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How to flag Portfolio Epics vs Program Epics without turning on Capabilities

Rebecca Hylek

Our company is working with a consulting group to help with the Agile Transformation and they have asked for a place to identify Portfolio Epics vs Program Epics in Align. They don't want to turn on Capabilities at this time.

The first option they requested was to use the Type field however the options in the drop down can't be changed.

The second option they requested was adding it to the Category field but this is only available at the Feature level.

Any other suggestions for something like this? Would turning on the Solution menu without turning on Capabilities be an option?

NOTE: The application was set up before I joined this team, and the Solution level has not been used. For reference, we are using the SAFe framework, the name for Theme was updated to "Initiative" in Platform Terminology so our current flow is Portfolio Initiatives and Epics; Program Features; stories are created in Jira Cloud.

Accepted answers

Allan Maxwell

You should consider using Standalone Features because in many ways they function like an Epic. The Portfolio Backlog has the option of showing Standalone Features intermingled with Portfolio Epics. Standalone Features have some of the additional Tabs/Fields that you find on Portfolio Epics, but not on Features that are not standalone. . I think the additional fields is no longer a possibiilty.

Samit Mehta _321 Gang_

I haven't used the mechanism that Alan described, but it seems like a really good option.

However, if you need a work item that goes across multiple Planning Increments and across multiple ARTs and also be able to decompose the work item into Features, then you will need to consider either Epics or Capabilities.

Typically, the reason for differentiating between Portfolio-level Epics and Program-level Epics is so that the Portfolio leadership and Program leadership each have a distinct Kanban / Backlog of Epics that they review and approve. Also you need a way to move these from one Backlog to another - e.g. if a Program Epic exceeds a threshold established by the Portfolio-level team (LPM) then the Program Epic is changed to a Portfolio Epic.

Some options that you can use to filter the data in the Portfolio Kanban (Epic Backlog - Kanban Process Flow view) - the Apply Filters supports only a limited set of fields to filter:

use tags - a tag to indicate that this is a Program Epic or a Portfolio Epic
put something in the title of the Epic to indicate it is a Program or a Portfolio Epic
create separate "Intake" ARTs for Portfolio and Program Epics and set the Primary ART of the EPIC to the appropriate "Intake" ARTs. The "Intake" ARTs are separate from the ARTs you would create that contain the Scrum/Kanban Teams and will only be used to maintain a backlog of Epics for Program or Portfolio leadership. This mechanism would also allow you to stack rank the Program Epic and Portfolio Epics separately if needed.

All comments

Allan Maxwell

Screenshot of Standalone Features in Portfolio Epic backlog.

Screenshot 2023-03-24 at 10.37.04 AM.png

Samit Mehta _321 Gang_

Some options that you can use to filter the data in the Portfolio Kanban (Epic Backlog - Kanban Process Flow view) - the Apply Filters supports only a limited set of fields to filter:

use tags - a tag to indicate that this is a Program Epic or a Portfolio Epic
put something in the title of the Epic to indicate it is a Program or a Portfolio Epic
create separate "Intake" ARTs for Portfolio and Program Epics and set the Primary ART of the EPIC to the appropriate "Intake" ARTs. The "Intake" ARTs are separate from the ARTs you would create that contain the Scrum/Kanban Teams and will only be used to maintain a backlog of Epics for Program or Portfolio leadership. This mechanism would also allow you to stack rank the Program Epic and Portfolio Epics separately if needed.

Dhruv Doshi

Allan, But the issue with stand alone feature is features only span 1 PI while Epics span multiple PIs. So if we use Stand Alone Feature for Portfolio Epics, How do we associate them to more then 1 PI.

Allan Maxwell

@Dhruv Doshi That cannot be done.

Allan Maxwell

Two options: one simple, one complex but powerful.

This simple option is to add a "Portfolio Epic" option to the "Investment Category" dropdown. You will gain some very basic filtering capabilities and reporting. See image below.
The much more complex option is to use Custom Hierarchies. You can ignore my second level "Program Epic Type" or use it and map it to Features rather than Capabilities as you see I have done in this example.

Screenshot 2024-03-07 at 9.35.34 AM.png

--------------Create Hierarchy ---------------

you would need a value for each Program probably
each program could have their own set of sub-categories (or shared) which would be assigned to Features

Screenshot 2024-03-07 at 9.43.21 AM.png

--------------- Tag Epics as Program Epics (I called them "Program Discretionary") ----

Screenshot 2024-03-07 at 9.45.08 AM.png

------------ Each tag, at each level gets a "Room" where you can see all releated work, OKR, Dependencies, Risk -------

Dhruv Doshi

Thank you Allen. Is it possible to schedule a video call with you to understand this further. I have some questions and would like to understand this in more detail

Allan Maxwell

@Dhruv Doshi reach out to your Atlassian contact to see what is possible from a support standpoint.