--- sourceDocument: Australia Strategic Portfolio Management sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/it-business-management Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia Strategic Portfolio Management ft:clusterId : - itbm bundleId : - itbm workflow : - Technology --- # Review work Hierarchy # Work item hierarchy for EAP teams {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated July 29, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 6 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Work item hierarchy for EAP teams The Work item hierarchy feature in the Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) workspace provides a unified, multi-level view of work items across your portfolio configurations. It helps agile teams understand how their daily tasks relate to larger organizational goals by displaying the hierarchy from strategic epics down to individual stories. This dynamic, context-sensitive hierarchy view eliminates the need to navigate multiple screens or run reports, enabling quick insight into work item relationships and progress. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Multi-level hierarchy display:** View work items across Portfolio, Solution Train, Agile Release Train (ART), and Agile Team levels, showing default or configured work item types such as Epics, Capabilities, Features, and Stories. * **Context-sensitive navigation:** The hierarchy adjusts to show work for the selected team and its child teams. * **On-demand expansion:** Child work items load only when expanded, keeping the interface responsive. * **Live updates:** New work items appear immediately in the hierarchy without a page refresh, maintaining your current view and filters. * **Refresh with state preservation:** Reload data without collapsing expanded rows or losing scroll position, with safeguards for large datasets. * **Interactive filters:** Filter the hierarchy by work item type to focus on relevant items; filters must be reapplied each session. * **Personalized column display:** Customize visible columns and widths, with preferences saved across sessions. * **Direct record access:** Open any work item in a new tab for detailed viewing or editing without losing your place in the hierarchy. ## Practical Use Cases * **Release planning and dependency mapping:** Visualize how work across multiple agile teams connects during Program Increment (PI) planning, identifying dependencies and critical path gaps in one view. * **Impact assessment for scope changes:** Quickly evaluate downstream effects of mid-sprint feature changes by expanding the hierarchy to see related stories and their status, facilitating informed stakeholder discussions. ## Benefits for Agile Roles * **Product owners:** Assess epic breakdowns, identify backlog gaps, and trace requirement flow without switching views. * **Scrum masters:** Promote cross-team collaboration by linking sprint work to larger release objectives. * **Agile team members:** Gain context on assigned work, understand business value, and recognize related stories impacting implementation. ## Considerations and Configuration * **Performance:** Initial load limits to 100 top-level work items per level; filters can narrow the view for large portfolios. Admins can adjust this limit via system properties. * **Enablement:** The Hierarchy tab must be enabled by an admin through a system property. * **Form view impact:** Adding many fields to the work item form view can slow page load times since all form data loads regardless of column display. ## Getting Started Access the Hierarchy tab within the EAP workspace by selecting your Agile team. It is located alongside the Backlog and Planning board tabs, providing a convenient way to view and manage your portfolio's work item hierarchy. View and manage the complete work item hierarchy across your portfolio configurations directly from the Hierarchy tab in the Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) workspace. Agile teams may often struggle to understand how their day-to-day work rolls up to larger organizational work. A story that is assigned to a developer might support a feature that belongs to a capability, which ultimately delivers on a strategic epic. However, tracing that hierarchy typically requires navigating multiple screens or running reports. The Hierarchy tab in Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) provides a unified view of work items across all levels of your portfolio structure, from high-level epics down to individual stories. This hierarchical display of work updates dynamically based on your selected portfolio configuration, giving team members immediate visibility into how their work contributes to broader objectives.Figure 1. Hierarchy tab of a Portfolio in Enterprise Agile Planning ## When to use {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_qqb_4cq_23c} The Hierarchy tab is valuable when you need to know the complete context of work items rather than viewing them in isolation. Consider using it in the following cases: * Planning work and need to see what stories already exist under a feature before creating new ones. * Reviewing progress at the portfolio level and to drill down into execution details. * Onboarding team members who need to understand how their assigned work fits the bigger picture. {#eap-hierarchy-tab__ul_rqb_4cq_23c} If you need to track work items at a single level (for example, stories for your sprint), the Backlog or Planning board views may be more efficient. ## Benefits {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_sqb_4cq_23c} For product owners : Quickly assess whether epics are broken down adequately, identify gaps in backlog refinement, and trace how customer requirements flow down through the hierarchy without switching between multiple views. For scrum masters : Facilitate conversations about work that spans multiple agile teams and help team members see how their sprint commitments connect to release-level objectives. For agile team members : Gain context for assigned work by seeing the parent feature and epic. You also get visibility into the business value behind technical tasks, and identify related stories that might affect their implementation approach. ## Key capabilities {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_tqb_4cq_23c} Multi-level hierarchy display : View work items across four portfolio levels: Portfolio, Solution Train, Agile Release Train (ART), and Agile Team. Each level displays its default work item type such as Epics, Capabilities, Features, and Stories based on the configuration. Your configuration may enable a work item type that sits higher in the hierarchy than the