Portfolio- can Epics use different skills and stages?
Asked by Kim Dante:

We are trying to setup Portfolio for the first time. I entered 2 epics, although, they do not require the same skill set and do not have the same stages. Must all epics share the same "stages" and "skills". What if one project (epic) is kanban with multiple stages and the other is scrum with one stage? Can they be in the same plan even though they have different stages?

What if I have one "implementation" stage with 4 skills: Developer, Database, UI, QA. One epic needs only developer and qa, the other needs all 4 skills. How do you configure such scenarios?


Answers:
author: Mark Benjamin
body: I think this question has already been answered above, but I found it difficult to follow and implement. I'm hoping the following instruction will help others.

First click on the Epic Details link...

1.png

You'll see a screen like this appear on the right. Click Edit...

2.png

When it first displays, the default estimates/percentages will be calculated for you based on Stages and Skills...

3.png

If this Epic only requires Front and Backend, then type those in manually (and it will SUM them for you) e.g...

4.png

Now close that pane using the X at the top right. You'll see that the Epic is no longer red because the team assigned has both the required skills...

5.png  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Advanced-planning-questions/Portfolio-can-Epics-use-different-skills-and-stages/qaq-p/102645?attachment-id=5576){#link_1160ebe6aad092}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/portfolio-for-jira-questions/76/1/4.png){#display_1160ebe6aad092_0}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Advanced-planning-questions/Portfolio-can-Epics-use-different-skills-and-stages/qaq-p/102645?attachment-id=5577){#link_1160ebe6aad092_0}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/portfolio-for-jira-questions/76/2/1.png){#display_1160ebe6aad092_2}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Advanced-planning-questions/Portfolio-can-Epics-use-different-skills-and-stages/qaq-p/102645?attachment-id=5578){#link_1160ebe6aad092_1}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/portfolio-for-jira-questions/76/3/2.png){#display_1160ebe6aad092_4}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Advanced-planning-questions/Portfolio-can-Epics-use-different-skills-and-stages/qaq-p/102645?attachment-id=5579){#link_1160ebe6aad092_2}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/portfolio-for-jira-questions/76/4/3.png){#display_1160ebe6aad092_6}  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Advanced-planning-questions/Portfolio-can-Epics-use-different-skills-and-stages/qaq-p/102645?attachment-id=5580){#link_1160ebe6aad092_3}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/portfolio-for-jira-questions/76/5/5.png){#display_1160ebe6aad092_8}

comments: author: Stanimir Dochev
body: Thank you, Mark!

Your step-by -step helped me get to the right color :wink:

Best regards!


author: Rita Lewitt
body: It appears the above instructions are for the earlier version of Portfolio. Does anyone have an update for Portfolio 2.0? It is not obvious where/if there are options to customize the stages/skills in the latest version.


author: Rita Lewitt
body: Oh wait, of course I figured it out. We just update the individual skill levels in the estimate fields directly.


author: Kim Dante
body: Regarding percentages and skills- I have one stage and 3 skills (dev 33%, UI 33 %, test 33%). I have epic1 which requires all 3 skills and epic2 which requires only dev and test (no UI). In this scenario, it will not graph the epic2 and tells me I am missing the UI skill. I can change the percentage to 50% dev and 50% test, but then that changes epic1 (where I want dev 33%, UI 33 %, test 33%). How do I configure different skill sets for different epics and still graph them within one plan?


author: Rita Lewitt
body: In Portfolio 2.0 you can customize the estimates across the skills in the scope view by adding the estimates into the list of fields shown in the scope view. Then you can update the estimates directly and change the allocation of the estimate across the skills


author: Fabrizio Galletti
body: You have just to open the "estimation column" something like *plus*button, in your backlog, there u can set different estimation depending on skill. Not percentage like, but diretly the amount you have estimated


author: Fabrizio Galletti
body: For now u can only work on "estimation level" so for example you can say that your EPIC1 nees not 3days of work, but 2 days of Developer and 1 of UI

Problem is that this estimation has to be done at portfolio level and isn't synched back to JIRA


Tags: advanced-roadmaps