An Initiative is the central entity in StartConsole — a strategic project large enough to warrant portfolio-level tracking, governance, and resource allocation. Everything in the platform connects to initiatives: OKRs link to them, squads deliver through them, budgets are allocated to them, and signals fire against them.
Initiative fields
Core fields
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Title | The name of the initiative. Maximum 200 characters. Should be descriptive enough to identify the initiative without opening it. |
| Description | A summary of what the initiative does and why it matters. Maximum 2000 characters. |
| Owner | The person accountable for this initiative — typically the initiative sponsor or program lead. One user per initiative. |
| Status | The operational state of the initiative. See Status values below. |
| Start Date | The planned start date of the initiative. Used in the roadmap timeline. |
| End Date | The planned end date or target completion date. Used in the roadmap timeline and delivery signal monitoring. |
Strategic alignment fields
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Pillar | The strategic pillar this initiative supports. Required. |
| Theme | The theme within the pillar that this initiative belongs to. Optional but recommended. |
| OKR Link | The key result(s) this initiative is expected to move. Links the initiative to the goal layer. Multiple key results can be linked. |
Financial fields
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Allocated Budget | The budget committed to this initiative. Set at gate approval or business case stage. Displayed in currency. Used in cost signal monitoring. |
| Expected Value | The projected business outcome — revenue generated, cost saved, or risk reduced. Set at business case stage. |
| Realized Value | The actual outcome recorded after the initiative is completed. Compared to Expected Value to assess delivery on the business case. |
Classification fields
| Field | Description |
|---|
| Risk Level | The assessed risk of this initiative. Options: Low, Medium, High, Critical. Influences health status and signal monitoring. |