VS-01
Disconnected Initiative — No Full Delivery Path
Value Stream Graph
Default severity: medium
PrioritizationProcessOutputRisk
What it detects
An Initiative or Programme Epic has child Epics from multiple tribes/squads but no continuous path exists from any child Epic through its Features to a set of Done Stories that collectively deliver the Initiative\'s value — the delivery graph is disconnected. No single business outcome can be fully traced. G = build_graph(initiative,
Detection formula
include_types=config.graph.all_node_types, include_relations=config.graph.all_edge_types) FOR each_leaf_initiative I: delivery_paths = find_all_paths(G, source=I, target=config.graph.terminal_statuses) IF COUNT(delivery_paths) = 0 THEN FLAG disconnected IF any_path_has_gap (node with no children and no Done status) THEN FLAG incomplete_delivery_graphExamples in practice
- Dependency links or initiative graph paths are missing, cyclic, or blocked.
- Downstream work waits on unresolved upstream dependencies.
- A team shows an initiative or programme epic has child epics from multiple tribes/squads but no continuous path exists from any child epic through its features to a set of done stories that collectively deliver the initiative\'s value while all node types is set to Configured per workspace.
Suggested response
Repair dependency and initiative graph links so delivery paths and handoffs are explicit.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
An Initiative or Programme Epic has child Epics from multiple tribes/squads but no continuous path exists from any child Epic through its Features to a set of Done Stories that collectively deliver the Initiative\'s value — the delivery graph is disconnected. No single business outcome can be fully traced. G = build_graph(initiative,
Why it matters
When "Disconnected Initiative — No Full Delivery Path" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Repair dependency and initiative graph links so delivery paths and handoffs are explicit.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Disconnected Initiative — No Full Delivery Path" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.