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Cost center-based planning

Cost center-based investment and capacity planning adoption pathway

1. Get started 2. Design and set up 3. Capability usage 4. Reports and outputs

Audience

Portfolio manager, finance manager

Objective

Get started by creating a planning portfolio then use ICP to analyze and approve portfolio projects.

The five principle steps of investment and capacity planning

These steps represent the full usage of investment and capacity planning. However, not every step is required for it to be meaningful and beneficial. Some customers start with simply determining capacity and demand, then ranking and prioritizing investments without using the more advanced scenario analysis and reporting options.           

           

Each step represented by an icon in a hexagon: Determine capacity (piggy bank); identify demand (funnel); prioritize and rank (three rectangles stacked horizontally; the top rectangle is bold); model alternatives as scenarios (Venn diagram); Choose and publish a plan (target).

The five principle steps of investment and capacity planning are 1) determine capacity, 2) identify demand,
3) prioritize and rank, 4) model alternatives as scenarios, and 5) choose and publish a plan.

 

 

Strategic planning is underpinned by two types of planning – Technology and Business/IT planning. At the highest level of strategic planning you have Executives, Finance, and EPMO. At lower levels you have Portfolio managers/PMOs, Program/product managers, and project managers/teams.

Portfolios investment and capacity planning supports different types of planning across an organization, spanning multiple functions and roles.

           

Create a new planning portfolio

Step Role Description Resources
Create a planning portfolio

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Create a new planning portfolio or review the planning portfolio that was shared with you.

Key actions: 

  • Name: Create a name for your planning portfolio.
  • Description: Enter a brief description for your planning portfolio. 
  • Capacity Structure: Cost Center
  • Capacity Level: Lowest level of the Cost Center Structure
  • Select Capacity: Select at least one cost center. The budgets for these cost centers will be the capacity.
  • Capacity Financial Model and Version: Select the newly created Cost Center Financial Model and the Investment Planning Target version.

           

CCDesignandSetUp.Define the planning portfolio capacity3.png

Define the planning portfolio capacity

 

  • Demand Structure: Work
  • Demand Level: Work (potential and in-flight projects)
  • Select Demand: Leave the default option to pull in all work and projects based upon impact to selected capacity. Selecting Existing Portfolio will further limit the work based on impact to selected capacity and included in the selected portfolio. 
  • Demand Financial Model : Enterprise Financial Model
  • Demand Financial Version: select the Investment Planning Demand version. The version selected here will be the source version, also known as the shared scenario.
  • Planning Horizon Start/Finish: typically 3-5 years, but depends on the organization.

           

CCDesignandSetUp.Create a new planning portfolio and confirm configuration and data3.png

Planning portfolio definition

 

 

About Creating Planning Portfolios as a User

Creating Planning Portfolios

Planning Menu Basics

Setting Up Investment and Capacity Planning as a User

 

Invite portfolio members 

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Invite relevant collaborators to the planning portfolio. 

Share and Manage Access to a Planning Portfolio
Review capacity (cost center) financial plans

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Cost center financial plans are typically loaded directly from the resource information already in Planview Portfolios into the Investment Planning Target version. In some cases the data can be entered or maintained manually, or there is an option to use Excel Importer.

To review the data, select the Analyze view, then on the Portfolio Target row select clipboard_ee1332b8d9fdf4b0072163bce02d2b180.png, then Open Financials, then select the cost center to open the financial plan. 

           

CCDesignandSetUp.CCLoadorManualEntryDiagram.png

Load or manually enter cost center financial plans

 

See Editing a Financial Plan for more information on manually entering financial data.

Updating Capacity and Demand Data by Accessing the Financial Plan

Loading, Scheduling, or Deleting Cost Center-Based Financial Plans

Capacity Portfolio Manager Screen Basics

Capture work financial demand

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Capturing work financial demand is a two-step process.

           

The ICP planning roles across an organization

Define the planning portfolio demand

Step 1. Populate or edit the Actual/Forecast version.

Data can be added to work (demand) financial plans in two ways: 

           

Work financial demand can either be loaded by projects/work or manually entered.

           

  1. Load – The work financial load can be manually performed or scheduled within job stream management. For information about scheduling a financial plan load by using a job stream, see Configuring Financial Plan Load Job Parameters.
  2. Manual entry – See Editing a Financial Plan for more information on manually entering financial data. 

Note that in-flight project data will likely load from resource assignments and timesheets, while new projects added as part of planning may need financial lines and data to be entered manually.

