# Follow work through links

A card that is not a backlog item still has to answer "how far along is this?".
These pages are how.

A support request, a change request or a business request sits outside the
backlog on purpose, because a backlog holds how work gets built rather than what
was asked for. AnyKanban joins the two with links instead of hierarchy: **Related** links
to the backlog items that implement a request, child **tasks** for the steps that
never deserve a backlog item of their own, and **Tested By** links for the tests
that cover a change. Every rollup count a card shows is a link to the items it
was counted from.

## The pages

- [Link a request to the backlog items that implement it](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/link-a-request-to-backlog-items/):
  Related links, never parent or child, and what the card shows once they exist.
- [Break work down on the card without a backlog](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/break-work-down-on-the-card/):
  the Tasks checklist, where you tick to complete, drag to order, add the next one inline.
- [See which tests cover a change](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/see-which-tests-cover-a-change/):
  the test chip, selected by the Tested By link; on from the start on a board of
  backlog items, off on other boards.
- [See exactly which items a count came from](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/see-what-a-count-came-from/):
  the rollup flyout, with Undone or All, excluded items with their reason, and what a `+` means.
- [Read a 0/1 rollup](https://anykanban.com/docs/follow-work-through-links/read-a-zero-of-zero-rollup/):
  an undecomposed linked item counts as itself, and the unit says what was counted.

## What every page here assumes

- **The sections are per board, and a new board starts from the kind of board
  it is.** In board settings, under **Cards**, **Show tasks on cards** and
  **Show related work items on cards** are on the **Annotations** tab and
  **Show test cases on cards** is on the **Tests** tab. A board of items that
  sit on no backlog level, such as support or change requests, starts with
  related work items on and tasks and test cases off. A board of backlog items
  starts the other way round: tasks and test cases on, related work items off.
  A board fed by a tree query starts with tasks on whatever its type.
- **A section with nothing in it is not rendered.** No empty headings, no
  placeholders, and in a read-only **As of** snapshot none of these sections are
  built at all.
- **Nothing here touches your backlog hierarchy.** Cards link to backlog items as
  **Related** only, and that section has no checkboxes: you never close someone
  else's epic from a card.

Examples use the demo dataset, whose only projects are Claims Platform, Core
Insurance and Digital Banking.

## Related

- [A board for what the business asked for](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-business-requests/)
- [A board for types that never reach a backlog](https://anykanban.com/docs/guide-types-outside-the-backlog/)