1. Introduction
Initiatives get created in the Initiatives Workflow or in the Timeline workflow.
When you create your first Initiative, you are supposed to input initiative-related data in the corresponding fields. For example, you need to set up the Title, Owner, Deadline, Size, etc. Then you need to click the ADD button on the bottom right corner to create the initiative.
Important: The initiative as an item has the same properties as the Kanban card. For more information, check the dedicated article.
In the image below, you can see the closed view of the initiative you just created.
A closer look at the initiative shows each icon that corresponds to an initiative property (e.g. type, subtasks, custom fields, size, tag, comments, priority, cycle & logged time, deadline, links), numbered 1 to 16.
Important: Icons appear only when a corresponding property value is set. For example, if there are no subtasks or custom field entries, the icons will be hidden in the initiative's closed view.
2. The Initiative Properties
(1) Type — hover over the icon to see the current initiative type. Click once to change the type.
(2) Progress Indicator — each initiative has a progress indicator that shows the percentage of completed cards. When all child cards linked to the initiative are moved to the Done column, the initiative's progress indicator becomes 100% and is considered completed.
(3) Card ID — shows the unique ID of the card or the custom ID you have typed in. In the example above, "A1" is the custom ID.
(4) Title — this is the name of your initiative.
(5) Subtasks — click once on the Subtask icon to display all subtasks of the initiative. Double-click to toggle subtasks for all initiatives. To close the details, click the icon again or refresh (F5) your board.
(6) Custom Fields — click once on the icon to display all custom fields for the initiative. Double-click to toggle custom fields for all initiatives. To close the details, click the icon again or refresh (F5) your board.
(7) Size — hover over the icon to see how big the task is. Click once to re-size the initiative.
Note: In addition, each initiative has a cumulative size that becomes visible in a dedicated field.
The cumulative size of the initiative is calculated as the sum of the sizes of all its child cards.
The system considers if there is a further breakdown of the linked work items in a hierarchy in order to sum up the actual total size. If the card size field is empty, the default size of the card is "1." To learn how the system calculates cumulative size, please check the dedicated article.
(8) Tag — hover over the icon to see the tag name. Click once to change the tag and set it up.
(9) Comment — hover over the icon to see the number of comments. Click once to open the Comments section of the initiative.
(10) Attachments — hover on the icon to see the number of files attached to the card.
(11) Owner — usually, it displays the avatar of the user who is assigned to the initiative or the first letter of their initials.
(12) Child Card Links— each child card linked to the Initiative is represented by a colored rectangle. The color corresponds to the position of the card on the board, e.g. a blue rectangle means that the child card is in the “Requested” column.
Click the empty space next to the last rectangle to display all existing links (parent, child, relative, successor, predecessor) of the respective card. To close the list of links, click on the same area again or refresh (F5) your board. You can also use the card visualization configuration to hide archived cards from the links overview.
Click on the icons numbered (5) Subtasks, (6) Custom fields, and (12) Child Card Links to have a combined view of the respective properties. To close the details, click the icons again or refresh your board.
(13) Deadline — the icon displays the initiative's deadline. Click to open the calendar picker.
(14) Cycle Time — the icon displays the card's cycle time. Click on it to open the card's Metrics tab
(15) Logged Time — the icon displays the logged time for this card. Click on it to open the log time panel for additional entries.
(16) Priority — the icon shows the card's priority. It can be low, average, high, or critical. By default, the system will assign an average priority to every card and initiative.