Step 2. The Planview Administrator will copy all the financial data from the Actual/Forecast version into the Investment Planning Demand version just before the planning cycle starts.

Note: It is imperative that all projects included in the planning process have financial data. If the financial plan for a potential project is blank, or contains lines with no financial data within the horizon dates, the project will not pull into the investment and capacity planning portfolio.

Demand Portfolio Manager Screen Basics

How to Load Data into a Work Financial Plan

Editing a Financial Plan

Understand the four pivot views: Rank, Analyze, Shift, and Balance

In Portfolios investment and capacity planning, there are four pivot views: Rank, Analyze, Shift, and Balance. The views are designed to be used in that order. 

The Rank and Analyze views display all investments, except for those with an investment approval status of Pending.

Some portfolio planners only use the Rank and Analyze views to produce a list of above-the-line investments (those with an investment approval status of Accepted or Conditional), and choose to end their portfolio planning process at that stage.

For planners who want to use the Shift and Balance views for more detailed analysis of investments, keep in mind these views will only display above-the-line investments, or those with an investment approval status of Accepted or Conditional.

Detailed information about investment approval statuses can be found in the investment approval status values table below.

 

The four investment and capacity pivot views are Rank (stack priorities from 1 to n), Analyze (move investments in and out to impact capacity targets and budget), Shift (Model changes to work start, finish, and duration in the context of your capacity), and Balance (evaluate and model more detailed changes to capacity and demand over time).

The Rank, Analyze, Shift, and Balance pivot views are used in investment and capacity planning.

 

Investment approval status values

Status Description Visibility

Pending

Indicates the investment opportunity has been identified, however, the business case has not been completed and the opportunity is not ready to be considered. Investments with this status are not displayed on the Investment and Capacity Planning screen.

Will not appear on Investment and Capacity Planning screen

Analyze

Indicates the investment opportunity has been identified and the business case prepared. The opportunity can be considered, however, no final investment decision has been made.

Below the line – Analyze view

 

Accept

Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and that your organization has chosen to proceed with the investment. Anything approved in the previous planning cycle will already appear above the line (in-flight).

Above the line – Analyze view

Included in Shift and Balance Views

Conditional

Indicates the investment has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and has been accepted under certain conditions.

Above the line – Analyze View

Included in Shift and Balance views

Refuse

Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process and your organization has chosen not to accept it.

Below the line – Analyze View

Resubmit

Indicates the investment opportunity has gone through the investment and capacity planning process via a lifecycle, and your organization initially refused to accept it. The opportunity has been revised and should be reconsidered.

This status is used in investment and capacity planning if your system is configured for lifecycles.

Below the line – Analyze View

Prioritize and rank investments

 

Step Role Description Resources
Create a user-defined (what-if) scenario

Finance manager

 

Portfolio manager

Create a user-defined (or what-if) scenario to edit and evaluate different investment decisions and approaches to balancing capacity with demand.

Creating a user-defined scenario allows you to model different decisions in a what-if environment without changing the shared scenario.

For understanding more about scenarios, see Model alternatives as scenarios.

 

Comparison of the shared scenario and the user defined what-if scenario;  the key difference is that publishing the shared scenario will update project data in real time.

 

Managing Investment and Capacity Planning Scenarios

Rank work/projects from 1 to n

Finance manager

 

Portfolio manager

Rank investments automatically based on criteria, or manually by the users of each scenario.

The Rank view displays investments in ranked order within a scenario. If no ranking has been applied, investments are displayed alphabetically. If a scenario includes both ranked and unranked investments, unranked investments will display at the top in alphabetical order, and the ranked investments will display below in ascending rank order. 

Rank View

Ranking Investments

Automatically Rank Investments Based on Criteria

Dragging Investments to Rank Them

Defining Threshold Lines for the Rank View

Analyze to move projects above or below the line and set investment approval status

Finance manager

 

Portfolio manager

Analyze potential work or projects by moving them above or below the line to see the impact to capacity targets and budgets.

The Analyze view is divided into two trays. The upper tray incudes projects with the Accept or Conditional status, while the lower tray includes projects in the Refuse or Analyze status.

To change the status of the investment decision, you can either use the action menu to select a new status, or drag and drop the project above or below the line. 

Analyze View

Updating Investment Approval Status and Priority

Reviewing a Gantt Chart in Investment and Capacity Planning

Shift work/projects (optional)

Finance manager

 

Portfolio manager

Shift project start dates, finish dates, and duration so they will fit within capacity constraints.

The Shift view provides visibility into where demand exceeds capacity by period, as well as the ability to shift investments to fit within available capacity.

