Initiative hierarchy

An initiative hierarchy lets you organise work in layers. Small tasks sit inside larger pieces of work, which sit inside bigger projects or initiatives. Progress at the bottom is added up automatically at the top. For instance, a "Launch new pricing" initiative could hold several projects, each containing dozens of tasks, and its progress bar reflects them all. Jira and Linear both offer versions of this.

Leaders think in terms of outcomes while teams work in tasks, and without a structure joining the two nobody can answer how a large piece of work is going. A hierarchy gives a summary without chasing people for updates. You need it once work spans several teams or months. For a short list of tasks owned by one person, extra layers just add clicks.

• Ask how many levels the hierarchy supports and what each level is called.
• Check whether progress rolls up automatically and how it is calculated.
• Test whether one item can belong to more than one parent.
• Find out whether the higher levels can be shown on a timeline or board for people outside the team.