Initiatives are high-level strategic objectives that group related Plans together. They help you organize work around business goals like “Enterprise Readiness” or “Mobile App Launch” that span multiple Plans.
Initiatives are coming soon. This feature is currently in development and will be integrated into the Product navigation in an upcoming release.
What is an Initiative?
An Initiative represents a strategic theme or business objective. It provides:
- Strategic Organization - Group related Plans under a common goal
- Progress Tracking - Monitor completion across multiple Plans via success metrics
- Goal Management - Define and track measurable success metrics
- Timeline Planning - Set start and target dates for delivery
- Visual Categorization - Color-code initiatives for easy identification
Product Planning Hierarchy
Initiatives fit into Kasava’s planning hierarchy:
Product
├── Initiatives (strategic themes)
│ └── Plans (requirements documents)
│ └── Implementations (work breakdown)
│ └── Epics (logical groupings)
│ └── Issues (individual tasks)
│
└── Plans (standalone, not part of an initiative)
Example
Product: Kasava Platform
├── Initiative: "Enterprise Readiness"
│ ├── Plan: SSO Integration
│ │ └── Implementation: 12 issues across 3 epics
│ ├── Plan: Audit Logging
│ │ └── Implementation: 8 issues across 2 epics
│ └── Plan: Role-Based Permissions
│ └── Implementation: 15 issues across 4 epics
│
├── Plan: Fix Dashboard Performance (standalone)
│ └── Implementation: 5 issues
│
└── Plan: Add Dark Mode (standalone)
└── Implementation: 3 issues
Planned Features
When Initiatives launch, you will be able to:
Create Initiatives
Create new initiatives with:
- Name (required) - A clear, descriptive title (e.g., “Q1 Security Improvements”)
- Description - Context about the strategic objective
- Status - Track lifecycle state (Planning, Active, Paused, Completed, or Cancelled)
- Color - Visual categorization (Green, Indigo, Amber, Pink, Purple, Red, Blue, or Teal)
- Timeline - Start date and target completion date
- Success Metrics - Measurable targets to track progress
Track Success Metrics
Define quantifiable metrics to track progress toward your initiative goals:
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|
| Name | What you’re measuring | ”API Response Time” |
| Target | The numeric goal | 200 |
| Current | Progress so far | 350 |
| Unit | How it’s measured | ”ms” |
(current / target) × 100%, capped at 100%.
Initiative Status
Track progress with these status levels:
| Status | Description |
|---|
| Planning | Initial planning phase, gathering requirements |
| Active | Currently being worked on |
| Paused | Temporarily halted |
| Completed | Successfully achieved objectives |
| Cancelled | Abandoned or deprioritized |
View Initiative Cards
Each Initiative will be displayed as a card showing:
- Color bar - Left border in the selected color
- Name and description - Initiative title with truncated description
- Status badge - Current status
- Progress bar - Visual representation of overall progress (when metrics exist)
- Target date - When the initiative should complete
- Plan count - Number of linked Plans
- Goal count - Number of associated goals
Filter and Search
Filter initiatives by status or search by name and description to quickly find what you need.
Best Practices
One Initiative per strategic theme - Keep Initiatives focused on a single business objective to maintain clarity and measurable progress.
Define measurable metrics - Use specific, quantifiable success metrics rather than vague goals. “Reduce API latency to under 200ms” is better than “Improve performance.”
Use colors strategically - Assign consistent colors to related initiatives or use colors to indicate priority levels across your organization.
Set realistic timelines - Account for dependencies between Plans when setting target dates.
