The Initiatives in Kanbanize are used to visualize Project deliverables, epic stories, or bigger work items and not day-to-day tasks. The Initiatives get created either on the Initiatives Workflow or on the Timeline Workflow.
How to Breakdown an Initiative into smaller work items?
Once created, the Initiatives should be broken down into smaller work items. . This way you visualize the complex work and all its components on separate workflows.
The smaller tasks get created on the Cards Workflow and are usually linked to the Initiatives as child cards. This way managers allocate the right amount of work necessary to successfully complete a project to the team members that are processing tasks on the Cards Workflow.
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There are many ways to break down an Initiative into smaller work items. Moreover, you can link already existing cards to an Initiative and thus make them part of the project.
Important: All approaches described below are applicable to the Initiatives that live on the Initiatives Workflow and on the Timelines Workflow.
Option 1: Create an Initiative and drag & drop it to the Cards Workflow (Video 1).
A new child card opens and you should enter its properties (for example the title). In case you did not click on the 'copy/sync' settings icon, you can do that in the card creation menu in the Links Overview menu, prior to creating the new linked card. Then click the "Add Card" button to make it present on the board. The two items are now linked and there is a parent/child dependency between them. This way you can create as many child cards as needed to outline the scope of your Initiative.
Practical Tip:
When creating a lot of similar child cards, you can do the following:
After you create your first card, instead of clicking "Add Card" you can click on the dots icon (1) which will open up two options.
Select the "Save and Add New" option to create a copy of the current card.
You can also achieve the same result with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
(Video 1)
Option 2: This is the opposite approach. You can drag & drop an existing card from the Cards Workflow to the Initiative/Timeline Workflow and link it to an existing Initiative.
Note: The system allows you to select multiple cards and link them all together to an existing Initiative.
Option 3
Step 1: Click the Initiative plus sign to create a new child card.
Step 2: Use the mini Boardmap and define where the child card is to be created. Select a Board and use the mouse cursor to define its position in the respective workflow.
Option 4
Open an Initiative and use the Links Overview menu to create a new Child; Parent; Relative; Predecessor or Successor. With the Boardmap tool, you can select the Board and the card position within it.
Note: Using the last option "Link to existing card", you can create a dependency between the current card and another existing item in the system.
This choice opens a new panel and the system prompts you to select the type of dependency as well as to enter a card ID or a Title in order to refer to an existing item in the system. Click the "Create a link" button to establish the relation.
Option 5
Double click to open an Initiative and select the "Links" tab.
Click "Create New Link" to open a menu that displays all types of dependencies in the system (child, parent, relative, predecessor, successor). Make your choice and use the Boardmap tool to select the board and the position of the newly created card.
Note: Using the last option "Link to existing card", you can create a dependency between the current Initiative and another existing item in the system.
Option 6: If you need to break down an Initiative and allocate the child cards into different boards from your account, we recommend using the "Related Board" feature. Access it from the board sidebar that belongs to every board.
This feature helps you to visualize the Cards workflows of selected boards from your account into a single panel. The miniature maps of all boards' workflows that you choose to relate will show up in a side panel, allowing you to easily create and track linked cards between them.
To learn more about this feature, please check the dedicated article.
