I need input! Organizing My Project

[Tosha Liveoak]

Hi Atlassian Community!

I have been working in Jira Software (JS) for roughly 7 months now. I am looking for input on organizing an Agile project in JS.  I think I may be stuck in how I like to see things in the Roadmap.  I like starting there with my projects.  If you look at the image below you can see I'm kind of using a "hybrid" approach with Agile/Waterfall methodologies.  Meaning I'm using Epics as a grouping container. On the other hand, the phases don't always go in order nor do they have to - being Agile.  I'm organizing my work into phases.  Initiate, Plan, Execute, Close. Then take the tasks as seen here and place them under them.  Things that are project-related like developing a Charter, Intake questionnaire, and so on are static pretty much, but not the actual items to "execute" our deliverables. 

Questions:

1. Should I be using these phase "containers" on my Epics?

2. How does this impact reporting?

3. What if other projects are not in this layout (still company-managed, all of them)? What happens to reporting etc.?

4. What are your thoughts/input on organizing this work?  

I need your help!  I already have 10 or so projects and before this gets out of hand, I'd really like to get this under control.  I've taken several free as well as paid training in JS etc. 

Thank you so much!!