Soft dependency in issue graphs

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@bjk-gitlab @victorwu

Re https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/42474#note_115726593 the difference between hard and soft dependencies is that "hard" prevents the closing of tickets and "soft" does not.

In my experience, there are three relations which are useful:

  • "Requires" - Directed, hard, counts against completion of parent issue
  • "Recommends" - Directed, soft, counts against completion of parent issue
  • "Refers" - Directed, soft, does NOT count against completion of parent issue

Let's say you have:

  • Run conference-1 (1)
  • Run conference (2)
    • Book venue (3)
    • Book jugglers (4)
    • Send over left-over shirts from conference-1 (5)

(2) hard depends on (3) and (5), but you can run the conference without (4) so that's a soft dependency.

(5) refers to (1), which means this is only informational to make it easier to find the other issue without any implication for completeness status.

Edited Jun 26, 2025 by 🤖 GitLab Bot 🤖
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