Create a related list of expenses for each timesheet. The timesheet detail view will shows expenses submitted by the owner of the time log. Approver can track both sets of records in parallel.

List name: Expense Verification

List type: Lookup

Lookup module: Expense

Related module: Timesheet

The expense approval becomes water-tight as a result of proper data consolidation by introducing a well-defined related list into the detail view of the related or target module. Teams can complete reviews faster, with highly reduced instances of mismatched approvals.

If your agile teams run on multiple platforms like Zoho Sprints, JIRA, Zendesk, etc, your development and QA teams are likely to track issues separately on those third party apps as well. Your sprint teams have to switch between Zoho Sprints and the external tools to check whether related bugs are open or resolved. A custom function related list closes this gap by fetching the linked issues using API calls.

List name: External Bug List

List type: Custom Function

Script: The script logic includes the fetch criteria in entityDetails.toMap().get("entityId") format, appropriate APIs, fields that need to be fetched (Example: Issue ID, Status, Severity, Assignee, etc), and the secure connection to the third party app.

Related module: Work Item

The function identifies the open work items and calls the external API scoped to that item. The script returns the fetched data as column headers and their values as rows. Your agile team is relieved of having to switch between two different applications.

There're many more ways in which related list can be employed in your Zoho Sprints modules to track pipeline runs in sprint module from external DevOp tools, to access client details from Zoho CRM in project module, to track asset and device mapping in user module, etc.

If you have any unique requirements for data consolidation, share them in the comments or send them to support@zohocorp.com, and we'll find out if related list can provide the solution.

Thanks,

Zoho Sprints Team