Portfolios process flows

Define strategic goals or funding structure

The Strategy structure is used to manage the initiatives and programs that will deliver the strategic plan of the organization. Customers typically define the strategic structure in one of two ways:

• Based on the strategic objectives and goals of the organization
• Based on the organizations funding hierarchy

See Strategies for more information

To access the Strategy Portfolio View go to Strategy Portfolio View Screen Basics.

Strategy structure levels are determined by the core implementation team and our core consulting team, based on your business needs. Once the levels are determined, users and Planview administrators can add strategic entities to the respective levels.

To add a new investment/strategic entity, click the +New option on the action menu at its parent level.

Action menus are used to either perform an action or to navigate to a different view. The action menu lets you easily build out the structure using +New. If the child only has one label option, that option is dynamically displayed (+New Objective for example). If not, Strategy Type will have an option list for the header type on the next screen.

Tip! The +New menu at the top of the screen will allow users to add to the Strategy structure, but the user will also have to define the strategic parent for the new entity.

See Creating a Strategic Entity for more information

Describe and categorize strategies

The purpose of this step is to describe and categorize the strategies in the portfolio, by populating the relevant data entry screens.

This information can be used to filter or slice analytics downstream in the reporting output process or divide strategic information in to relevant portfolios based on these data points.

See Modifying a Strategy Portfolio's Definition for more information

Create strategic initiatives

Following the creation of the Organizational Strategic Goals or Funding Structure, the next step is to create the initiatives that will contain the programs to deliver the work.

Adding initiatives to the strategic structure provides a method of categorization, description and budgeting at a further level of strategic granularity prior to the creation of programs to deliver the work.

The first step in adding a new investment is to complete the Basic Information screen.

If a workflow (lifecycle) is configured, users assigned to the steps will receive a notification when their step is activated.

If a workflow (lifecycle) is not configured, the creator of this new entity will also need to complete an additional screen – Strategic Detail Attributes.
 

Example of Adding a New Initiative:

When adding a strategic entity, users will be presented with a Basic screen. Let’s review what some of these fields are for.

1. The strategic parent will be automatically populated based on the level you selected to add the entity to.

2. The new entity will be added at a level below the selected entity. Up to 50 characters are allowed for each description.

3. The strategic and investment approval statuses will be defaulted to the value set for your solution. Depending on your solution for strategic lifecycles, these values may be updated from the Strategy View or they may be updatable only via the lifecycle or from the Investment and Capacity Manager screen.

4. The target date entered here will be displayed on the Strategy View.

5. The Lifecycle options may be available to selected, if lifecycles are enabled for the level.

6. The user adding the entity will be automatically listed as the lifecycle administrator if the user has the appropriate permission. If not, users can select someone from the list.

See Lifecycles for more information.

Describe and categorize initiatives

Creating a new initiative will likely include the population of a small amount of (configuration-specific) description and categorization attributes as determined by the data and information needs of the organization.

Create/manage relevant financial targets and budget

Build out the elements of the financial plans so that these budgets can be used to fund programs or the allocated work. Define an organization-wide strategic investment budget that will eventually be divided out between the relevant initiatives and programs, acting as the baseline for comparison against the actual cost of delivery.

Organization-wide investment budgets can be defined in the financial plan at any level of the investment/strategy structure. The budget can be assigned to different business units or strategic programs, based on the investment/strategy structure.

Financial data summarization, roll-up and spread-down features can be used to support gated, top-down and bottom-up planning.

Planview Portfolios supports both the top-down and bottom-up strategic budget planning. For top-down planning, budgets can be assigned to a level of the strategy structure on the Financial Planning Detail screen, then spread down to lower levels. For bottom-up planning, budgets are captured at the lower levels and can be summarized or rolled up to the higher levels.

Click here for bottom-up approach. Click here for top-down approach.

It is important that the budget is available at the appropriate planning level so that further analysis of the investments can be performed.

For more information:

• Strategic Financial Planning

• Summarizing Financial Planning Data

• Associations of Strategic Entities

• Associating Work to Strategic Entities