Coordinating Work Across Multiple Projects

Modern organizations often have work that spans multiple projects—shared infrastructure, cross-product features, or organization-wide initiatives. GitScrum provides tools to coordinate this work without losing the benefits of project-level organization.

Multi-Project Challenges

Organization Structure

Project Hierarchy

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
══════════════════════

ORGANIZATION: Acme Corp
│
├── 📁 Product Development
│   ├── Website Platform
│   ├── Mobile App
│   ├── API Platform
│   └── Shared Infrastructure
│
├── 📁 Client Projects
│   ├── Client: Alpha Corp
│   ├── Client: Beta Inc
│   └── Client: Gamma Ltd
│
├── 📁 Internal
│   ├── Internal Tools
│   ├── Security
│   └── Documentation
│
└── 📁 Initiatives
    ├── Q1 OKRs
    ├── Platform Migration
    └── Design System

Cross-Project Relationships

CROSS-PROJECT WORK TYPES
════════════════════════

1. SHARED COMPONENT:
   Infrastructure change affects multiple products
   ├── Task in: Shared Infrastructure
   ├── Blocked by: Website, Mobile, API projects
   └── Label: shared-infra

2. FEATURE ROLLOUT:
   Feature implemented across products
   ├── Parent: Initiatives project
   ├── Children: Website, Mobile, API projects
   └── Label: feature-dark-mode

3. DEPENDENCY CHAIN:
   Work flows between projects
   ├── Design project → Frontend project
   ├── Backend project → Frontend project
   └── Label: q1-release

4. RESOURCE SHARING:
   Person works across projects
   ├── Assigned in: Project A, B, C
   └── View: My Work (all projects)

Cross-Project Views

Organization Dashboard

ORGANIZATION DASHBOARD
══════════════════════

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  All Projects Overview                                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                         │
│  ACTIVE WORK SUMMARY:                                   │
│  ├── Total tasks: 342                                  │
│  ├── In Progress: 78                                   │
│  ├── Blocked: 12 ⚠                                     │
│  └── Completed this week: 45                           │
│                                                         │
│  BY PROJECT:                                            │
│  ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│  │ Project          │ Active │ Blocked │ Velocity    ││
│  ├────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤│
│  │ Website Platform │   24   │    2    │  52 pts/wk  ││
│  │ Mobile App       │   18   │    3    │  38 pts/wk  ││
│  │ API Platform     │   22   │    1    │  45 pts/wk  ││
│  │ Alpha Corp       │   14   │    6    │  28 pts/wk  ││
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│                                                         │
│  CROSS-PROJECT INITIATIVES:                             │
│  ├── Platform Migration: 45% complete                  │
│  ├── Design System: 72% complete                       │
│  └── Q1 OKRs: 60% complete                             │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Unified Search and Filters

CROSS-PROJECT FILTERING
═══════════════════════

SEARCH: org:acme label:q1-release

FILTERS:
├── Scope: All projects
├── Labels: q1-release
├── Status: Not done
├── Assignee: Any
└── Due: Next 2 weeks

RESULTS:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Task                    │ Project    │ Status │ Due   │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Deploy auth v2          │ API        │ Review │ Mar 15│
│  Update mobile auth      │ Mobile     │ WIP    │ Mar 18│
│  Migrate web login       │ Website    │ WIP    │ Mar 18│
│  Update docs             │ Docs       │ Todo   │ Mar 20│
│  E2E auth tests          │ QA         │ Todo   │ Mar 20│
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

SAVE AS: "Q1 Release Auth Tasks"

Personal Multi-Project View

MY WORK (All Projects)
══════════════════════

Assigned to: @sarah

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  TODAY                                                  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ● Website: Implement search filter         Due Today  │
│  ● Mobile: Review auth PR #234             In Review   │
│  ● API: Deploy payment service             In Progress │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  THIS WEEK                                              │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ○ Website: Add pagination                  Mar 18     │
│  ○ Alpha Corp: Client feedback review       Mar 19     │
│  ○ Docs: Update API documentation           Mar 20     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  BLOCKED                                                │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ⚠ Mobile: Push notifications    Waiting: Infra deploy │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Coordination Techniques

Shared Labels

ORGANIZATION-WIDE LABELS
════════════════════════

INITIATIVE LABELS:
├── initiative:platform-migration
├── initiative:design-system
├── initiative:q1-release
└── initiative:security-audit

PRIORITY LABELS:
├── priority:critical
├── priority:high
├── priority:medium
└── priority:low

CROSS-CUTTING LABELS:
├── affects:website
├── affects:mobile
├── affects:api
└── affects:all

USAGE:
Query: label:initiative:platform-migration
Result: All tasks across all projects for this initiative

Dependency Tracking

CROSS-PROJECT DEPENDENCIES
══════════════════════════

TASK: Implement SSO (Mobile project)
├── Depends on:
│   ├── [API] SSO endpoint ready
│   ├── [Infra] Identity provider configured
│   └── [Design] SSO flow mockups
└── Blocks:
    ├── [Mobile] Enterprise onboarding
    └── [QA] SSO test suite

DEPENDENCY VIEW:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Dependency Chain: Mobile SSO                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                         │
│  [Design]          [Infra]           [API]              │
│  SSO mockups       IdP config        SSO endpoint       │
│     ✓                ⏳                 ⏳                │
│       └──────────────┼─────────────────┘                │
│                      ▼                                  │
│               [Mobile] SSO                              │
│                  ⏸ Blocked                              │
│                      │                                  │
│         ┌────────────┴────────────┐                     │
│         ▼                         ▼                     │
│  [Mobile] Onboarding      [QA] SSO tests               │
│       ⏸ Blocked              ⏸ Blocked                  │
│                                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Initiative Tracking

INITIATIVE DASHBOARD
════════════════════

Initiative: Platform Migration

OVERVIEW:
├── Owner: CTO
├── Target: Q2 2024
├── Status: On Track
└── Progress: 45%

TASKS BY PROJECT:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Project          │ Total │ Done │ In Progress │ Todo │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Shared Infra     │   15  │   8  │      4      │   3  │
│  API Platform     │   22  │  10  │      5      │   7  │
│  Website          │   18  │   6  │      3      │   9  │
│  Mobile           │   12  │   4  │      2      │   6  │
│  Documentation    │    8  │   2  │      1      │   5  │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  TOTAL            │   75  │  30  │     15      │  30  │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Best Practices

For Multi-Project Work

1. Consistent labeling — Same labels across projects
2. Clear ownership — Each initiative has one owner
3. Regular syncs — Cross-project coordination meetings
4. Visible dependencies — Link related work explicitly
5. Unified views — Dashboards for big picture

Anti-Patterns

MULTI-PROJECT MISTAKES:
✗ Different labels per project
✗ No cross-project visibility
✗ Siloed planning
✗ Hidden dependencies
✗ No initiative tracking
✗ Resource conflicts undetected
✗ Executives can't see rollup

Related Solutions

• Managing dependencies across projects
• Configuring organization-wide labels
• Creating executive dashboards in GitScrum