A relation says how one practice affects another. The two practices can be in the same stage or anywhere else in the client's map. Each relation reads as a sentence from one practice to the other, such as "Code review competes with Pair programming", and the arrow on the map points the same way.
| Relation | Colour | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| enables | dark grey | The first practice makes the second possible. Without it, the second could not happen at all. |
| requires | blue | The first practice needs the second. It cannot go ahead until the second has happened. |
| supports | teal | The first practice helps the second go better, although the second could happen without it. |
| competes with | amber | The two practices pull on the same people, time or money, so doing more of one leaves less for the other. |
| gives it its point | purple | The first practice is the reason the second is done. Without it, people would stop seeing why the second matters. |
| damages | red | The first practice makes the second harder or worse. |
| runs alongside | grey, dashed, no arrow | The two practices happen side by side, at the same time, and neither depends on the other. |
How the map draws them
- At levels 4 and 5 every relation is a faint dotted line, with no arrow or label. Lines to other stages are fainter still.
- Select a practice, or hold the pointer over it from level 4, and its relations are drawn in their colours, with arrows and labels. The practices it has no relation to fade.
- At level 3 only the selected practice's lines are drawn.
- A card with relations to practices in other stages shows how many, such as "3 links".
A practice's record lists all its relations as sentences under Relations, so you can read them without following the lines. Open a practice and read it explains the record.