Work item weight

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• Tier: Premium, Ultimate
• Offering: GitLab.com, GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

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• Introduced for epics in GitLab 18.11.

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When you have a lot of work items, it can be hard to get an overview. With weighted work items, you can get a better idea of how much time, value, or complexity a given work item has or costs. You can also sort by weight to see which work items need to be prioritized.

View the work item weight

You can view the work item weight on:

• The right sidebar of each work item.
• The work items list, next to a weight icon ({{< icon name="weight" >}}).
• Issue boards, next to a weight icon ({{< icon name="weight" >}}).
• The milestone page, as a total sum of work item weights.

Set the work item weight

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• Minimum role to set work item weight changed from Reporter to Planner in GitLab 17.7.

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Prerequisites:

• You must have the Planner, Reporter, Developer, Maintainer, or Owner role for the parent project or group.

The following apply:

• You can set the work item weight when you create or edit a work item.
• You must enter whole, positive numbers.
• When you change the weight of a work item, the new value overwrites the previous value.

When you create a work item

To set the work item weight when you create a work item, enter a number under Weight.

From an existing work item

To set the work item weight from an existing work item:

1. Go to the work item.
2. In the right sidebar, in the Weight section, select Edit.
3. Enter the new weight.
4. Select any area outside the dropdown list.

From an issue board

To set the issue weight when you edit an issue from an issue board:

1. Go to your issue board.
2. Select an issue card (not its title).
3. In the right sidebar, in the Weight section, select Edit.
4. Enter the new weight.
5. Select any area outside the dropdown list.

Remove work item weight

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• Minimum role to remove work item weight changed from Reporter to Planner in GitLab 17.7.

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Prerequisites:

• You must have the Planner, Reporter, Developer, Maintainer, or Owner role for the parent project or group.

To remove the work item weight, follow the same steps as when you set the work item weight, and select remove weight.