Can Atlassian Projects be used with Initiative issue type? How?

[Shital Patel]

We have a need to provide status updates on Initiatives on a weekly basis. Initiative is at one level higher in hierarchy above Epic and typically consists of Epics from 3+ teams. Can we use Atlassian Projects to consolidate updates at the Initiative level (vs. Epic level)? What is the best way to set that up? 

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Shital - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Yes, you can do that, but you will need a Jira Premium subscription to do that. If you are already using that, then you can implement Initiatives in your hierarchy now. 

Create a new Work Type call Initiative if you haven't already. 

Go to Settings > Work Items > Work Type Hierarchy. Add Initiative as Level 2 above the Epic. 

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

Hi @Shital Patel ! 

As others have already pointed out, you can set up Jira Initiatives and other custom hierarchy levels with Jira Plans - functionality that is available to all Jira users on a Premium or Enterprise plan.

In Jira Plans, Initiatives should already be configured out of the box. However, other levels (such as Themes, OKRs, and so on) need to be set up manually. You can learn more about using Initiatives and other custom work levels in Jira from my article Advanced Roadmaps Hierarchy Configuration Guide 2026.

I hope this helps!

[Lukas Maczejka _Appfire_]

Hi @Shital Patel, welcome to the community!

As mentioned by others - with Jira Premium you can easily add additional hierarchy levels above epic — adding one quick option in case it's relevant.

If you want the cross-team Initiative rollup without upgrading the hierarchy or based on other properties, the app my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira (which @Ahmet Kilic - T2T also mentioned), is worth a quick look.

It's a spreadsheet/table view where you can:

• Model Initiative → Epic → Story via Jira's Parent field on Premium, or via issue links on any plan — no work type scheme change required.
• Aggregate story points, time spent, status distribution up to the Initiative level across teams and spaces.
• And many more hierarchy-aware features

Disclosure: I work on the team that builds JXL.

Cheers, Lukas

[Ahmet Kilic - T2T]

Hi Shital - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

2 options pop up:

Option 1: Atlassian native work hierarchy, as @John Funk explained above clearly. BUT only for the PREMIUM or ENTERPRISE plan.

Option 2: Custom hierarchy by Marketplace apps through linking.

Best practice for option 2

Set up your portfolio/program/team level works in Jira

Set up the linking type you want to connect the program (Epic) to the initiative (Portfolio)

Install a marketplace app that makes it possible like (JXL for Jira)

Then follow instructions from app vendor to visualize

(!) Btw. if you're implementing SAFe in Jira, you need more ability than just hierarchy. That's why I recommend getting some consultancy to manage all the ceremonies. Maybe Agile Hive, BigPicture or EasyAgile makes more sense for your case.

Don't hesitate to book free consultancy at T2T.

[Joshua Brock _ Seibert Group_ GmbH]

Hi @Shital Patel, and a hearty welcome to the Community!

 
The steps John shared are the right starting point...
configuring Work Type Hierarchy in Jira Premium (Settings > Work Items > Work Type Hierarchy) gets you Initiatives in the hierarchy.

And Danut's point about tracking is worth expanding on, because that's where the native tools run into limitations.

Once you have Initiatives configured, Atlassian Plans can display them on a timeline alongside their child Epics. The challenge for your use case (weekly status rollups across Epics from 3+ teams) is that Plans doesn't automatically aggregate status up to the Initiative level.

You'll be manually updating Initiative status while trying to synthesize what's happening across all the underlying Epics from different teams, which gets unwieldy fast. There's also no built-in mechanism for cross-team dependency tracking or capacity alignment at the Initiative level.

If your organization is moving toward Scaled Agile (SAFe), or if you're already operating across multiple teams that need to coordinate delivery, this is exactly the gap Agile Hive was designed to close:

• Native SAFe hierarchy in Jira — Portfolio Epics sit above ARTs and team-level Epics directly in Jira's data model, with no separate system of record or sync required
• Real-time Initiative-level visibility — roll up Epic progress from multiple teams to the Portfolio Epic level; status aggregates within Jira itself
• Lean Portfolio Management — funding, prioritization, and capacity modeling at the Initiative level, not just structural hierarchy configuration
• Planning Interval (PI) framework — instead of ad-hoc weekly status updates, teams work within defined Planning Intervals with PI Objectives tied to Initiatives, making cross-team alignment structured and repeatable

Agile Hive is particularly effective when you already have multiple teams in Jira and want Initiative-level governance without standing up a separate enterprise platform like Jira Align.

You can explore it at agile-hive.com, and there's a free trial available on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Just in full disclosure: I work at Seibert Group, the team behind Agile Hive.

Hope this helps!

Joshua
Content Writer & US Representative
Agile Hive and Aura Apps (products of Seibert Group GmbH)

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Shital Patel,

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You can modify the Jira work items hierarchy by adding Initiatives on top of Epics, but this can be done with Jira's advanced planning features available as part of Jira Premium and Jira Enterprise. 

Tracking the overall progress of the initiatives can be challenging and bit difficult with the advanced planning features. But you can also consider apps from Atlassian Marketplace for easier tracking. See this article with some examples on how to easily track the progress of initiatives by using one of our apps: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/App-Central-articles/How-to-display-the-progress-of-Epics-or-Initiatives-in-Jira-or/ba-p/2858840

Danut.