When it comes to projects, one size does not fit all. Every initiative consists of different cards or child initiatives, and it is important to note that these child cards/initiatives may vary in size.
Here is how the cumulative size of initiatives is calculated in Businessmap, illustrated by a few practical examples.
The Cumulative Size Calculation
You can see the cumulative size of an initiative in a dedicated field located under the co-owners dropdown (see image below).
The cumulative size of an initiative is calculated as the sum of the sizes of all its child cards.
Important:
- To sum up the actual total size, the system considers if there is a further breakdown of the linked work items in a hierarchy.
- If a card's size field is empty, the default size of the card is 1.
Here is an example of how the system calculates the cumulative size:
Example 1
If you break down your work into a hierarchy of two levels, then the Initiative's cumulative size equals the sum of the sizes of all its child cards (15).
Example 2
If the work structure is in a multi-level hierarchy, here is how we get the cumulative size.
When you break down your work into multiple levels, you usually visualize a tree-like structure:
Level 1: In the context of Businessmap, we may assume that Level 1 is the Strategic level.
In examples 1 and 3, we have visualized the strategic Initiative named "Q3 Projects" on the Timeline Workflow.
Level 2: The "Q3 Projects" initiative is broken down into multiple projects that need to be accomplished in that quarter.
Level 3: Each project is broken down into smaller deliverables.
To calculate the cumulative size, the system goes through all linked child cards (in the entire hierarchy) and checks if they have any size set:
- If a child card has a size, the system takes that value and does not continue checking further down that hierarchy (Example 1), i.e. it does not go through any of that child card's own child cards (to check if they have a size or not).
- If a child card does not have a size, the system checks whether this child card has any child cards of its own. If it does, the system checks each grandchild card (Example 3) as described above. If it does not, the system assumes the size for this child card equals 1.
Example 3
In the example image below, the system checks the second level in the hierarchy, but since there are no defined sizes there, it moves down to the next, third level. The system finds the card sizes in level three and therefore the top-level initiative's cumulative size is equal to 8.
It is important to note that the system will not continue the search in the level 3 hierarchy, in case values have been discovered on level 2 (as in Example 1).
In case any of the cards and initiatives do not have a size value, the system will search for Level 3 (or respectively, any other levels up until the last level in your scenario).