Initiative Dependency

The initiative dependency report shows the relationships and dependencies of Epics that are linked to an Initiative. It helps organizations make better decisions about priorities and plan smarter for feature development. Seeing and understanding dependencies really help guide and shape the planning process so you can deliver features to customers faster.

VisualScript's Initiative Dependency Report uses the Initiative as the anchor and the center row includes all Epics linked to the Initiative. The bottom row shows the issues that are blocking the center row. The top row shows the issues the center row is blocking. This report can be used to answer:

• What are the issues linked to the Initiative?
• What is the status of any issue linked to the Initiative?
• What are the dependencies (even across different projects) of the issues linked to the Initiative.

To generate an Initiative Dependency Report using VisualScript, you'll need VisualScript installed on your Jira instance. Once VisualScript is added to your instance, you can add a VisualScript gadget to your dashboard. When the VisualScript gadget is added to a dashboard, you'll see a list of available reports to run. The built-in reports will be in a folder called "Built-In Reports". Choose "Jira Initiative Dependency" to add to your dashboard.

Before you can generate the report, there are some parameters you'll need to specify.

1. Enter the Issue Key of the Initiative
2. Choose the Issue Link Type to show dependencies like "Blocks"
3. ParentLink: Choose how an Epic is linked to an Initiative. The default selection is "Relates", but you can also use the "Advanced Roadmaps - Parent Link".

Once the report is generated, you'll see the Initiative in the far left of the center row represented as a gray box on the grid. The rest of the cards in this center row are the child Epics of that Initiative. On the cards for each Epic, VisualScript also includes a status indicator: green for done, blue to do, and yellow in progress using the traditional Jira colors. Each Epic is also hyperlinked to the issue in Jira and shows the number of Stories underneath each Epic and its percentage completion.

The top row shows all the Epics blocking the Epics in the center row of our Initiative. The bottom row shows all the Epics being blocked by the child Epics of our selected Initiative.

As your organization and SAFe^® implementation scales, you need to understand dependencies to continue to make good business decisions. VisualScript's Initiative Dependency Report will integrate with Advanced Roadmaps (previously Portfolio) and let you see what issues are linked to any selected initiative and show their dependencies even across different projects.

While VisualScript offers a turn-key, no-code Initiative Dependency report that will work out of the box for many teams, you can also easily make adjustments to create a custom report.

VisualScript comes with a built-in SDK that makes it easy to generate custom reports that fit your teams' needs. We even have friendly engineers who will help you get started.