Group multiple projects using Initiatives

Pro

Initiatives is designed to help you manage and track progress across multiple related projects under a unified objective. This feature is particularly useful if you need a high-level view of how various projects align with strategic goals.

Use Initiatives when you need to:

• Align multiple projects with a broader organizational goal.
• Manage and monitor groups of related projects efficiently.
• Provide stakeholders with an aggregated view of progress and status.

Enable Initiatives

To start using Initiatives, you'll need to enable the feature:

1. Go to Workspace settings.
2. Select the Initiatives tab on the right pane.
3. Toggle on the Enable Initiatives option.

Once enabled, you'll see an Initiatives option in the sidebar under Workspace section.

Create Initiatives

Follow these steps to set up an Initiative:

1. Navigate to the Initiatives section in the sidebar.
2. Click the Add Initiative button on the top right of the screen.
3. Provide the following details:
   • Title: Name your Initiative.
   • Description: Add context about the goal of the Initiative.
   • State: Set the initial state (Drafts, Planned, Active, Completed, or Closed). By default, new Initiatives are set to "Drafts".
   • Start and End Dates: Define the timeline for the Initiative.
   • Lead: Assign a person responsible for the Initiative.
   • Labels: Add custom labels to categorize the Initiative (labels must be set up in workspace settings first).
4. Click Create Initiative.

View and manage Initiatives

Once created, you can view all Initiatives in the Initiatives section on the sidebar.

Selecting an Initiative opens its detailed view.

Initiatives now offer two distinct views to help you track progress and manage scope effectively. Use the dropdown in the top navigation to switch between Overview and Scope views depending on whether you need high-level progress insights or detailed scope management.

Initiative overview

The Overview gives you a bird's-eye view of your Initiative's progress. You'll see a comprehensive scope breakdown that tracks both projects and epics within your initiative, showing completion percentages and recent updates at a glance.

The progress visualization at the bottom provides an instant snapshot of work distribution across different states - from backlog items to completed work. The percentages and counts for each category are automatically calculated based on the associated projects. This makes it easy to understand where your initiative stands and identify any bottlenecks in your workflow.

tip

Use Initiatives for a top-down view of progress. For detailed updates, navigate to individual projects.

Initiative scope

Use the dropdown in the top navigation to switch to the Scope view to see all the building blocks of your initiative. Here you'll find detailed lists of:

Epics
With Initiatives, you can bring together Epics from different projects into a single, high-level view. This helps you track progress across multiple workstreams in one place, giving you a clear picture of how everything is moving forward.

Here’s how it helps:

• Group related Epics from different projects under one Initiative to keep everything connected.
• Get a centralized view of progress, dependencies, and blockers across multiple projects.
• No more jumping between projects—track and manage Epics in one place.

After you create an Initiative and add Epics from any project. From there, you can monitor overall progress, update statuses, and ensure everything stays on track.

This is perfect for cross-functional teams working on company-wide objectives, product launches, or any effort that spans multiple projects.

Projects
Connected projects showing completion rates and key details like execution status, leads, and timelines.

Each item shows its current progress, making it simple to drill down into specific areas that need attention or are ready for the next phase.

Use the Add scope button in the top-right corner to expand your initiative by connecting additional epics and projects. This makes it easy to grow your initiative as new work streams emerge or when you need to link existing work to your strategic goals.

Initiative states

Every Initiative has a state that reflects its current phase. Use the State property to update its status:

• Drafts
  Initiatives in the planning phase that aren't ready to start
• Planned
  Initiatives that are defined and scheduled but not yet active
• Active
  Currently ongoing Initiatives that teams are working on
• Completed
  Successfully finished Initiatives that have met their goals
• Closed
  Initiatives that have been archived or discontinued

You can filter Initiatives by state using the Display dropdown in the Initiatives list view, making it easy to focus on active work or review completed efforts.

Initiative labels

Labels help you categorize and organize Initiatives across your workspace. Before you can use labels on Initiatives, you need to set them up in your workspace settings.

1. Go to Workspace settings.
2. Navigate to the Initiatives tab in the left sidebar.
3. Scroll to the Labels section.
4. Click Add label or Create your first label.
5. Define your label name and color.

Once labels are created, you can assign them to any Initiative through the Labels property in the Initiative's properties panel. Multiple labels can be applied to a single Initiative, allowing for flexible categorization.

Initiative updates

The Initiative updates stream displays all project and epic updates in a chronological feed at the top of the Initiative view. Each update card shows:

• Status indicators (On Track, At Risk, Off Track)
• Source project or epic name
• Post date and author
• Complete update content

This consolidated view enables Initiative owners to monitor progress across all connected work without navigating to individual items. The stream combines qualitative context with the initiative's quantitative metrics, providing real-time visibility into progress and potential risks across all contributing workstreams.

Properties, comments, and activity

• The Info tab on the side panel of an Initiative provides a quick snapshot of key properties and metadata associated with the Initiative.

  • State: Track the Initiative's lifecycle phase (Drafts, Planned, Active, Completed, Closed)
  • Projects: Number of connected projects
  • Epics: Number of associated epics
  • Lead: Person responsible for the Initiative
  • Start date: When the Initiative begins
  • Due date: Target completion date
  • Created by: Initiative creator
  • Labels: Custom categorization tags for organization

  

• Add comments to discuss updates or highlight issues.

  

• View the activity log for all updates related to the Initiative.

  

Sort and filter initiatives

To make managing initiatives easier, Plane provides comprehensive options to filter, group, and sort them based on various criteria.

Filter initiatives

Use the filter icon in the top navigation to apply filters:

• Lead: Filter by the assigned lead with options to select multiple leads or search for a specific person.
• Start date: Filter based on Initiative start dates with quick options like "1 week from now," "2 weeks from now," "1 month from now," or use a custom date selector.
• End date: Filter based on target completion dates, similar to the start date options.
• State: Filter Initiatives by their lifecycle phase (Drafts, Planned, Active, Completed, Closed).
• Labels: Filter by custom labels to find Initiatives in specific categories.

Display options

Click the Display dropdown in the top navigation to customize how Initiatives are organized and sorted:

Group by

• Lead: Group Initiatives by the person responsible for them
• Created By: Group by the person who created the Initiative
• States: Group by lifecycle phase (Drafts, Planned, Active, Completed, Closed)
• Labels: Group by assigned labels
• None: View all Initiatives in a flat list without grouping

Order by

• Manual: Drag and drop to arrange Initiatives in your preferred order
• Last Created: Sort by creation date, showing newest Initiatives first
• Last Updated: Sort by last modification date, showing recently updated Initiatives first

These filtering, grouping, and sorting tools make it easier to focus on specific Initiatives or prioritize your view based on team needs and workflow preferences.