What is the difference between a project’s Immediate Parent and its Top Parent?
Question: What is the difference between a project’s Immediate Parent and its Top Parent?
Short answer: The Immediate Parent is the project a given project sits directly under in the project hierarchy, while the Top Parent is the highest-level project in that hierarchy, regardless of how many levels sit in between.
Detailed explanation
In many PMO setups, projects are structured in a hierarchy to reflect programmes, workstreams, and related initiatives. This allows reporting and governance to be applied at the right level, while still giving delivery teams clarity on how their work fits into the bigger picture.
A typical hierarchy might look like this:
Programme
Workstream
Project
Sub-project
Within this structure, two different “parent” concepts are commonly used.
Immediate Parent
The Immediate Parent is the project that a project is directly associated with in the hierarchy. It represents the next level up and is the most relevant context for day-to-day coordination, local reporting, and operational governance.
For example:
Immediate Parent of Sub-project = Project
Immediate Parent of Project = Workstream
Top Parent
The Top Parent is the highest-level project in the hierarchy. This refers strictly to the project hierarchy in Fluid and does not include programme-level structures. It represents the root project that everything ultimately rolls up to.
Top Parent of Sub-project = Workstream
Top Parent of Project = Workstream
Please note that ff a project sits directly under the highest-level project in the hierarchy, its Immediate Parent and Top Parent will be the same.