Using Initiatives or other entities above the Epic
- Olexiy Artemenko
You can configure the chart according to your processes and needs in the “Main” tab in the settings of all related charts:
Multiple initiatives can be selected for the chart, providing a wider view of progress across various projects. You get a broader perspective on project health and alignment with strategic goals.
Tracking multiple initiatives together helps identify where resources are most needed, facilitating more effective prioritization and allocation of team efforts to ensure critical projects stay on track.
Track any entity 2 levels above the Epic
In a Scaled Agile environment, the Jira process needs structuring with complex hierarchies beyond standard offerings. Enterprises adapt by renaming and creating new issue and link types, building an issue architecture above the basic Epic-Story-Sub-task structure.
Adjustments typically involve creating 'boxes' for the Program level and 'boxes of boxes' for the Portfolio level. Medium-sized businesses may use just one level above the Epic.
Commonly, Program Epics are on Level 1, and Initiatives on Level 2 of this hierarchy:
In chart settings, to create a chart for a particular scope, you can select the top-level issue for tracking, set the hierarchy depth, and specify the link type to exclude irrelevant links (e.g., “blocked by”):
To understand how it works, let’s look at the following cases based on the example hierarchy mentioned above:
If you have selected Initiative, depth 2, child of / parent of, then the chart will show you the data from all Stories and Tasks from all Epics linked to all Program Epics linked to Initiative.
If you have selected Program Epic, depth 1, child of / parent of, then the chart will show you the data from all Stories and Tasks from all Epics linked to all Program Epic.
If you have selected Initiative, depth 1, child of / parent of, then the chart will show you nothing because there are no Epics linked to Initiative directly.
If you have selected Program Epic, depth 2, child of / parent of, then the chart will show you nothing because there are no Epics linked to Stories or Tasks linked to Program Epic.
Note: Prefer creating a custom link type (e.g., “parent of”) rather than using the default “relates to” to differentiate structural links from contextual ones.
If you have different link types on different levels, you also can select more than one link type:
Parent field support
As a user of Jira Premium with a configured 2-level in-depth Issue Hierarchy:
You can now use a parent field to link Initiatives with Epics, enabling them to serve as data sources:
Custom Done statuses
In case your workflow goes beyond the standard delivery process and you want to track the following:
Specific Done statuses (e.g., Ready for Release, Deployed, etc.)
Several Done status as a group
Any other status as a result of a sub-process
Note: By default, the chart calculates as completed all issues that have any status from the Done category.
Integrated "Time Spent & Remaining Time" Estimation Field
You can use any estimation field for the calculation: Issue count, Story Points, etc.
The following post describes a specific case, when you want to use combined time fields.
By merging the two types of data — time spent and time remaining — your teams can continue using familiar tools while applying agile principles to track their performance. This blended approach can offer you a more nuanced view of team workflow close to Story Points, ensuring a smoother transition and more accurate forecasting.
You can select the "Time Spent & Remaining Time" field from the dropdown alongside other fields.
By default, the charts focus on the team’s productivity by counting Time Spent and Remaining Time for completed issues. In contrast, you can switch on the toggle to track the team’s efficiency and consider only the Time Spent.
To get more details about configuration and calculation, please read this article.
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