Configuring initiatives and other hierarchy levels

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Portfolio for JIRA groups your work items in hierarchical levels.You can customize both name and hierarchy level to adapt it to your needs.You can also define the relationship between JIRA issue types and Portfolio for JIRA hierarchy levels. The new hierarchy model has an explicit level for sub-tasks and allows you to create unlimited levels of hierarchy and customize the names.

The default hierarchy contains:

  • Epics - Once the higher level priorities are settled it's necessary to break them down into large pieces of work, which consist of multiple stories.
  • Stories - User stories capture functionality requirements.
  • Sub-task - Work components that make up stories.

Creating new hierarchy levels in Portfolio for JIRA

You can create as many hierarchy levels as you want in Portfolio for JIRA by following these steps:

  1. Go to Portfolio > Administration > Portfolio Hierarchy Configuration and click + Create Level.
    Now you can see a list with all the level names and their JIRA issue types.
  2. Type in the name and map the new level to a JIRA issue type.
  3. You can remove the level by selecting Remove.
  4. Rearrange levels by dragging and dropping the tabs.

How to add the initiative level to the JIRA project

You can use this approach in cases where you need more hierarchy levels within your project, and when your initiatives will rarely be cross-project.

 

  1. Go to your JIRA application > > Issues > + Add new issue type.
  2. Create a new issue type called Initiative and set it as Standard.
  3. Go to Issue type schemes > select the project and add the available initiative issue type to the issue types for current project list.



  4. Go back to Portfolio > Administration > Portfolio Hierarchy Configuration.

  5. Click + Create level and create the new initiative level.



  6. Click Apply and Save changes.

  7. If your team doesn't want to see the initiatives in your JIRA board, you can edit the agile board filter to exclude initiatives from the board and create a new filter that only includes the initiatives, and add that as an extra source to your plan.

  8. Connect your plan to both the project holding your initiatives, as well as the other projects or boards containing the epics and stories.

How to add the initiative level cross-project

An issue can live in a single JIRA project but you might want your initiative to span multiple projects. If you are working with cross-project initiatives you can create a dedicated JIRA project where the cross-project initiatives are stored and then use it as a source in your plan.

 

  1. Create a JIRA project that will hold your Initiatives.
  2. Go to your JIRA application > > Issues > + Add new issue type.
  3. Create a new issue type called Initiative and set it as Standard.
  4. Go to Issue type schemes > select the project and add the available initiative issue type to the issue types for current project list.



  5. Add the issue source to your plan by going to your Portfolio plan > Administration > Planning  > Issue Sources and select the new project as a source.
  6. Go back to Portfolio > Administration > Portfolio Hierarchy Configuration.
  7. Click + Create level and create the new initiative level.



  8. Click Apply and Save changes.

Mapping JIRA issue types to each Portfolio for JIRA level

Multiple issue types can be mapped into each hierarchy level. You could map JIRA stories, bugs, and tasks into custom Portfolio for JIRA levels.

  1. Before mapping a JIRA issue type into Portfolio for JIRA, make sure that the issue type has been created in your JIRA application instance. You can learn more about creating issue types here.
  2. Once you've created your new issue type in your JIRA application, it's time to map it into Portfolio for JIRA. 
  3. Go to Portfolio > Administration > Portfolio Hierarchy Configuration.
  4. Choose the issue types you want to configure from the drop-down menu and map them into to the hierarchy level you want, then click Apply.
  5. Click Save changes.
    Now you can work with the new hierarchy levels in the scope view of your plans.

Note

Keep in mind that the following configuration will be applied to all plans.

 


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Last modified on May 30, 2018

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