Initiatives

What an initiative is

An initiative groups a product's Jobs toward one outcome, such as a release of Member onboarding. Every Job is in exactly one initiative, an active one of its own product.

• Every product starts with one initiative, Backlog, created with the product. It's the product's default: a Job opened with no initiative chosen goes there.
• A Bug or another report holds no initiative. A Job that takes it on carries one.
• A sub-job is always in its parent's initiative.

An initiative moves no item and changes no task's home or access.

Find your initiatives

Wherever a Job names its initiative, the name opens the initiative's page: on a Job's page under Details, or on a Job's line in Your queue. From an initiative's page, select All initiatives to see every product's.

The Initiatives screen lists them with Initiative, Product, Open Jobs, Closed Jobs, and Status. The default is marked Default, and Backlog says Created with the product. Choose Active, Closed, or All under Show.

Initiatives also show across BLOM: Items to Jobs shows one initiative at a time, Product View's Items can narrow to one, an item's page lists the initiatives with a Job on it or below it, and Atlas View can filter by one.

An initiative's page

An initiative's page gives its product, its status, and whether it's the default, with these parts:

Version

What its work brings items to, or Declares no major, so its Jobs raise the minor.

Brief

Its intended outcome, users, scope, exclusions, owner, and target environment or audience.

Completion criteria

What finishing it means. Read these against the Jobs' records: BLOM doesn't mark an initiative complete.

Open Jobs

Each open Job with its next action and owner. The default's page notes that Jobs opened with no initiative chosen come here.

Closed Jobs

Folded under its count, each with how it closed.

Create an initiative

If your role lets you change work, the Initiatives screen shows New initiative.

1. Name it

   Select New initiative. Choose the Product and give it a Name, such as Invitations that expire. A name can be used once among a product's active initiatives.

2. Write its brief and criteria

   Fill in Brief (optional) and Completion criteria (optional) if you have them.

3. Choose its version

   Under Version, choose Declares no major, Brings items to a set major, or +1, the next major. A set major is a whole number from 2, entered under The major, since an item's first release is always v1.

4. Create it

   Give a Reason if you like, then select Create the initiative. Its page opens.

A new initiative holds no Jobs until one is opened in it or moved to it. To change one, select Edit on its page, then Save the changes. Its Jobs, and whether it's the default, stay as they are, and earlier values stay in its history.

What a declared version does

A release that carries an initiative's work takes the number it declares, once that number is above the item's. Otherwise a release raises the item's minor. A declared version is a plan, not a released version: only a release makes a number. In Items to Jobs, In work shows the number an initiative's work would bring each item to.

Put a Job in an initiative

When you capture a Job with Capture a task, choose its Initiative, or Leave it to the default. A sub-job you add opens in its parent's initiative.

To move a Job you've already opened:

1. Open the Job's page

   Under Details, beside Initiative, select Change initiative.

2. Choose where it goes

   Under Move to, choose another active initiative of the Job's product. The default is marked (default).

3. Move it

   Give a Reason if you like, and select Move.

Only the Job's initiative changes. Its phase, next action, activity, home, and target items stay as they are, and its open sub-jobs move with it. A sub-job moves only with its parent: BLOM says A sub-job moves with its parent. Move the parent instead.

Close an initiative

When an initiative's work is done, select Close initiative on its page and give a reason. BLOM closes it only when none of its Jobs is open and it isn't its product's default. Its page then shows who closed it, when, and why.

A closed initiative keeps its brief, its completion criteria, and its Jobs as they were recorded, and takes no new Job. Closing it doesn't show that its intended outcome happened: read its completion criteria against its Jobs' records.

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