Run an initiative
A project is a container of work. An initiative is the outcome that work is for — “Launch v2”, “Enter the EU market”, “Cut onboarding time in half”.
Initiatives are the layer above projects. You attach projects to one, and it rolls their progress into a single number, a single chart, and a single answer to the question everyone actually asks: is this on track?
Initiatives are part of Pro. See pricing.
When you need one
Section titled “When you need one”Use an initiative when the thing you care about is bigger than any one project. A launch that touches the API, the web app, and the docs is three projects and one outcome.
If the work fits in a single project, you don’t need one. The project’s own progress already answers the question.
Set it up
Section titled “Set it up”Give it a name and a one-line summary — what this is, in plain words, for whoever opens it in three months. Then:
- a lead, the person who answers for it
- a start and target date
- optionally a priority, labels, an icon and color, and links to outside resources
Then attach the projects that carry the work.
The five states
Section titled “The five states”| State | Means |
|---|---|
| Proposed | Somebody wants this. Not committed. |
| Planned | Committed, not started. |
| Active | In flight. |
| Completed | Delivered. |
| Canceled | Dropped on purpose. |
Canceled is a real outcome, not a failure to record. Deciding not to do something is a decision worth keeping.
Reading the progress
Section titled “Reading the progress”Progress rolls up from the tasks in every attached project, bucketed by status type — backlog, unstarted, started, completed, canceled.
Two things about that number are worth understanding, because they are what make it trustworthy:
Canceled work is excluded from the ratio, not counted as incomplete. If you drop 10 tasks out of 50, you are not permanently stuck at 80%. The denominator shrinks, because canceled work is no longer work you owe.
The number is calculated for the person reading it. If an initiative includes a private project you don’t have access to, that project’s tasks are not in your total — and not in your denominator either. A private project can’t leak its existence through a percentage that doesn’t add up.
That does mean two people can see different totals for the same initiative. That is the correct behavior, not a bug.
The delivery chart
Section titled “The delivery chart”Progress percentage tells you where you are. The delivery chart tells you whether you are getting there.
It plots scope against done, day by day. Two lines. A healthy initiative has done climbing toward a scope line that is roughly flat.
What it catches that a percentage cannot: the finish line moving away from you. If scope climbs as fast as done, your percentage barely moves and everything looks stalled for no visible reason — until you see the two lines.
Scope change is a signed number. It can go down. Work removed from an initiative shows as a decrease rather than being quietly absorbed, which means you can point at the day the plan changed.
Health updates
Section titled “Health updates”Post an update with a health flag — on track, at risk, or off track — plus a written note.
The value is in the trail, not any single entry. Three “on track” updates followed by “at risk” is a story. A status field that only ever shows its current value isn’t.
Post them on a rhythm, and write the note even when nothing is wrong. “On track, nothing to report” is information.
Nesting
Section titled “Nesting”An initiative can contain other initiatives, up to three levels deep. A large program becomes a parent with smaller initiatives underneath it, each with its own projects and its own rollup.
Three levels is the ceiling on purpose. Past that you are building an org chart, not a plan.
- Core concepts — how initiatives relate to projects and sprints.
- Plan a sprint — the time-box layer underneath.