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Created by Guest
Created on May 12, 2015

Initiative Level Kanban Board

Loving the Kanban board, but with us up-leveling many of our efforts to initiatives, I'm wanting the same view for initiatives.

There are two ways I could see this working, and to be honest I'd love to get both:

  1. Add an Initiative representation to the Feature Kanban Board
    1. Possibly a graphical icon on the card,
    2. horizontal banding of feature cards for each initiative that can be toggled on or off
    3. ability to make initiative the horizontal operator and then represent people on the card
  2. A Kanban board that displays Initiatives much the same as the current one shows features
  • Attach files
  • David Vins
    Reply
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    Dec 28, 2018

    Please consider reopening this request, those of us following SAFe have initiatives and backlogs of iniatives that follow a Kanban flow. For that matter, the 'workflow' view that can be used with master features and features (stories) is insufficient and difficult to work with anyhow. And if you use as we do features, master features, initiatives (at a product/program level) and need higher level portfolio initiatives the master feature solution you propose as solving the request is unworkable.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Dec 6, 2018

    I will join the chorus of folks who are using the SAFe methodology, and Aha fits very well in that framework, with the glaring exception of Initiatives and their workflow.  A Kanban view of the Initiative workflow is critical.  Having Master Features/Epics does not satisfy this need.

  • Andrew Tipton
    Reply
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    Apr 24, 2017

    Hi Guys

    The team is reviewing tool as a result of moving the whole enterprise to SAFe and they really like the EPIC/Initiative Kanban board at the portfolio level.

    From the layman who does not understand your data model, it looks like it is repurposing a features Workflow view to the Intiative level within Strategy. I think this is a great feature to have the key Execs in a Aha Customer using the Aha product and seeing the value.

    The link on the visualising of Epics is here: 

    http://www.scaledagileframework.com/portfolio-kanban/

    Funnel - review - Analysis - Portfolio Backlog - Implementation (RAG'd) - Done Achieved

  • Paul Riegle
    Reply
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    Mar 21, 2017

    We also use SAFe and initiative kanban is a critical piece of the PM workflow that is completely missing in Aha!.  This forces us to use word docs and powerpoints for communication and prioritization - taking us out of Aha! and reducing the likelihood of success of the Aha! software within our organization.

  • Guest
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    Jul 15, 2016

    I'll add my ditto to this.  The "board" format is a really valuable format for providing a simultaneous "all up" and limited detail view of any kind of grouping.   And when you need to refactor (which happens! a lot!), nothing beats being able to drag and drop between the columns.

  • Peter Marshall
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    Jul 12, 2016

    We follow the widely adopted Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and have found that, while Aha! doesn't seem to have been build with SAFe in mind, Aha! lines up very well with SAFe.  A dynamic (drag-and-drop) Kanban for Initiatives, however, is one of the key missing ingredients that keeps Aha! from being an almost perfect fit as a toolkit for the Portfolio and Program levels of SAFe.

    SAFe has both a Portfolio Kanban of Epics (Initiatives in Aha!) and a Program Kanban of Features, and contrary to the assumption expressed in the Admin Response above, we budget equal time to working on Epics and Features.

  • Guest
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    Feb 1, 2016

    What about a Feature board that had columns for initiatives instead of releases?  Only features assigned an initiative would appear in this view.  One advantage of this is it would allow me to move items from release to release.  To easily achieve this, imagine the release buckets that you see today in the Feature Details view with the "board"-like columns for each initiative below.  To allow me to assign features from an initiative to a release (which is the main goal here), I would simply drag and drop features from the board to the right release bucket at the top.

  • Jonathon Leeke
    Reply
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    Aug 28, 2015

    Yes!  It would be great to be able to drag and drop features between initiatives.  As we form our hierarchy and initiatives are regularly changing, it would save so much time to be able to just drag and drop features to new initiatives.  This would also be a great visualization/reporting tool for our internal stakeholders to see what we're working on and the current status.  The pivots for this type of view just don't end up looking right - a Kanban board is perfect!