Capture epic group data
The license package Lean Portfolio Management is required to work with epic groups.
Epic portfolios are defined in Alfabet via epic groups that bundle epics. Each epic can be assigned to multiple epic groups. The epics should be bundled in epic groups that are relevant to the goals for the portfolio assessment process.
Users with the user profiles Portfolio Manager, and Portfolio Admin can add and edit epic groups in Alfabet. Click for an overview of permission concepts.
Go to Business Architecture > Epic Groups:
- Add an epic group at the top-level of the hierarchy. Click the root node of the explorer and click the New button. The edit panel opens on the right where you can define basic data. The Name attribute is mandatory.
- Create a new epic group as a child (subordinate) of this epic group. Click the parent epic group in the explorer, go to Overview > Subordinate Epic Groups view. Click New > Create New Epic Group.
- Make an existing epic group a child (subordinate) of this epic group. Click the parent epic group in the explorer, go to Overview > Subordinate Epic Groups view. Click New > Move Existing Epic Group Here. A selector opens where you can chose an epic group and move it to this epic group. The epic group you chose is now a child of the epic group you are working with.
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Edit an epic group. Edit the epic group directly in the data table. Or select the checkbox
for the epic group you want to edit and click the Edit 
button to open the edit panel. -
Navigate to the epic group's content area.Click the Navigate
button next to an epic group to open its content area. Specify the epic group's attributes as well as the relationships that the epic group has to other assets in the repository.
Try to capture as much information as possible about the epic group because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.
Once an epic group is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Epic Groups data workbench.
Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench via the Structure column. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.
Or you can select an individual epic group in the data workbench and navigate to its content area and specify and analyze the epic group in detail. In the data workbench, click the Navigate button to open the epic group's content area. Go to the Overview page.
Define the epic group's basic data.
- Name: (Mandatory) Enter a meaningful name for the epic group so that users understand its purpose.
- Parent Epic Group: Specify the epic group that is the parent of this epic group in the epic group hierarchy.
- Description: Provide information about the epic group so that other users understand its purpose.
- Authorized Access tab: The user who creates the epic group is the authorized user per default. This can be changed. Select one or more authorized user groups that shall have write permissions to the object. All users in the authorized user group can edit the epic group.
Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.
Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the epic group. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the epic groups. To change data about the epic group, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of an authorized user group.
Roles can be assigned to an epic group in the Epic Groups data workbench or the epic group content area via Overview > Responsibilities.
Each role column represents the responsibility that a user or organization has for the epic group. A person can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Epic Owner: A person who is the responsible owner of the epic group.
- Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the epic group and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
- Click a column cell to open a selector to define the role for the epic group. Depending on the role column, the selector may have a section for both Person and Organization.
- Expand the relevant section and select the person or organization to assign their role to the epic group.
Epics must already be in the repository in order to assign them to an epic group.
Epic groups logically structure and bundle the epics and allow you to assess the investment portfolio. You can assign epics to multiple epic groups in order to analyze your epics from various perspectives.
Click the navigate button of the epic group to open the content area. Go to Overview > Asset Grouping. In the Epics field, enter the name of the epic you want to assign to the epic group. Or click in the field to open the selector and select each epic that you want to assign to the epic group. Click outside of the selector to close it and update the Asset Grouping field.
The business question How do we manage our portfolio flow? relies on epic group data.