Initiatives and Action items

Drive action on the standards set in Scorecards

While Scorecards allow you to set benchmarks, Initiatives help you set targeted goals to meet specific standards within a specified deadline. Set a clear goal (e.g., "90% of services are production-ready by Q3"), attach a deadline, assign owners, and Cortex will automatically notify users and track progress for you.

Initiatives offer a streamlined view into the most critical tasks, improving not just the efficiency of your team members, but the accountability of your teams as well.

See examples of Initiatives or ask Cortex MCP to help you get started.

Looking for a quick introduction to Initiatives? Check out the Cortex Academy "Intro to Initiatives" course, available to all Cortex customers and POVs.

Using Cortex MCP for Initiative ideas

Not sure where to start? Use Cortex MCP to ask questions in natural language and receive detailed responses that take your environment into account.

For example, you might use the following prompt: I want to run an initiative to migrate our company to using GitHub Actions. Help me figure out how to do this in Cortex.

The MCP will respond with a detailed plan, an implementation timeline, best practices, and a list of next steps.

See Cortex MCP for configuration instructions.

Initiatives overview

In the video below, learn how Scorecards, Initiatives, and Reports can be used together to drive business goals.

Create an initiative

Prerequisites

Before getting started:

You should have already created a Scorecard or have an existing Scorecard in mind that you plan to launch an Initiative on; Initiatives are targeted goals tied to a Scorecard. The Scorecard must be published and not in draft mode.
You must have the Edit Initiatives permission.
Configure notifications for Initiatives to ensure that the right people are alerted to new Initiatives and approaching deadlines. Learn more about notification types below.

Initiative notifications

Expand the tile below to learn more about the different types of Initiative notifications and to ensure you are configuring notifications to be sent to the expected recipient. It is possible to send notifications to entity owners, to team entity owners, or only to the communications channel associated with the entity.

Expand to learn more about Initiative notifications

Users with the Configure workspace notification settings permission can configure notifications for Initiatives under Settings > Notifications. These global workspace settings override the individual toggle that you can enable during Initiative creation; if someone has disabled the workspace notification option for "Initiative custom scheduled reminders" and "Initiative reminders," then you will not be able to trigger notifications for Initiative reminders via the toggle during creation of the Initiative.

Also note that users must opt in to Initiative-related notifications in their personal notification settings.

Where a notification is sent depends on the type of notification you enable, as described below.

Initiative creation notifications

The "Enable notifications" toggle that appears during Initiative creation does not apply to Initiative creation notifications; it only applies to Custom Initiative reminders. The "Initiative creation" notification is configured under Settings > Notifications.

When an entity is included in a newly-created Initiative (not in draft format), you can configure notifications to be sent based on:

Users who own the entity: Enable Users > Initiative creation.
- For the individual user who owns the entity, notifications will be sent to them when an Initiative is launched via email, Slack, or MS Teams, depending on your notification settings.)
Team members who own the entity: Enable Team-based > Initiative creation.
- For the team who owns the entity, notifications will be sent to the team members when an Initiative is launched (via email, Slack, or MS Teams, depending on your notification settings.)
The entity's associated Slack channel: Enable Entity-based > Initiative creation.
- A notification will go to the Slack channel associated with the entity.

Initiative reminder notifications

If "Initiative reminder" notifications are enabled in Settings > Notifications, users will receive reminders of pending action items 7 days and 1 day before the due date. This date will also be reflected in action items on the engineering homepage.

You can configure reminders for approaching deadlines based on:

Users who own an entity that is included in the Initiative: Enable Users > Initiative reminders.
- When an entity is part of an Initiative, for the individual user who owns the entity, notifications will be sent to them when an Initiative is launched. Notifications can be sent via email, Slack, or MS Teams, depending on your notification settings.
Team members who own the entity: Enable Team-based > Initiative reminders.
- When an entity is part of an Initiative, for the team who owns the entity, notifications will be sent to the team members when an Initiative is launched (via email, Slack, or MS Teams, depending on your notification settings.)
The entity's associated Slack channel: Enable Entity-based > Initiative reminders.
- When an entity is part of an Initiative, a notification will go to the Slack channel associated with the entity.

Custom Initiative reminder notifications

While configuring an Initiative, you have the option of setting of custom timeframes for Initiative reminders:

If you enable a custom notification during the creation of an Initiative, you must also have the global workspace notification for "Initiative custom scheduled reminders" enabled.

When these notification settings are enabled:

If a user owns an entity that is a part of the Initiative, they will receive progress notifications at the interval you specified while configuring the Initiative (as shown in the screen shot above).

