SwiftKanban provides several features for you to model hierarchical data – such as Programs (with Projects and Sub-Projects), Portfolios of (Strategic/ Corporate) Initiatives and Projects, or even simpler hierarchies such as Themes – Epics – User Stories or Release – Sprints – User Stories, etc. Each of these contains parent cards – and one or more levels of child cards.  SwiftKanban provides several ways for you to manage and monitor the progress of cards in such hierarchies so that you can track and follow the progress of a portfolio, a program, or a release, as the case might be.

Prerequisites

To create a parent-child hierarchy in a Board, you must first define the parent-child hierarchy between card types at the Admin level. Once you define that hierarchy at the Admin level, the same hierarchy between two card types will be available at the individual Board level. Remember you must have admin access to define the card hierarchy at the Admin level. To know about this feature, read this Help page.

Once you are done with defining the hierarchy between card types at the Admin level, you have the following ways of setting parent-child hierarchy in your Kanban Board or across the Boards.

• Creating Parent-Child Card Hierarchy on Kanban Board: Based on your requirements, you can build hierarchical relationships between a parent card and its multiple child cards via the Linked Cards tab of a card in a Kanban Board. Click here to know more about it.

• Instantly Building the Parent-Child Hierarchy Using the Quick Link Feature: Click to learn more about building parent-child hierarchical relationships instantly without having to navigate to the Linked Cards tab.
• Creating Cards and their Hierarchy using Microsoft® Excel and importing them to SwiftKanban: You can map the parent-child hierarchy among existing or new cards using the Microsoft® Excel file, and import this Excel file into SwiftKanban. The Import feature significantly reduces time and effort when you plan for a mass update or data transfer between SwiftKanban and third-party tools like Atlassian® JIRA. Click here to know more.
• Viewing Hierarchy Progress of Cards: Once you have defined the parent-child hierarchy between cards in your Board or across the Board, then you can start viewing the card progress and its child card progress. Click to know more about viewing the progress (in percentage) of a parent card and its linked child cards.

• Tracking Parent Cards Using Portfolio Lane:  Click to learn more about how you can use the Portfolio Lane feature to easily track the progress of your cards associated with crucial initiatives, programs, or projects.