1. An Introduction to the Initiatives Workflow
Every board you create in Kanbanize has two default sections: the Initiatives Workflow and the Cards workflow.
The Initiatives Workflow (1) is the top swimlane on your board, designed for Senior team members/Project managers to easily track the progress of bigger tasks or projects.
The Initiatives Workflow is the place where you can create Initiatives and track their automated progress.
Via the Workflow Designer, you can customize your board by adding New Initiatives lanes and Timeline lanes.
An initiative is a bigger task, epic or a project, which you have to break down into smaller work items (cards).
The small pieces of work (cards) get created and are positioned on the Cards Workflow lane (2). They are linked to the Initiatives as child cards.
This way you make the work more manageable and your team gets a better picture of all milestones.
For more information, please watch the video: "How to use the Initiatives Workflow".
Note: The system allows you to create dependencies between the Initiatives themselves.
2. How does the "Initiative Workflow" work?
The Initiatives move through the Initiatives Workflow lane completely automatically.
They progress when the small deliverables linked to them progress on the Cards Workflow.
How does it work?
When a team member moves a child card linked to an Initiative to the "In Progress" column on the Cards Workflow lane (Team Board level) -> the Initiative will automatically move to the "In Progress" column on the Initiative Workflow lane.
Each Initiative has a progress indicator that shows the percentage of the completed cards.
When all child cards, linked to the Initiative are moved to the "Done" column, the Initiative progress indicator will become 100% and it will automatically move to the "Done" column of the Initiatives Workflow.
To learn more about the Initiative, please read the dedicated article.
3. How to manage the Initiatives Workflow?
The Initiatives workflow is available upon board creation. It can be managed either by users with Account Owner privileges or by Workspace Managers.
To change some of its settings or to customize it, select the Edit Workflow icon at the top of the board interface to turn on the edit mode of the board.
From the edit board panel, users with the relevant permissions can do the following actions:
(1) Rename the Initiatives Workflow swimlane.
(2) Configure the Cycle time of the lane
(3) Delete the lane
(4) Disable the lane - this action will hide the Initiatives workflow lane for all board members
4. How to customize the Initiatives Workflow?
Turn on the edit mode of the board to be able to customize the Initiatives Workflow lane.
Create new columns
- Adding columns to the Initiatives workflow is only allowed in the Backlog area.
Hovering on the Backlog cell, the three-plus buttons appear to the left, right and bottom of the box (img. 1). Click the plus sign to create extra columns and prioritize your product backlog items. You can name columns anything you like just click on the title and it instantly turns into an editable text box. Similarly, you can easily set up the limit and the number of cards per row.
Important: Don't forget to save the changes you made -> click Save at the top right corner of the screen.
Img.1
Create new swimlanes
- The Portfolio lane is the default swimlane of the Initiatives Workflow.
With the Workflow designer, you can create additional swimlanes after the default lane to classify Initiatives of different teams, projects, etc.
Hoven on the Portfolio lane cell and click the plus sign to create a new swimlane (img.2).
Tip: use the pallet icon in the cell to color the new swimlane for better visualization.
From the gear icon, you can set the lane limit.
Img.2
Please, check the dedicated article to learn more about the board edit mode options.
5. How to freeze the Initiatives Workflows?
To freeze the Initiatives Workflow lane, use the pin icon located on the top right side of the board interface. The pin icon appears on hover.
By freezing the Initiatives workflow, you will be able to scroll through the board and still see the Initiatives Workflow at the top of your board layout.
This will improve the overall visibility and will facilitate the breakdown process of the Initiatives.
Please, check the following article to learn how to create an Initiative.