After portfolio investments have been ranked and analyzed, date ranges of approved and conditionally-approved investments are further evaluated. Constraint limitations on specific resource types may be resolved by shifting investment dates, and investments below the line may be approved.

Shift View

Data Display and Layout of the Shift View

Shifting Investments to Resolve Capacity Issues

Balance the details (optional)

Finance manager

 

Portfolio manager

The Balance view allows you to look at investments that have been accepted in the scenario, and the time-profiled impact of those investments against the capacity and budget targets.

Information on the grid at the lowest level is editable when you are viewing a user-created scenario, or the shared scenario if it is editable.

Use the category menu to decide which information to view, and the focus control option to organize the way the data is displayed in the hierarchy.

Balance View

Updating Capacity and Demand Data in Investment and Capacity Planning

Updating Demand Data by Editing Cells

Adding an Account Line with Attributes in Investment and Capacity Planning

Changing Account Line Attributes in Investment and Capacity Planning

Model alternatives as scenarios

Using scenarios represents a more advanced approach to investment and capacity planning, and allows you to model the impact of changes or different decisions to the portfolio (for example, changes to budgets or staffing).

There are two types of scenarios: the shared scenario, and the what-if (or user-defined) scenario.

 

Comparison of the shared scenario and the user defined what-if scenario;  the key difference is that publishing the shared scenario will update project data in real time.

A key difference between a shared scenario and what-if scenarios is how it impacts project data in real-time.

The key difference is that the shared scenario interacts with current financial data. Any financial plan updates made in the shared scenario will automatically update the relevant financial plan versions for the entities. However, rank and investment status changes will not be updated for the entities until the scenario is published.  

What-if or user-defined scenarios are created as a copy of another scenario, and therefore do not interact with current financial data. In these scenarios, financial plan updates and changes to rank and investment status will not be reflected in the entities until published.

Planview recommendation: Create what-if or user-defined scenarios to model changes and different decisions for the portfolio, rather than making changes to the shared scenario.

Step Role Description Resources

Create additional user-defined (what-if) scenarios

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Continue to add user-defined scenarios to model different delivery approaches. For example, flexing the budget, or emphasizing work aligned to different business objectives. 

Adding a new scenario copies the investment approval status values, priority values, and financial-planning data from the selected scenario to the new scenario. You can then make changes and do what-if planning using the Rank, Analyze, Shift, and Balance views. 

 

Adding Investment and Capacity Planning Scenarios

Refreshing an Investment and Capacity Planning Scenario

Clearing Investment Decisions

Compare Financial Data Across Scenarios for One Investment

 

Choose and publish a plan

 

Step Role Description Resources

Evaluate and compare multiple scenarios

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Use analytics and visual impact analysis tiles to evaluate and compare multiple scenarios before deciding on the optimal plan, such as the Cost Impact Analysis tile displayed here.

           

The Cost Analysis Impact Tile displays a dynamic visualization of the investment demand (cost) vs. the portfolio target.

           

Understanding Impact Analysis Report Tiles

Create an Impact Analysis Report Tile

Using Configurable Visualizations

Publish scenario

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Once the plan is agreed to, financial data as well as investment decision status and ranking order can be published back to the demand entities and the shared scenario, or just the shared scenario.

If the investment approvals have been made in the shared scenario, then the Publish from the Shared Scenario transaction will make the decisions live.

If the investment approvals have been made in a non-shared scenario, the Publish from Scenario transaction can be used to move the investment decisions to only the shared scenario, or to both the shared scenario and demand.

In addition to investment approval decisions, any amendments to the investment demand data or capacity budget/targets in the non-shared scenario will also be published live. This updates the financial planning detail screens accordingly for the investments or capacity in question.

           

The Portfolios product user interface displays the publishing options for selection.

           

Publish in Investment and Capacity Planning

Publishing a Scenario in Investment and Capacity Planning

Publishing the Current Version of an Investment Plan as the Official Plan

Capture baseline

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Once the plan is published, capture a baseline of the approved plan. This may be completed as part of a lifecycle, or manually captured by making a copy of the demand financial plan and then locking it.

 
Communicate the published plan

Portfolio manager

Finance manager

Communicate the published plan to all relevant stakeholders.

Planview recommendation: Use the PLN01 report as a way to communicate the plan changes.

Users can compare the version of the financial plans they are responsible for to the newly approved version, and users will have to adjust the resource assignments and other financial lines until the two financial plans are in alignment.

Allowing Users to View Published Investment Ranking Details

About Lifecycles and the Publication of the Shared Scenario