Add initiative issue type to each team project or only to a dedicated project that houses initiative

[Christine Byrer]

Happy day!

My company is learning more about Advanced Roadmap Planning and while several PM's and Jira Admins have watched various demos and webinars on the inner workings we are considering how to best configure our instance.

We currently have added Initiative issue type above Epics for the hierarchy.  We have some PM's who think they would like initiative issue type associated to each of the projects their teams use and we have other PM's who think a dedicated project for initiatives would be best.

Is there a best practice in how to create/track initiatives or is it a "it depends" situation.  What does it depend on.   

[Wade H]

@Christine Byrer 

My company uses a separate project for Initiatives so the portfolio folks can work in that project. We also use separate projects for Epics and that are product related for the program folks to work in for the Epics. Then below that we have our projects for the teams to work with stories, task, etc. 

I have done this both ways with Epics and Initiatives in team projects and also like we have it now with epics and initiatives in separate projects. We chose this way so that everyone is aligned on priorities and there are not a bunch of initiatives and epics out in the wild that are not part of the overall plan.

I think it is a what ever works for you kind of thing.

-wade

[Curt Holley]

Hi @Christine Byrer 
I agree with @Wade H there is no right way, just the right way for you/your company.

That said, I am fond of separating out any levels above Jira Epics and keeping the team/standard projects with just the standard Jira hierarchy of Epic, Stories/tasks whatever/Sub-tasks.

[Christine Byrer]

Thank you for the feedback.  In separating out any levels above Epics.  If there were 2 levels above Epics would you separate out both of the 2 levels each in their own projects.  So for example, a project for initiatives (first level above epics) and a project for objectives (second level above epics).

[Wade H]

@Christine Byrer  I think it would depend on how you plan to report on them.
In my opinion it makes it easier if they are in different projects for different levels of Hierarchy Or if you have different users handling backlogs.