Initiative Roadmap
What is the initiative roadmap?
The Initiative Roadmap allows users to create and manage roadmaps through a number of different filters and lenses.
Initiatives can be created, planned, rescheduled, parked and prioritized
Users can see the % progress of initiatives and delivery status
Initiatives can be expanded to show the outcomes within them, allowing delivery managers to ensure that the current scheduling of features will meet the delivery requirements of the Outcome
Depending on how you configure the integration with jira within Kiplot, changes between Kiplot and Jira can be reflected in real-time on the roadmap. For example, if you adjust the end date of an initiative in Jira, this change will be instantly reflected on the initiative roadmap in Kiplot. Read more on how to configure your integration here.
Periods and period groups
Your roadmap will display with the time periods and time period groups that you’ve set up in the configuration. In the screenshot below, the time periods have been set to monthly and the period groups to quarterly. Read more about how to configure these here.
Filtering
You can filter your Roadmap by a number of different fields and view it through different lenses. To filter your Roadmap, click on the ‘Add filter’ button:
You can then set filters from the drop down list. You can add as many filters as you want. For example, if you wanted to see 3 different Business Units, you would add all 3 in individually as a separate filter.
Swim Lanes, Lenses and Overlays
To change swim lane or lens view of your roadmap, click on the three dots to the left of the filter button. This will bring up a list of Swim Lanes and Lenses.
Swim Lanes
Swim lanes in Kiplot are horizontal sections on your roadmap that help organize and differentiate various aspects of your portfolio. For instance, to categorize your portfolio by Business Units, you would choose Business Unit as your swim lane. Similarly, to segment your portfolio by teams, you would select Team as your swim lane.
Lenses
Lenses alter the left hand section of each initiative block. The different lens views relate to information stored against individual initiatives. You can read more about the different lens types below.
In the image below, the ‘RAG Status’ lens is selected, displaying red, yellow, and green colors that indicate the RAG Status of the initiatives.
Lens Types | Description |
|---|---|
Percentage & RAG Status | Colours initiatives and outcomes by RAG Status, with initiative percentages reflecting completion, calculated from underlying epics. |
Status | Displays the percentage complete of an initiative, calculated from underlying epics and coloured by a status complete of: 100%, more than 75%, more than 50%, more than 25%, more than 1% or 0%. |
Type | Colours initiatives by their assigned Type. |
Effort & RAG Status | Displays the effort estimate allocated to each initiative and colours initiatives by RAG Status. |
Stage | Colours initiatives by their current stage. |
Overlays
Overlays provide a visual layer to your roadmap, particularly for displaying dependencies. When the ‘Dependencies’ overlay is applied to the initiative roadmap, you can view visual mappings of dependencies established between initiatives.
Creating and managing Initiatives
You can create an initiative in the Roadmap by clicking anywhere at the bottom of a swim lane within the roadmap. You can view the outcomes assigned to an Initiative by clicking the down arrow next to the initiative name on the initiative block.
You can also manage initiatives directly from the Roadmap:
You can amend the start and end date of an initiative by simply dragging either end of the initiative bar into a different period
If an outcome is scheduled to start or end beyond the designated timeline for its associated initiative, a dotted line will appear. In this instance you’d want to drag the blue initiative bar to match the end date of the outcome or reschedule the outcome to fall within the initiative’s timeline.
Clicking on an initiative will enable you to see the initiative’s detail page, where you can review and handle all associated information for the initiative. You’ll find more detailed information on setting up and managing initiatives in in the dedicated section on initiatives.
Goals
The Goals section on your initiative roadmap is linked to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). For more detailed guidance on this, please refer to our separate guide, which you can find here.