Skip to main content

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.

Enable Initiatives

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

Create Initiatives​

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.
    • Projects: Select related projects to associate with the Initiative.
    • Start and End Dates: Define the timeline.
    • Lead: Assign a person responsible for the Initiative.
  4. Click Create Initiative.

View and manage Initiatives​

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

View Initiatives

Selecting an Initiative opens its detailed view, which includes:

Progress overview​

Progress overview

A progress bar indicating a visual representation of project progress categorized as:

  • Backlog
  • Unstarted
  • Started
  • Completed
  • Cancelled

The percentages and counts for each category are automatically calculated based on the associated projects.

tip

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

Projects list​

Projects list

A list of all associated projects, including:

  • Project names
  • Work item count and status
  • Assigned leads
  • Start and end dates
info

You cannot add or edit project updates directly from the Initiative view.

Track Epics across projects​

Add 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.

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. Initiative properties

  • Add comments to discuss updates or highlight issues. Initiative comments

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

Sort and filter Initiatives​

To make managing Initiatives easier, Plane provides options to filter and sort them based on various criteria:

Filter Initiatives:

  • By the assigned lead with options to select multiple leads or search for a specific person.
  • Based on their start date. Quick options include "1 week from now," "2 weeks from now," "1 month from now," and a custom date selector.
  • Based on their target completion date, similar to the start date options.

Sort Initiatives:

  • Group By
    Organize your Initiatives by categories like Lead or Created By. You can also choose "None" to view Initiatives in a flat list.
  • Order By
    Sort Initiatives manually, by the last created date, or by the last updated date to prioritize the most relevant ones.

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