Visualizing epics and initiatives in advanced roadmap

Question

Hi

I have trouble using advanced roadmap in a good way.

We have the common hierarchy initiatives->epics->stories->tasks like many others.

Our basic definition is:

Initiatives are big deliveries covering several increments (one increment having 4 sprints).
Epics could span over several sprints and stories should fit in one sprint (but might be delivered during 2 if started late).

There are cases where we have free floating epics or stories because they are not big enough to have a parent.

The problem I'm facing is that in advanced roadmap I can't visualize different type of issues in one view. So a free floating epic must have an initiative.

Have I configured plans/advanced roadmap in a wrong way or is the tool not intended to be used like this?

Mary from Planyway · Answer

Hi @Saman Hadiani

It's Mary from Planyway roadmap for Jira

Depending on the previous message, I thought that Planyway might work for you as it visualizes all issues not depending on links with epics.

Saman Hadiani · Answer

Thanks you @Walter Buggenhout for the quick and swift answer.

I see and understand your reply. I was hoping to avoid "placeholder initiatives".
We have 15+ teams working with in JIRA and where many issues are not connected to Initiatives and I have been working a lot to with the teams to avoid placeholder issues in general in JIRA. 
Exactly as you describe I want to visualize what the teams are putting effort on in one view without extra administration and breaking our definitions. So I was hoping that I could sort and visualize Initiatives and Epics (that are orphans) in a prioritized order in advanced roadmaps. 
The way it looks now, I have two priority orders. One for initiatives and one for epics.

If there is no other good and easy way, I might have to reconsider the definition of Initiatives.

Walter Buggenhout · Answer

Hi @Saman Hadiani,

Quite simply put: if you don't assign items to a parent, they cannot be displayed below one. In the timeline view of a plan, that leads to epics being displayed as epics without parent.

To resolve that, it is not uncommon to create a sort of placeholder initiative for these epics, so you can group them as well. It usually makes sense to make it clear that people are working on stuff that you did not identify as big deliveries, as it is taking out time from your teams working towards those other (hopefully important) deliveries.

Hope this helps!