How to Create Initiatives?

1. How to Create Initiatives in the Initiatives Workflow
2. How to Create Initiatives in the Timeline Workflow

Initiatives are Kanban cards that can be created in the Initiatives Workflow and in the Timeline Workflow. They are commonly used to visualize projects, epics, or bigger tasks. To learn more about initiatives, check the dedicated article.

1. How to Create Initiatives in the Initiatives Workflow

There are several ways to create an Initiative: 

Option 1: Right-click in the Requested area of the Initiative Workflow and click on “Create new initiative.” The new initiative will appear as a Kanban card with its respective properties. Fill in the information related to the Initiative and аdd it to the workflow.

Tip: The initiative is visualized as a rectangle. Just click to open it. To break down your initiative and start creating its first child cards, click on the plus icon in the lower left corner of the initiative's closed view.

Option 2: Another way to create an initiative is to use the plus icon at the top right side of the board. This will open a minimap of the board so you can select the location of the new work item. In your case, it should be an initiatives workflow.

Option 3: Drag & drop an existing card from the Cards Workflow to the Initiatives Workflow.

The system prompts you to select one of the following options:

• Create new parent initiative — the card you dragged will trigger an Initiative creation and will be automatically linked to it as a child card. Afterward, the card will be positioned back at its previous board location.
• Create new relative Initiative — the card you dragged will trigger an Initiative creation and will be automatically linked to it as a relative card.
• Create new predecessor initiative — the card you dragged will trigger an Initiative creation and will be automatically linked to it as a successor.
• Create new successor initiative — the card you dragged will trigger an Initiative creation and will be automatically linked to it as a predecessor.
• Convert to an Initiative — this will convert the card to an Initiative. The child card will cease to exist.
• Clone as an initiative — copy the card as an Initiative. Both the card and the Initiative will be preserved without any relation between the two items.

Option 4: You can create an initiative of multiple cards using the drag & drop functionality.

Select a group of existing cards (by drawing a box around them), then drag & drop them to the Requested column of the Initiatives Workflow. The system provides you with the same linking options as explained in Option 3 above.

Option 5: Importing Initiatives using an Excel spreadsheet is the quickest way to populate your board, without having to create them manually.

Note: You can also use the "Businessmap for Sheets" add-on to import Initiatives.  

Option 6: With the Business rules in Businessmap, you can automate a lot of actions in your process.

The Business rules trigger actions (create a card Initiative/initiative, update a card/initiative, send a notification, call web service, etc.) when certain events occur or predefined criteria have been fulfilled. They work on the following principle: If "X" and "Y" conditions are met, then do "Z."

With the "Recurring create cards" rule, you can set up a schedule and create new Initiatives automatically. For example, you can configure the system to automatically create new initiatives with predefined parameters, every Monday at 5 pm.

Note: If you want to create a sub-initiative (a.k.a. a child initiative), you can do so from the card details of the parent initiative. Click the plus icon in "Links overview" and select "Create new child card." Then, choose a location from an initiatives workflow so the work item is created as an initiative and not a regular card. Alternatively, you can create the new initiative first and then link it as a child to the parent initiative.

2. How to Create Initiatives in the Timeline Workflow

You can create Initiatives in the Timeline Workflow in the past, present, and future.

The vertically green line marker always defines the current day. Don't forget to consider it as an indicator when you map your projects.

To create an Initiative, do a right click or double-click on the track area that corresponds to the desired time period (check the short video below). This would be the Planned Start Date of your Initiative. Type the Initiative's name to create the item and click "Enter." To adjust the Planned Start and End dates to the Timeline, move the mouse over the initiative's left and right edges and click to drag the slider.

Now that your initiative is created, you can start linking its child cards.

Note: Cards and initiatives cannot be directly cloned or duplicated across timeline tracks. Since the timeline workflow requires planned start and end dates, which aren’t copied during cloning, the initiative won’t appear on the timeline. To convert a card or portfolio initiative into a timeline initiative, clone it into the timeline workflow's backlog, then manually set the planned start and end dates.

To learn more, check our dedicated Timeline Workflow article.