<!-- triage-serverless v3 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION --> *This page may contain information related to upcoming products, features and functionality. It is important to note that the information presented is for informational purposes only, so please do not rely on the information for purchasing or planning purposes. Just like with all projects, the items mentioned on the page are subject to change or delay, and the development, release, and timing of any products, features, or functionality remain at the sole discretion of GitLab Inc.* <!-- triage-serverless v3 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS SECTION --> ## Release Notes We have had many users express the need for managing epics via a dedicated Epic Board or Program Board ([SAFe reference](https://www.scaledagileframework.com/program-and-solution-kanbans/)) to facilitate planning at scale across many teams or groups within an organization. ### Discovery <details> <summary><strong>View Customer Feedback</strong></summary> <br><br> [Customer Interview Notes](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nOHULQMyku9vhPNumT-bfF0z7mvD2DFxP6c1q3xiHEk/edit?usp=sharing) > *“We have a PM team that is responsible for getting epics ready (research, analysis, breakdown, etc) before implementation by dev. We need to track them in the GitLab on their own boards with the ability to create dedicated workflows, like we do on Issue Boards”* > *“Im tracking and thinking about work 6mo/1yr from now… I'm planning to March of next yr… I need to see where the epics are and their readiness”* > “Need a separate board, the state of the epics are different then the state of the issue boards.” > *“The workaround is to create an issue for each and track it separately on a Issue Board or track in a spreadsheet outside of GitLab”* > "*We are currently continuing to work out how we're going to leverage epics in our planning and I think having a "board" that shows epics and allows us to have a list for each "level of prioritization" that would be tremendously helpful. Right now we have "level 2" epics that are intended to be business features. Then we have "level 1" epics under those that are more like user stories. We control the prioritization at level 2 by a `PO::` scoped label (prioritization order) and then cascade that down to the level 1 stories and on to the issues that are tied to the level 1 issues. Trying to look at all of those level 2 epics, see where they are currently prioritized and how many of them are at each level of prioritization is basically impossible. The epics list can be filtered to show these but it's very clunky. And then if you want to change the label on the epic you have to open it up in a new window and change the label and then go back to your first window and refresh to see the list updated. If we have a board that in the "open" column had all epics that had no `PO::` label and then a list for each of our five `PO::` labels (`PO::A`, `PO::B`, etc) it would be super easy for our PO to see what's out there and move things around and feel like he's got some level of view into that and control over that. This sort of flow and work seems really normal but doesn't seem to be captured in the epics, issues and designs I've seen in wandering through this epic and it's children.*" https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/328#note_276797429 </details> <details> <summary><strong>View Internal Comments</strong></summary> <br><br> > [*"When a higher level PO or PM is trying to manage epics across many teams, they need a dashboard where they manage / view said epics. These managers are not interested in stories inside the epics nor the code."*](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/7371#note_302665334) > [*"They do Agile SAFe and currently map Epics to Epics and Issues to Stories, but we had to map SAFe's Features to sub-epics as there was no better way as Features ultimately needed to have capabilities of Epics (roadmap) and Issues (boards) to be fully useful."*](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/7371#note_286959580) </details> [Potential use Cases](/uploads/7b805aa26c008daaa4ee1ca554ac886d/Epic2745_Potential_User_Stories.pdf) ### MVC Thoughts/Proposal * Epic Boards can be created at the Group Level * Epic Boards can be configured, and filtered like Issue Boards * Scoped Labels can be used to create workflows for Epic Boards ## MVC Breakdown 1-3 (below) * Gets us to parity with issue boards - please track with the release dates on these features