default top-level type. For example, you can enable Epics on an Essential Configuration. The Hierarchy tab displays that enabled type at the top level, overriding the configuration's original default. Context-sensitive navigation : When a team is selected, hierarchy view displays all the work that the selected team or its child teams contribute towards. On-demand expansion : Child work items load only when you expand a parent item. This approach keeps the interface responsive, as you only retrieve the data you need. Live hierarchy updates : When you create a work item, it appears in the hierarchy immediately. You don't need to refresh the page or leave the Hierarchy tab to confirm that your new item landed in the right place. * A new top-level item appears alongside the existing top-level items for the selected portfolio configuration. * A new child item appears under its parent when that parent is expanded in your current view. * If the parent is collapsed or isn't loaded in your current view, the new item isn't displayed until you expand that parent. * If a filter is active and the new item doesn't match the filter, the item isn't displayed in your current view. A confirmation message provides a link to open the new item directly. Refresh with state preservation : Selecting Refresh reloads the data in the Hierarchy grid without collapsing your expanded rows or losing your scroll position. * Rows that were deleted since your last refresh are removed without an error. * New child items that were added since your last refresh appear under their expanded parent. * Expanded rows stay expanded when you switch tabs or switch teams and return to the Hierarchy tab. * Applying or removing a filter collapses all expanded rows. Refreshing while a filter is applied retains the expansion state. * If the grid displays more than 100 non-root items or more than 100 stories, selecting Refresh shows a confirmation dialog before collapsing all rows. Select Cancel to keep your current view unchanged. Interactive filters : Filter the hierarchy by work item type using the Filters option. Filtering enables you to focus on the work items that you need and are relevant for you. Note: Your filter selections do not persist across sessions; you must reapply filters each time you access the hierarchy. Personalized column display : Customize which columns appear in the hierarchy grid and adjust column widths to match your workflow. Your preferences persist across sessions, so you see your configured view each time you return. For more information, see [Personalize column layout of Hierarchy in EAP](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/AZervsafw4EEe8vKwvRtHA "Customize the column layout of the Hierarchy grid in the Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) workspace by selecting which columns to display, reordering them, or adjusting their widths."). Direct record access : Open any work item in a new browser tab using the context menu or by clicking the Name field hyperlink. This allows you to view or edit full record details without losing your place in the hierarchy. ## Use cases {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_uqb_4cq_23c} Release planning and dependency mapping : During Program Increment (PI) planning, release train engineers and product managers need to know how work flows across multiple agile teams. A common scenario: your organization is planning a major platform upgrade that requires coordinated changes across three agile teams. Using the Hierarchy tab, the release manager can expand the epic to see all capabilities, then drill down to features assigned to each team. This visual mapping reveals which teams have dependencies on shared components, where hand-offs need to occur. This mapping also reveals whether any critical path work lacks adequate story breakdown, all without leaving a single view or assembling data from multiple reports. Impact assessment for scope changes : When stakeholders request changes to a feature mid-sprint, product owners need to quickly assess the downstream impact. For example, a customer escalation requires adding new acceptance criteria to a feature that is already in progress. The product owner uses the Hierarchy tab to expand the affected feature and review all associated stories. They can immediately see which stories are in progress, which are complete, and which teams are involved. This visibility enables an informed conversation with stakeholders about the true cost of the change. This holds whether it affects one story or ripples across multiple teams, before committing to revised scope. ## Considerations {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_vqb_4cq_23c} Initial load limits : For optimal performance, the hierarchy initially loads only the top 100 work items at each level, ordered by global rank. If your portfolio contains more than 100 top-level work items, use filters to narrow your view to the relevant subset. If you want to change this default number, work with your admin to create a sn_apw_advanced.eap_hierarchy_items_limit system property. For more information, see [Modify display limit in Hierarchy tab of EAP](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/DjFuzyRn4RENS49Q1wBKVw "Configure an initial load limit system property to control how many work items the Hierarchy tab displays at each portfolio level in the Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) workspace."). Enabling the Hierarchy view : The Hierarchy tab requires your admin to enable it through the sn_apw_advanced.enable_hierarchy_view system property. See [Enable Hierarchy tab in EAP](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/flo9TadvVl9nesCWvyH6Rg "Run a fix script to enable the Hierarchy tab in the Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) workspace."). Form view fields and page load performance : When fields are added to the Hierarchy form view of a work item, all data for that work item type loads on page load. This data load occurs regardless of which columns are selected to display in the Hierarchy. Adding many fields to the form view may increase Hierarchy page load time. For more information, see [Create or update form views for EAP work items](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/ObNZ4EYSmjVHJa9i9K9oxQ "Create or update form views for work item types so that the fields displayed in the Backlog and Planning board pages of Enterprise Agile Planning suit your team requirements."). ## Getting started {#eap-hierarchy-tab__section_wqb_4cq_23c} To access the Hierarchy tab, navigate to the EAP workspace and select your Agile team. The Hierarchy tab is available alongside the Backlog and Planning board tabs.