When it comes to projects, one size does not fit all. Every Initiative contains a certain number of cards or other child initiatives that outline it. However, each child card/initiative may be sized differently.
We have added the ability to get the cumulative size of the Initiative in a dedicated field.
The cumulative size of the Initiative is calculated as the sum of the sizes of all its child cards.
The system considers if there is a further breakdown of the linked work items in a hierarchy, in order to sum up the actual total size.
If the card size field is empty, the default size of the card is “1”.
Here is an example of how the system calculates the cumulative size:
Example 1: If you break down your work into a hierarchy of two levels, then the Initiative's cumulative size equals the sum of the sizes of its children cards (15).
Example 2: If the work structure is in a multi-level hierarchy, here is how we get the cumulative size.
When you break down your work into multiple levels, you usually visualize a tree-like structure i.e.
Level 1: In the context of Kanbanize, we may assume that Level 1 is the Strategic level.
In the example below, we have visualized the strategic Initiative named "Quarter 3" on the Timeline Workflow.
Level 2: The "Q3" Initiative is broken down into multiple projects that need to be accomplished in that quarter.
Level 3: Each project is broken down into smaller deliverables (Level 3).
To calculate the cumulative size of a Level 1 initiative, the system will walk the hierarchy from top to bottom and will determine if any values of the size field have been set. If such values have been found, the system will sum them.
It is important to mention that the system will not continue the search to Level 3, in case values have been discovered on Level 2.
Example 3: In case any of the cards and initiatives do not have a size value, then the system will search to Level 3 (respectively, the last level in your scenario). The cumulative size equals the number of cards X 1 (the default size value).