Step 1: Configure the Initiative's basic details

Click Create Initiative in the upper right corner of the Initiatives page.\
Choose the Scorecard that the Initiative is attached to.
Start configuring the form:
- Name: Add a descriptive name, e.g., Improve DORA metrics by Q3.
- Description: Enter a description to help make the Initiative's goal clear.
- Notifications: Optionally click the toggle to enable progress notifications for the Initiative's due date. These notifications are sent to users who own an entity that is part of this Initiative if the entity has not yet completed the goal. The first reminder notification will send the next time that 3 p.m. UTC is reached after the notification schedule has been created.
  - Configure how often to send progress notifications. You can also designate one or more reply-to email addresses.
  - Note that global workspace settings override this option; if all Initiative reminder notifications are disabled globally, then this setting will not trigger reminder notifications.\

Progress notifications can enhance both short-term and long-term Initiatives. For example:

Initiative owners can set daily progress notifications for short-term Initiatives so users have clear goals each day for completing time-sensitive action items.
Initiative owners can set bi-weekly or monthly progress notifications for an ongoing, long-term Initiative so users continue to make progress on action items over time.

Step 2: Define the Initiative's goal

In the Initiative creation form under Define goal, select the level or rules to prioritize. The levels and rules available are based on the associated Scorecard.
- Scorecard level: To satisfy level-based Initiative, owners must meet all of the rules for a level. This is a good option if your goal is to bump all entities up to a similar level on your ladder.
  - For example, to get all entities into a production-ready state, you might use a level-based Initiative to motivate your team to configure PagerDuty and add runbooks for every entity they own by the end of the quarter.
- Rules: Choose this option to focus on specific rules. This may be a better option if you have targeted goals that your team needs to achieve.
  - For example, if most of your entities are already in a production-ready state, you might only need PagerDuty to be set up for some of your entities.
Under Due date, select a deadline for the Initiative.
- If notifications are enabled, users will receive reminders of pending action items 7 days and 1 day before the due date. This date will also be reflected in action items on the dev homepage.

Step 3: Finish the Initiative configuration

Under Apply to specific entities, add one or more entity types that this Initiative should apply to. If left blank, it will apply to all entities.
Optionally, click to expand Advanced options and further refine which entities this Initiative applies to. You can include or exclude groups, or add a CQL expression.
Choose whether to keep your Initiative in draft form, visible only to users with the Edit Initiatives permission.
- To keep it in draft form, enable the toggle next to Save as draft.
- Initiatives in draft status will not appear on entity pages or in actions on the dev homepage, and will not trigger notifications.
Click Create Initiative.

When you create an Initiative, all of the owners with outstanding action items will be notified by Cortex. Users who own an entity that's already met the rule or achieved the action item will not be notified. Those who own multiple entities will receive a notification outlining any entities with an outstanding action item.

The new Initiative will also appear on the Initiatives page.

Edit Initiatives

You must have the Edit Initiatives permission.

To edit an Initiative:

Navigate to an Initiative page then click Edit in the upper right corner.\
Make any desired changes.
At the bottom of the page, click Save Initiative.

View Initiatives

You must have the View Initiatives permission.

View the Initiatives list

To view Initiatives, navigate to Scorecards > Initiatives in the main nav.

By default, the page displays a list of active Initiatives at your organization, including their description, associated Scorecard, progress level, and deadline. To view expired Initiatives, click the Expired tab.

View individual Initiatives

From the Initiatives list, click into an Initiative to view its details page.

By default, this page will open to the Failing tab, where you can see each entity's progress in the Initiative. Each row displays how many rules out of the total are passing for that entity. Click an entity to expand the view and see which rules are failing:

Once entities have completed all action items, they will appear under the Passing tab.

View your Initiative action items

View Initiative action items

You can find all outstanding tasks for Initiatives related to entities you own on the Engineering homepage in Action items:

This section lists the entity, the failing rule, the associated Scorecard or Initiative, the due date (if it's linked to an Initiative), and the priority based on Scorecard level.

By default, action items are sorted by priority level. Tasks with deadlines are sourced from Initiatives; those without deadlines are sourced from failing Scorecard rules.

Filter and sort action items

In the upper right corner of the list, click Priority to choose a different sorting method. You can select priority, name, source, or rule.
To filter by Scorecard, Initiative, or group, click Filter.
To group actions by entity, click Display then enable the toggle next to Group by entity.

Grouping by entity gives a clearer view of how many tasks are associated with each entity, giving developers an easy target for improvements.

Initiative examples

See the examples below to learn common ways our customers drive organizational change with Initiatives.

Ensure services have active on-call rotations in 30 days

Your Scorecard may have a rule that measures whether each service has an on-call rotation configured through PagerDuty.

To make sure that all services actually have active on-call rotations within 30 days, you could create an Initiative with a due date in 30 days.

Entity owners will see the Initiative tasks listed on their engineering homepage under "Tasks."
If notifications are enabled, reminders will be sent to Slack or MS Teams when the Initiative is due in 7 days and again when the Initiative is due in 1 day.

Complete "Bronze" level for Incident Preparedness in the next 2 weeks

While viewing your Incident Preparedness Scorecard, you notice that the Bronze level rules have not yet been met for many entities:

To encourage your team to reach the baseline standards for their entities, you decide to create an Initiative. It includes:

A goal of completing the Bronze level items in your Scorecard by the next two weeks
Notifications enabled, with progress notifications configured to be sent daily to users

Ensure services have CI workflow for migration process by end of month

Your organization is migrating to GitHub Actions to standardize CI/CD and get better visibility into engineering processes. You have already created a Scorecard to track the migration process. It includes rules that check whether repositories have a .github/workflows/ file or not, whether they have a CI workflow, whether they use dependency caching, and more.

