Promotion and traceability

Promotion is the process of converting an approved idea into a work item ready for implementation. Traceability is the ability to traverse the complete chain from a user's feedback to the task that resolves it. Together, these capabilities connect the user's voice to the team's work.

The traceability chain

Almirant maintains a chain of relationships across three levels:

Level	What it represents	Example
Feedback	What a user requests or reports	"I'd like to be able to export to PDF"
Idea	The proposal evaluated by the team	"PDF export in reports"
Work Item	The task planned on a board	"Implement PDF export - Story A-S-42"

Each level maintains a reference to the previous one, forming a chain that can be traversed in both directions.

Promote an idea to a work item

Prerequisites

• The idea must be in Approved status
• At least one board must exist in the project where the work item will be created

Step-by-step process

1. Go to the approved idea -- Open the detail view of the idea you want to promote
2. Click Promote -- The promote button is available when the idea is in Approved status
3. Configure the work item -- A form opens to define the work item details:

Field	Description
Title	Pre-filled with the idea's title (editable)
Type	Work item type: Epic, Feature, Story, or Task
Board	Board where the work item will be created
Description	Pre-filled with the idea's description (editable)

4. Confirm -- The work item is created on the selected board and the idea automatically changes to Promoted status

Editable title and description

Although the title and description are pre-filled from the idea, you can modify them before creating the work item. It's common to adjust the title to be more technical or specific once it moves to the implementation phase.

What happens after promotion

• A new work item is created on the selected board
• The idea changes to Promoted status
• A bidirectional link is established between the idea and the work item
• All feedback linked to the idea becomes indirectly associated with the work item
• The promoted idea can no longer be modified (it remains as a historical record)

View traceability

From the work item

In the detail view of a work item that was created by promotion, you will see a Traceability section that shows:

• The original idea it came from
• The number of feedback entries linked to that idea
• A direct link to the idea to view its full detail

From the idea

In the detail view of a promoted idea, you will see:

• The resulting work item with its identifier and current status
• All linked feedback entries
• The complete history: when the idea was created, when it was approved, and when it was promoted

From the feedback

In the detail view of a linked feedback entry, you can navigate directly to the associated idea and from there to the work item, traversing the complete chain.

Link existing feedback

Feedback does not need to be linked before promotion. You can link additional feedback to an idea at any time, even after it has been promoted. This is useful for:

• Adding new feedback that arrives after promotion
• Grouping feedback that wasn't initially detected as related
• Documenting the accumulated demand for a feature

To link feedback, see Feedback -- Link feedback to ideas.

Full example

Suppose your team receives feedback from several users requesting email notifications:

1. 3 feedback entries arrive from different sources
2. AI groups them into a cluster "Email notifications"
3. An idea is created and the feedback is linked
4. The team approves the idea
5. It is promoted to a work item on the "Product Backlog" board
6. The work item is implemented with full traceability to the original feedback

Benefits of traceability

Benefit	Description
Data-driven decisions	Prioritize what your users request most, not what you assume
Transparency	Any team member can see why something is being built
Accountability	You can trace which feedback originated each task
Closing the loop	When the work item is completed, you know which users to notify
Historical record	Maintains a complete log of how ideas evolve

For Developers

Traceability is available via MCP:

Tool	Description
promote_idea_item	Promote an approved idea to a work item
get_idea_item_traceability	Get the full chain: linked feedback, idea, and resulting work item
link_feedback_to_idea_item	Link feedback to an idea (see Feedback)
unlink_feedback_from_idea_item	Unlink feedback from an idea

The get_idea_item_traceability tool is especially useful for an AI agent to understand the full context of a work item: why it was created, which users requested it, and what the original idea was.

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Related: Idea management | Feedback | Work Items