Manage themes

Details

To view or edit the theme details, click its name in the grid. The following fields are available:

• Yearly Goal is the main goal you want to achieve with this theme. The name of this goal tier is configurable in your platform terminology settings.
• Programs are responsible for the delivery of the theme.
• Program Increments assign a theme to the PIs that it is intended for development in.
• Description is a short description of a theme.
• State indicates where in the development process the theme is. If the Map Process Steps to States option is enabled on the Process Flows page, then when you set a state and save the theme, the process step will be changed based on its association with the theme’s state. If you select the state with no process step mapped, the process step will be changed to the last process step of the previous state (for all states except for the first one in the list) or the first process step of the second state (for the first state in the list).
• Process Step is a part of a developmental process flow and is used to provide a continuous flow of value through the agile process. The field will display the process flow from the primary program associated with the epic. Select the + Show More Process Flows link to display process steps associated with additional programs. If the Map Process Steps to States option is enabled on the Process Flows page, then when you set a process step and save the feature, the state will be changed based on its association with the process step.
• Active indicates if a theme is active or inactive. Some reports across the application, such as Investment vs. Actuals, Roadmaps, and Forecast, show only active themes.
• Strategic Initiative connects a theme to a strategic initiative.
• Theme Group indicates a group of themes that is a user-defined bucket/category for grouping themes. Theme groups must be turned on with the Enable Theme Groups portfolio setting.  
• Theme Planned Budget option is used to budget before the estimation process. This enables organizations who budget at the theme level to set a high-level budget, and then compare that budget to the lower-level budgets being set on the epic to see if the initial plans and expectations are met.
• Dates help to drive the placement of the theme in different reports:
  • Portfolio Ask: This date captures the estimated completion date that is set during the business case definition of the theme.
  • Start/Initiation: This date is the planned start date for the work associated with this theme.
  • Target Completion: This date is set during the planning/estimation process to target a completion date for this theme. 

• Major Theme identifies the theme as a major theme. This identification is used in the Theme Rank report.
• Report Color indicates the color of themes in the Investment vs. Actuals report. 

Links

On the Links tab, you can sequence work items. It is used to create a link from one theme, epic, capability, feature, or story to another one to define that the work item cannot be started before the other one is finished.

Important: To turn on the Links tab, select Yes on the Enable Item Link team setting.

Additionally, on the visualization chart, you can see the items related to each other on the timeline with respective dates and milestones. The chart shows the relationships between the items that have the predecessors and successors for the item.

• Predecessor: A theme, an epic, a capability, a feature, or a story that comes before another work item.
• Successor: A theme, an epic, a capability, a feature, or a story that comes after another work item.

Note: You can select only the items from the same portfolio.

The following relationships are available:

• Story > story; story > feature; story > capability; story > epic; story > theme.
• Feature > theme; feature > epic; feature > feature; feature > capability; feature > story.
• Capability > theme; capability > epic; capability > capability; capability > feature; capability > story.
• Epic > theme; epic > epic; epic > capability; epic > feature; epic > story.
• Theme > story; theme > feature; theme > capability; theme > epic; theme > theme.

You can set up multiple predecessors and successors. Adding an item as a predecessor or successor to another item will automatically manage the links for both of them. This means that when item A is listed as a predecessor for item B, item B will be listed as a successor for item A automatically. Also, when item A is listed as a successor for item B, item B will be listed as a predecessor for item A automatically.

The same item cannot be set as a predecessor and a successor. The parent epic cannot be the predecessor or successor for the child feature or story. The child feature and story cannot be the predecessor or successor for the parent epic.

Important: Unlike dependencies, links do not provide the obligation or require any actions to be taken by anyone. They help to draw a picture of item interdependencies on various levels.

To create links:

1. Go to the Links tab.
2. Select the portfolio and program from the corresponding drop-down menus.
3. Add one or multiple theme, epic, capability, feature, or story predecessors.
4. Add one or multiple theme, epic, capability, feature, or story successors.
5. Click Save, and then click the View the Predecessors and Successors button to view the created links on the visualization chart.

Visualization chart

The main item is highlighted in blue. Use the toggles on the right to highlight predecessors or successors. The related stories appear in the sprints they are assigned to. The related themes, epics, capabilities, and features appear in the sprints based on the following rules:

• For predecessors, if all child stories are assigned to sprints, the theme, epic, capability, or feature appears in the last sprint the stories are assigned to.
• For successors, if all child stories are assigned to sprints, the theme, epic, capability, or feature appears in the first sprint the stories are assigned to.

Predecessors

Themes, epics, capabilities, features, and stories appear in the At Risk column based on the following rules:

• A theme, a capability (at least one of its child stories or features), a story, a feature, or an epic (at least one of its child stories, features, or capabilities) is in the unassigned backlog OR
• A theme, a capability (at least one of its child stories or features), a story, a feature, or an epic (at least one of its child stories, features, or capabilities) is assigned to the same sprint as the main item OR
• A theme, a capability (at least one of its child stories or features), a story, a feature, or an epic (at least one of its child stories, features, or capabilities) is assigned to the sprint that comes after the sprint of the main item.

Successors

Themes, capabilities, epics, features, and stories appear in the Unassigned column based on the following rule:

• If a theme, a capability (at least one of its child stories or features), a story, a feature, or an epic (at least one of its child stories or features) is in the unassigned backlog.