To motivate your teams to get the migration finished more quickly, you create an Initiative connected to your migration Scorecard. The Initiative is for the rule "Has CI workflow":

Initiative name: Ensure services have CI workflow by November
Description: To move our migration forward, let's work toward ensuring services have a CI workflow this month.
Notifications are enabled to ensure that the entity owners are alerted of this action item. In the example screen shot below,, the progress notifications are configured to be sent once a day.\
Define goal: The goal is set to the "Has CI Workflow" rule and has a due date of November 1.\

Accelerate migration to K8s

Cortex customer LetsGetCheck cut their Kubernetes migration timeline from 24 months down to 16 months by targeting goals with Initiatives. Read the full case study here.

If you are migrating to Kubernetes, you might follow a process similar to the following example:

Launch a Scorecard to measure Kubernetes readiness.
- It might include rules such as "Has a Helm chart," "Uses supported base image," "Runs in cluster."
Several months in to your migration, you notice that the team isn't making progress in the timeframe you expected. They have completed most of the Bronze and Silver level rules in the Scorecard, but many entities have not achieved the Gold level rules yet.
You decide to launch an Initiative connected to the Scorecard to ensure that you meet your business goals of being migrated by the end of the fiscal year:
- Title: Accelerate Kubernetes migration
- Description: Track and accelerate migration of services to Kubernetes
- Define goal: Complete the Gold level of the Kubernetes Readiness Scorecard, due in 2 months.
  - This effectively asks your developers to accomplish all of the Scorecard's rules by the deadline you specify.
- Notifications: Enable notifications and send progress updates every week.
If an entity has not achieved the rules in the Gold level of the Scorecard, then that entity's owner will see action items listed on their engineering homepage and they will automatically receive a weekly progress update from the Initiative.

Ensure continuous SOC-2 compliance

Cortex customer Workleap used Cortex to transform their SOC-2 compliance efforts. What was once a recurring organizational pain points became a streamlined, data-driven process. Instead of the usual process of clicking through multiple tools, auditors could use Cortex to see everything they needed in one screen. Read the full case study here.

If you are working toward organizational SOC-2 compliance, you might follow a process similar to this example:

Launch a SOC-2 compliance Scorecard with rules reflecting control requirements.
- Cortex has a pre-built SOC-2 compliance Scorecard template available in-app.
Attach a SOC-2 readiness Initiative to the Scorecard. In the Initiative, require the Gold level rules of your Scorecard to be completed for every service by the end of the quarter.
After completing the SOC-2 audit, reuse the same Scorecard and Initiative frameworks for the next cycle.
- This helps you stay prepared and avoid the last-minute scramble every year.

Ensure AWS resources are off EOL versions by specified date

You can use an Initiative to manage and drive an AWS End-of-Life (EOL) migration by combining resource cataloging, Scorecards, and Initiative tracking. Here’s how you would approach it:

Ensure all relevant AWS resources (such as RDS, Lambda, ElastiCache, etc.) are imported into your resource catalog. Learn about importing AWS entities here.
Set up a Scorecard to automatically audit and score your AWS resources for EOL risk. This helps you quickly identify which resources need to be updated or migrated.
Create an Initiative in Cortex linked to your EOL scorecard. Set a clear target for the title (e.g., “All AWS resources must be off EOL versions by [date]”).
- If a resource is not off the EOL version, then that resource's owner will see this as an action item listed on their engineering homepage. If you enabled notifications, they will receive reminders as the deadline approaches.
Use reports to monitor progress in real time. Owners of non-compliant resources will receive notifications and reminders, and you can track which teams or services are lagging behind. This ensures accountability and helps drive the migration to completion.\

Manage package upgrades quickly

Cortex Initiatives provide a structured, automated, and transparent way to manage package upgrades, ensuring visibility, accountability, and timely completion across all affected services. For example, if you need to migrate everyone from version 1 to version 1.1 of an internal library, you can set up an Initiative to track and drive the upgrade to completion:

Launch a Scorecard or CQL report: Identify which services are on the old version and which have already upgraded. This allows you to automatically audit the state of package usage across your organization.
Launch an Initiative on the Scorecard with a name like "100% of services must be on version 1.1 by end of quarter."
- If an entity has not achieved the rules specified in the Initiative, then that entity's owner will see action items listed on their engineering homepage reminding them to get their service upgraded.
Monitor progress in real time via reports, where you can track which teams or services are lagging behind. This ensures accountability and helps drive the migration to completion.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Why didn't I receive a notification for an Initiative?

This can happen if your Initiative was created in draft format. When the Initiative is published, it will start to trigger notifications. You should also ensure that you enabled the right notification type for your use case. For example, if you only enable the Entity-based option for Initiative reminders, then notifications will go only to the channel associated with the entity; the entity owners would not necessarily be notified. Learn more about Initiative notifications above.

Last updated 23 days ago

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