A company has 60 developers divided into four teams of 15, using agile methodology. To let each team own their work while collaborating toward common goals, which parts of the work-item taxonomy should teams be allowed to manage autonomously?

Teams should manage Stories and Tasks autonomously. In Agile, Stories represent user-centric requirements that a single team can deliver, and Tasks are the granular steps needed to complete a Story. This level of autonomy allows teams to control their immediate work, estimate effectively, and adapt to changes without external dependencies for day-to-day operations. Features and Epics are typically higher-level constructs, often managed across multiple teams or at a program/portfolio level to ensure alignment with broader organizational goals. Initiatives are even higher, representing strategic objectives. Allowing individual teams to autonomously manage these higher-level items would lead to fragmentation and a lack of coordination across the 60 developers and four teams.