<p>No there is no built-in way to setup rules over work item relationships.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/settings/work/custom-rules?view=azure-devops" rel="nofollow noreferrer">options that are supported can be found here</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-18T15:46:32.730Z
Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).
Community
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-18T17:28:14.203Z
Sure, but it's terribly hard to point to the docs that describe a feature that doesn't exist.
jessehouwing
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-09-18T15:35:43.457Z
2023-09-18T17:29:21.370Z
2023-09-18T17:29:21.370Z
jessehouwing
<p>I noticed that it sometimes happens that users select parents from the same type like
story-story, epic-epic, ...
According to this post: <a href="https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/same-category-hierarchy-error-but-the-specified-wo/761057" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/same-category-hierarchy-error-but-the-specified-wo/761057</a>
It's highly recommended to avoid this, due to obvious reasons.</p>
<p>Is it possible to prevent this by default?
Like a rule: if WIT is changed &amp; parent type equals WIT type --&gt; error</p>

<azure-devops>
Rules to avoid parents of same WIT type
ThomasR
# Rules to avoid parents of same WIT type

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-09-06)

I noticed that it sometimes happens that users select parents from the same type like
story-story, epic-epic, ...
According to this post: <https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/same-category-hierarchy-error-but-the-specified-wo/761057>
It's highly recommended to avoid this, due to obvious reasons.

Is it possible to prevent this by default?
Like a rule: if WIT is changed & parent type equals WIT type --> error

**Tags:** azure-devops


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-09-18. Score: 0

No there is no built-in way to setup rules over work item relationships.

The [options that are supported can be found here](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/settings/work/custom-rules?view=azure-devops).

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).  
> **username_1**: Sure, but it's terribly hard to point to the docs that describe a feature that doesn't exist.  

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