DV-10
Dependencies Not Linked Before Development
Discipline
Default severity: medium
ProcessMetricsQuality
What it detects
An issue of a configured type entered the development stage without any dependency links — inter-team or inter-feature dependencies were not formally tracked, creating invisible coordination risk.
Detection formula
dependency_link_types = config.discipline.dependency_link_types // e.g. \[\'depends on\', \'is blocked by\', \'related to\'\] dep_check_stage = config.discipline.dependency_required_before_stage // default: Implementing IF issue.type IN config.discipline.dependency_required_types AND issue.status IN \[dep_check_stage\] or later AND COUNT(issue.links WHERE type IN dependency_link_types) = 0 THEN FLAGExamples in practice
- Assignee, field, hierarchy, or sprint hygiene rules are violated on active work.
- Issues miss mandatory fields or ownership while still in progress.
- A team shows an issue of a configured type entered the development stage without any dependency links while dependency link types is set to Configured per workspace.
Suggested response
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
An issue of a configured type entered the development stage without any dependency links — inter-team or inter-feature dependencies were not formally tracked, creating invisible coordination risk.
Why it matters
When "Dependencies Not Linked Before Development" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Dependencies Not Linked Before Development" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.