1. Decide how often to meet

Decide whether to have separate meetings for architectural and business epics.

See Meetings and Engineering Workflow Management.

2. Decide how often to review each queue

Each queue has Epics in a given state.  You may choose to have different meetings for reviewing different queue states.

Agree on the maximum number of entries for each queue.

3.  Setup Kanban Board

The kanban board will be used to view and progress Epics from one queue to another.

Click Plans > Create Plan > Program Backlog

Name the plan "Program Kanban".  Assign the Program as the Owner and assign the iteration to the Program/Agile Release Train.

Click Save.

View as defaults to Kanban View, where you can see Program Epics on the board.

1. Review the Funnel queue

Epics that meet the decision criteria are promoted to the Review queue.

Create a new Epic and it will appear in the Funnel queue.

• Click on Add Work Item > Program Epic.

To promote, drag and drop to the next queue.
To invalidate, open the Epic (click on the number) and change the state to Reject.

2. Review the Review queue

Size and estimate epics.

Epics at the top of the Review queue will move on to the Analysis queue if space is available.

Open the Epic and assign WSJF values.

• Job Size
• User/Business Value
• Time Criticality
• RR/OE

To promote, drag and drop to the next queue.
To invalidate, open the Epic (click on the number) and change the state to Reject.

3. Review the Analysis queue

Collaborate to analyze epics.

Epics that meet the go criteria are promoted to the Backlog queue.

Assign an Epic owner:

• Open the Epic and assign an owner in the Owned by field.

Add a GO approval:

• Click on the Approvals tab
• Click on Add Approval
• Rename to "GO/No-GO Approval"
• Click on Add Approvers to add users to give a go/no-go recommendation.
• Save changes.

To promote, drag and drop to the next queue.
To invalidate, open the Epic and change the state to Reject.

4. Review the Program Backlog

When there is sufficient capacity from one of the Agile teams, Epics may move on to the Implementation queue.

To promote, drag and drop to the next queue.
To invalidate, open the Epic and change the state to Reject.

5. Review the Implementing queue

The Agile teams are responsible for the epics in this queue.

To promote to Done, drag and drop to the next queue.
To invalidate, open the Epic and change the state to Reject.