Visualisations: Circular Dependencies

Dependencies are created using the “link to another record” feature.

It is not possible to create circular dependencies with itself.

It is possible to create circular dependencies in Aha when it is as a result of another record.

When you visualise the linking, it will not show a line circling back on itself however. Instead, if you click upstream, it will continue the linking in a continuous and linear stream.

For example, in the screenshot below, “Online Bronze Course” relates to “AWS storage location” which relates to “Create releases knowledge base articles”, which in turn relates back to “Online Bronze Course”.

The circular relationship is between “Online Bronze Course” and “Create releases knowledge base articles”. As you can see in the screenshot, the item “Online Bronze Course” is repeated, instead of a line circling back from “Create releases knowledge base articles” back to “Online Bronze Course”.

As a result, circular dependencies are possible but not displayed quite as we may think it may be displayed. The end result is the upstream chain can go on ad infinitum, so be mindful of this.

This has been raised with the suppliers of the application to see if a circular dependency can be shown as circular instead of linear.